Game #24 Nats and Houston under the lights!

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Line-up subject to change (without notice):

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Line-up subject to change (without notice): Washington Nationals vs. Houston Astros Stadium: The Ballpark of the Palm Beaches; West Palm Beach, Florida 1st Pitch: 6:05 pm EDT TV: Astros TV via the MLB app Radio: Astros Radio via the MLB app

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Line-up subject to change (without notice): We have some evening baseball at the Ballpark of the Palm Beaches with the Washington Nationals as the visiting team against the Houston Astros. The Astros will pitch the other Luis Garcia and the Nats have Trevor Williams on the mound. Yesterday’s game was a 6.0 inning gem by Nats’ starter MacKenzie Gore who struck out eight Yankees’ batters in a scoreless outing. It was by far the best pitching performance by any Nats’ pitcher so far in the Grapefruit League. Much of that is based on the quality of the competition and the results. Unfortunately, the Ballpark of the Palm Beaches is not equipped with Statcast technology, and we have little data other than what Gore provided.

“My focus [in this start] was first-pitch strikes,” Gore said. “We were going to go at guys early, and if we don’t get the first pitch, let’s try to get to 1-1. Whatever happens after that, that’s what’s going to happen.”

Mission accomplished as Gore dotted 17-of-21 first-pitch strikes in his outing today. And this wasn’t your typical Grapefruit League game against a bunch of benchies and Triple-A guys wishing for a big league job. Gore faced Giancarlo Stanton, Anthony Rizzo, Gleyber Torres, Aaron Hicks, and others with MLB experience. In all, they got him for two hits and no runs. Spectacular.

“When you’re ahead of batters, the off-speed, they have to respect it,” Gore said. “And the fastball’s better, so we got some swings and misses on fastballs, or takes on fastballs late. Usually when you’re ahead, you can throw more off-speed. But we were also able to get back in counts. They have to respect off-speed, and then the fastball’s that much better.”

Gore clicked with his catcher, Keibert Ruiz, and for his part, Ruiz then had a great game on the offensive side smashing an RBI double to go with a single in a 2-for-3 afternoon. For Ruiz, it will be how he finishes Spring Training after a slow start. The pressure should be off after he signed a guaranteed 8-year contract. There is television for this game provided by the Astros.

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Washington Nationals vs. Houston Astros Stadium: The Ballpark of the Palm Beaches; West Palm Beach, Florida 1st Pitch: 6:05 pm EDT TV: Astros TV via the MLB app Radio: Astros Radio via the MLB app

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Line-up subject to change (without notice):