This is no longer a must win game. This is a “keep our respect win game”. If you told me that Matt Harvey would give up 7 runs and JZim would only give up 1 run, I’d say the Nats were back to 4 games back and tonight was another “must win”. Tonight is just about respect.
Is tonight the night we see a different line-up to shake things up? The line-up doesn’t appear to be the problem with this team. Starting pitching and the bullpen have been the problem. There are contributions from every member of the line-up and clearly they aren’t the reason the Nats have lost lately.
Is it time to say Trea Turner needs to start every day and you start him in a Hi Lev game? If Trea Turner is the future, do you put him at 2nd base tonight and Rendon at 3rd and Espi at SS or another alignment.
You always have to keep an eye on the future, and is tonight as good of a time as any?
No Trea Turner as you would expect in the line-up but unfortunately no Ryan Zimmerman and no Michael Taylor and Yunel Escobar.
Lineup:
- Werth RF
- Espinosa 2B
- Harper RF
- Rendon 3B
- CRob 1B
- Desi SS
- Ramos C
- den Dekker LF
- Strasburg P
