Photo by Kevin Nibley for TalkNats
At this point in the baseball calendar, we look back to say time flew by! The Washington Nationals have a 6:35pm televised game from The Ballpark of the Palm Beaches that will mark their last game there for the 2017 schedule. Jacob Turner will get the start against the Miami Marlins who will pitch right-handed Scott Copeland.
The fireworks went off yesterday in Port St. Lucie against the Mets as Trea Turner and Bryce Harper matched each other with two home runs a piece.
“Trea can do it all,” Harper said after the game. “Very special player, very special talent, and I’m excited to see him play this year.”
Harper has now hit 8 home runs on the Spring and he easily would have hit a few more as the winds blowing in at TBOTPB has cost him. You can also see in this video Max Scherzer striking out #97 Tim Tebow.
The Nationals won that game yesterday against the Mets 6-0 and by doing that swept the Mets for the entire Grapefruit League schedule and in the month of March only gave up 1 run to the Mets.
It is possible that before tonight’s game, Dusty Baker could reveal the 2017 closer. There is also the question about who gets the last remaining spots in the bullpen and the bench, and Joel Sherman tweeted out that Adam Lind was ahead of Clint Robinson for one of the bench spots. Some have already penciled in Adam Lind as a ‘lock’, but the reason you use pencil is that things can change quickly, and Mike Rizzo is a man full of surprises.
Adam Lind is ahead of Clint Robinson for final #Nationals bench job and Robinson is out of options.
— Joel Sherman (@Joelsherman1) March 27, 2017
The most controversy recently has been on the batting order and where Adam Eaton is batting as he has mostly been 6th and 7th in Grapefruit League games. Today the controversy went to a fever pitch as Politico wrote “PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP is in talks to throw out the first pitch at Nats Park on Opening Day”. and NatsTown and Nats Haters went into a frenzy. The operative words are “is in talks” meaning “nothing is definite” as in “he could”. Back to baseball, Adam Eaton is still trying to adjust to hitting in the back of the line-up.
“It’s been a process, especially at the plate,” Adam Eaton said. “…but it’s spring training, and it’s not always ideal conditions with everything. So you take everything with a grain of salt and just try to work hard and get better. That’s why we’re here. That’s what I’ve tried to do this spring training, and I think I’ve done that.”
In other news, as we suggested several days ago that the new luxury box along the 1st base side could be a sponsorship with the National Harbor MGM Casino, that has now been confirmed by the Nationals.
As we wrote several days ago, the new box built along 1st base is for MGM partnership. https://t.co/wD6Je1eUup pic.twitter.com/xqOG3Gmju6
— TALK NATS Blog (@TalkNats2) March 28, 2017
As mentioned, tonight’s game is televised and will be on MASN. Game time is 6:35pm. Line-up is:
- Trea Turner SS
- Adam Eaton CF
- Bryce Harper RF
- Ryan Zimmerman 1B
- Jayson Werth LF
- Stephen Drew 2B
- Jose Lobaton C
- Wilmer Difo 3B
- Chris Heisey DH
Jacob Turner RHP
Savor this photo as it is Trea Turner leading off and Adam Eaton on-deck.
Photo by Stan4Nats for TalkNats
