The Washington Nationals are back home at the CACTI Park of the Palm Beaches for an early evening game in West Palm Beach, Florida. With just 16-days remaining in Florida for Grapefruit League games, we are almost at that mid-point mark on the schedule.
Some players have emerged and we posted up the small sample size leaders in OPS and in WHIP. What we try to look at is process over results because small sample sizes as well as the strength of the competition will skew numbers.
This will be a 6:05 pm start and the game will be available on Nationals Radio via the Team 980 AM and the MLB App. Trevor Williams is set to start against the Mets.
The Nationals improved to 7-5 in Grapefruit League play with a 12-1 win yesterday. Keibert Ruiz hit two homers, and Paul DeJong hit his second homer of the Spring. Nasim Nunez had three hits yesterday, and Dylan Crews had a hit and two walks. Manager Dave Martinez obviously was pleased with his team.
“They were really good. We got on the fastballs [on Thursday], which was awesome. We worked on it. We talked about it. The boys swung the bats really well again.”
— Martinez said
Much of Spring Training is about getting the reps in for the veteran players while working on new pitches and mechanics for the pitchers, and batters are working on increasing contact and power. For the players who are trying to make the roster, they are the players who have to impress.
As we know, the key is also staying healthy. Players will be ramped up in their workload as Spring Training continues.
“I love the way [Michael Soroka] competes. He attacks the strike zone. He’s got a mix of four really good pitches. He wants to work ahead. He tries to work ahead. But he can get you out with any one of his pitches. When he’s ahead, he’s really good, because you don’t know what he could throw. Today was a perfect example. He’s got great movement on his fastballs. His curveball was good, slider, and changeup was really good. So another good day for him.
— Martinez said
Here is the 40-man roster as well as a list of the NRI players you will be seeing. At some point, you might also see players from Minor League camp get some action.
There are 20-days until the Opening Day, and we get to see this lineup today:
