Going Deep with The Nats

Photo of the front gates of Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium in Jupiter by Sol Tucker for TalkNats.com

Once again the Washington Nationals are traveling that 14-mile road trip to the north to Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium which is the Spring Training home of the Miami Marlins and St. Louis Cardinals jointly. They are part of the four team configuration along with the Nats and Astros that call Palm Beach County home. This time the Nats face the Marlins for the sixth and final time of the Grapefruit League games. But don’t fret, the Nats and Marlins will play each other 19 more times in this regular season.

The last time these two teams met, the Nats got to face Gio Gonzalez as a pitcher for the Marlins. The Nats absolutely smoked Gio in the game, and was not going to make their team. He decided to retire and posted a beautiful letter on his Instagram account.

” … unfortunately my body wasn’t keeping up with my mind,” Gio wrote. It is something I wrote unfortunately too many times about aging athletes when their bodies will no longer do what the brain asks of it.
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Photo by Lynn G. for TalkNats

As Spring Training wraps up in 5 days, the Washington Nationals neighbors in the complex at the Ballpark of the Palm Beaches are the opponent once again in their six game “A” schedule. The Astros have their big offseason acquisition, Jake Odorizzi, starting in the one and he will face Stephen Strasburg. Continue reading →

Photo by Kevin Nibley for TalkNats

Tell us if you have heard this before — the Nationals have a Grapefruit League road game in Jupiter at Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium. The 14-mile drive up I-95 is also great for Nationals fans to make the short drive up the road to see the team in another venue, and today they get to see Jon Lester on the mound and a whole new look to the lineup. For the first time in a Nats’ uniform, Starlin Castro is playing 3rd base.

All of the narratives and media driven commentary that he “would not” play 3rd base just got proven incorrect when that lineup was written. Castro merely said he would rather not play 3rd base. This was not an Alfonso Soriano situation of being threatened by a General Manager of a suspension if he did not move his position.

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Photo by Lynn G for TalkNats

We have been waiting a long time for Carter Kieboom to square up a ball. It had been ten long days since the 23 year old tallied in the H column in the scorebook. His manager, Dave Martinez, told him to just put good contact on the ball and not to worry about the results. It is easy to say while you are watching your batting average drop below your listed Walton High School weight of 185, and the boos and jeers from the sparse crowd that has been reduced to about 1,000 fans due to COVID constraints, can be heard clearly by the players. Fortunately, last night it was Kieboom who had the last laugh with a booming double to the opposite field. His manager took him out of the game to finish on a positive note.  Continue reading →