Where else would you want baseball played on Memorial Day? In the capital of the free world of course in Washington D.C., and in Nationals Park, but the MLB schedule makers this year put the Washington Nationals on the road in Atlanta. While this day has meaning far beyond baseball, it is good to see the effort the Nats put in at every home game for honoring those who serve and have served. Please take a moment today to remember what today means to our collective freedom. There will be a moment of silence at MLB parks today, and all players, coaches and umps will wear a patch of a red poppy with the words “LEST NOT FORGET.”
On the mound for today’s game is Joe Ross, and the Braves have righty Charlie Morton. Manager Dave Martinez has put together his left-handed dominant lineup with Andrew Stevenson in centerfield even though Victor Robles was activated off of the 10-day IL. Martinez said he wanted Robles to go through a full pre-game before he starts in a game.
In the Nats’ lineup, they have inserted Josh Harrison in the 2-hole and Juan Soto is back in his familiar 3-hole. Once again Soto, Josh Bell, and Kyle Schwarber are all stacked in the middle of the order.
With Max Fried, a lefty, scheduled for tomorrow, you can expect Ryan Zimmerman to start along with Robles in the Tuesday lineup.
The Nats are traveling with a taxi squad for this road trip and for the first time, Gerardo Parra is traveling with the team. Of course this team has to play better than they have the past week.
“We know what we’re up against,” said Max Scherzer. “We’ve got to go down to Atlanta and play well. That’s all we can do. If we control what we can control, hopefully, the results are different.”
The Nats manager said the team has been unlucky, and some would say you have to make your own luck.
“I’ll tell you right now, we need a little luck on our side,” said Martinez. “We’ve hit some balls hard, we really have. These guys are up there and they give us every effort in the world. We need a little luck and one of these balls to fall with guys on base and things will change.”
“It’s a trickle effect for everybody, not just the hitters but the pitchers as well. When you’re not scoring runs consistently, all of a sudden, the pitchers are trying to make that perfect pitch and they’re trying to try to throw up zeros. You start seeing guys just press a little bit, and that’s something that I don’t want them to do. I tell them every day, ‘Hey, don’t make it happen. It’s gonna happen.’”
Washington Nationals vs. Atlanta Braves
Stadium: Truist Park, Atlanta, Georgia
1st Pitch: 5:15 pm EDT
TV: MASN2, Bally Sports South, MLB.TV
Nats Radio: 106.7 FM The Fan; SiriusXM® ( Streaming Internet 869)
Line-ups subject to change without notice:
1. Trea Turner SS
2. Josh Harrison 2B
3. Juan Soto LF
4. Josh Bell 1B
5. Kyle Schwarber LF
6. Starlin Castro 3B
7. Yan Gomes C
8. Andrew Stevenson CF
9. Joe Ross RHP
