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Good morning from Nationals Park, where the pace of activity at the ballpark is about the same as the pace of activity all over Washington: slow. Players are trickling in, grabbing breakfast before heading to the field to work out before today's 1:05 start. Rick Eckstein will be coaching third base again today, filling it for the last time before Pat Listach comes back from his suspension. Eckstein actually has quite a bit of experience coaching third; he said he did it for most of his time with Triple-A Columbus when he was the Nationals' hitting coach there. You'll find few people in baseball more diligent than Eckstein, and like he does with his typical job as the Nationals' hitting coach, Eckstein was poring over scouting reports on Mets players to inform his decisions during the game.
Here are both teams' lineups for today. Danny Espinosa gets his first start at shortstop in the majors, with Ian Desmond getting a day off.
Mets:
Pagan - CF
Hernandez - 2B
Carter - RF
Wright - 3B
Davis - 1B
Duda - LF
Thole - C
Tejada - SS
Pelfrey - RHP
Nationals:
Morgan - CF
Kennedy - 2B
Zimmerman - 3B
Dunn - 1B
Bernadina - LF
Rodriguez - C
Harris - RF
Espinosa - SS
Zimmermann - P
