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Nobody who steps onto the field this afternoon will be able to claim he’s tired, not after Friday night’s game was completed in a record-tying, 1 hour and 50 minutes. Shoot, the sun hadn’t even set when Kyle Finnegan recorded the final out of the Nationals’ 2-0 victory over the Rangers. So everyone should be well-rested for today’s 4:05 p.m. contest on South Capitol Street.
The series opener flew by so quickly because both pitching staffs threw strikes and both lineups swung a lot. So it’ll be interesting to see if Mitchell Parker can take some cues from that and come out throwing strikes today against a struggling Rangers lineup. Parker continues to deal with all kinds of first-inning troubles (10.50 ERA for the season) but has found a way to be effective after that (3.40 from the second inning on). His challenge today: Post a zero in the top of the first, then go from there.
Though the Nationals have won two of their last three games, each of those came by the score of 2-0. They continue to struggle at the plate since their brief offensive explosion out west last week. After scoring at least nine runs in four straight games, they’ve now scored nine total runs in their last five games. And if they’re going to snap out of that funk, they’ll have to do it against Jacob deGrom, who is finally healthy again and pitching as well as he always has when he’s been healthy.
WASHINGTON NATIONALS vs. TEXAS RANGERS
Where: Nationals Park
Gametime: 4:05 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 87.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Partly cloudy, 82 degrees, wind 7 mph in from left field
RANGERS
LF Sam Haggerty
CF Wyatt Langford
3B Josh Jung
2B Marcus Semien
1B Jake Burger
RF Adolis García
C Jonah Heim
DH Kyle Higashioka
SS Ezequiel Duran
RHP Jacob deGrom
NATIONALS
SS CJ Abrams
LF James Wood
2B Luis García Jr.
DH Josh Bell
1B Nathaniel Lowe
CF Robert Hassell III
RF Alex Call
C Keibert Ruiz
3B José Tena
LHP Mitchell Parker
