The Home for Washington Nationals Game Talk

After today’s game, we can start counting down the regular season from 100 games remaining. Sample sizes are getting to a significant size. Tanner Roark’s sample size is difficult to assess because he has had some great starts and a few that have not been good. Roark has a 3.21 ERA and 6 of his 12 starts have been shutouts or 1 run games. Tanner has to turn the page from his 3.0 inning thumping in Cincinnati, and show that was a fluke.

The last time Roark faced the Phillies in Nationals Park was on April 28th, and Roark threw a 7.0 inning shutout gem. Roark also faced the Phillies a week and 1/2 ago in Philadelphia and pitched a great game picking up a win.

The Nats will face Aaron Nola for the 4th time this year. At this point, everyone is well acquainted with each other.

Here is the Nats stats against Aaron Nola:

Here is Tanner Roark’s stats against the Phillies:

Washington Nationals and Philadelphia Phillies
Stadium: Nationals Park, Washington, DC
1st Pitch: 12:05pm EDT
TV: MASN, WUSA9, CSN-Philadelphia, MLB.tv

Line-ups (subject to change without notice):

1. Ben Revere LF
2. Michael Taylor CF
3. Bryce Harper RF
4. Daniel Murphy 2B
5. Wilson Ramos C
6. Clint Robinson 1B
7. Anthony Rendon 3B
8. Stephen Drew SS
9. Tanner Roark RHP

A nice pre-game tweet from the Nationals 1st round draft pick:

https://twitter.com/carterkieboom/status/741657400462200832

10: Wins by  Stephen Strasburg (10-0)

16: Saves by Jonathan Papelbon

37: Team wins

1: Number of doubleplays that Daniel Murphy has hit into

The Nats effort on defense was tremendous tonight. Danny Espinosa and Jayson Werth had Web Gems behind Stephen Strasburg tonight, and the Nationals Bomb Squad did it again with home runs by Wilson Ramos, Stephen Drew and Danny Espinosa.

Revere had 2 hits and more importantly scored 2 runs. Daniel Murphy had 2 hits and 3 RBIs. Danny Espinosa had 3 hits with his home run. Jayson Werth had a double which drove in 2 runs and collected 2 walks. Stephen Drew had 2 hits with his home run.

The Nationals hitters combined for only 3 strikeouts on the night as contact was the name of the game tonight.

Photo credit: Mitchell Layton for Getty Images

Home sweet home some would say. Bryce Harper sent out a ‘tweet’ at 5:16AM “Nothing like getting back to DC when the sun is coming up!” Maybe the Nats players got to bed by 6:30am if they were lucky. Ryan Zimmerman might have gone home to the sweet cries of his newborn baby daughter, and Jayson Werth hopefully drove the speed limit back to his lair off of Georgetown Pike where he falls asleep to peace and serenity and the faint sound of the Potomac River going over the falls. F.P. Santangelo reminded us once again of the reality sleep deprivation and of baseball life. Get-away days can be tough and especially when you lose those games.

The good news for Stephen Strasburg was that he was back in bed early in his Virginia residence as is customary he caught an earlier flight back to Washington DC and Strasburg says his calf is better.  Stephen Strasburg once again, and for the 4th time since May 24th, must be a stopper after a Nats loss following Gio Gonzalez in the rotation. Continue reading →

The Nationals went wire-to-wire with the win last night in Chicago to secure another series win, and the Nats offense has now scored 31 runs in their last 3 games. The Nats are hoping for a Gio Gonzalez rebound game tonight.

Gio’s current ERA is at 3.94 which is actually higher than his 2015 ERA, and it is due to 3 poor outings in a row where his ERA started at 1.86 before getting tagged with 18 earned runs over his last 15 2/3 innings of work. Gio has taxed the bullpen along the way averaging just under 5 1/3 innings over his last 3 starts.

The White Sox scratched scheduled starter Carlos Rodon for tonight and have inserted Miguel Gonzalez who was DFA’d from the Orioles before the season and picked up by the White Sox.

Both Gio Gonzalez and Miguel Gonzalez have almost identical ERAs and are separated by 0.01 and both pitchers have much to prove for their respective teams.

Gio Gonzalez has Chicago White Sox ties as he was drafted by the Chisox in 2004 in the 1st round, and then traded to the Phillies. Gio was then traded by the Phillies back to the White Sox who then traded him to the Oakland A’s. Gio never played in the Major Leagues for the White Sox. For some reason, Gio has never pitched well against the White Sox and has a career 0-4 record with a 5.23 ERA in 6 career starts. Hopefully this is lucky start #7 for Gio against his former team.

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