Starting lineups: Nats vs. Cardinals in Jupiter

Starting lineups: Nats vs. Cardinals in Jupiter
JUPITER, Fla. - It's an overcast day in South Florida, rain currently falling at Roger Dean Stadium. But there's baseball in store, as the Nationals face the Cardinals at 1 p.m. By that time, the rain should have moved out and the only obstacle will be the clouds blocking the sun. Stephen Strasburg will try to build on his successful March 3 spring training debut, a two-inning stint against these same Cardinals. In that game, Strasburg pitched from the stretch, a new technique aimed at...
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Starting lineups: Red Sox vs. Nats in West Palm Beach

Starting lineups: Red Sox vs. Nats in West Palm Beach
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Right-hander Joe Ross makes his second start of the spring today when the Nationals host the Red Sox in a 1:05 p.m. game that will be aired live on MASN. You have to wonder who the Red Sox angered to draw three straight road games on the East Coast. Yesterday, they played at The Ballpark of the Palm Beaches against the Astros. Tomorrow, they head up the coast to Port St. Lucie to face the Mets. Three straight roadies across the state from their spring headquarters in...
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Starting lineups: Nats vs. Twins in West Palm Beach

Starting lineups: Nats vs. Twins in West Palm Beach
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Today marks the last time we'll see Tanner Roark, Daniel Murphy and four others in Nationals uniforms for a little while. Later this afternoon, the Nats' six representatives in the World Baseball Classic are set to leave camp and join their home countries to play in the international tournament. (Along with Team USA's Roark and Murphy, Rafael Martín and Oliver Pérez will pitch for Mexico, Jhonatan Solano will catch for Colombia and Enny Romero will pitch for the...
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Starting lineups: Nats vs. Cardinals in Jupiter

Starting lineups: Nats vs. Cardinals in Jupiter
JUPITER, Fla. - It's another windy day in South Florida, and just like yesterday in West Palm Beach the wind is blowing straight in from center field. Pitchers love it. Hitters and fielders, not so much. The Nationals face the Cardinals for the second straight day, merely moving the venue 15 minutes north to Roger Dean Stadium. There aren't many regulars on the trip, but Ryan Zimmerman is in the lineup for the second straight day, this time serving as designated hitter. Clint Robinson, who...
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Starting lineups: Nats split-squad vs. Cardinals and Marlins

Starting lineups: Nats split-squad vs. Cardinals and Marlins
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - The Nationals play their first split-squad games of the spring today, with one team staying home to face the Cardinals while another team makes the short drive up to Jupiter to face the Marlins. The home game features three notable Grapefruit League debuts: Stephen Strasburg on the mound, Ryan Zimmerman at first base and Pedro Severino behind the plate. Strasburg and Zimmerman's debuts were merely held back because of the long spring; Severino was dealing with a minor...
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Starting lineups: Nats vs. Astros in West Palm Beach

Starting lineups: Nats vs. Astros in West Palm Beach
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - The Nationals are on the road again today, this time facing the Astros, but surprisingly they've brought a bunch of big-name starters with them. Maybe that's because this road game is actually being played in their own home ballpark. Finally, everybody gets to reap the real benefits of a shared spring training complex. We'll be getting a look today at six regulars - Trea Turner, Adam Eaton, Daniel Murphy, Bryce Harper, Anthony Rendon and Jayson Werth - in a batting...
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Starting lineups: Nats vs. Tigers in Lakeland

Starting lineups: Nats vs. Tigers in Lakeland
LAKELAND, Fla. - Hello from Publix Field at Joker Marchant Stadium, spring home of the Detroit Tigers since 1966 but looking as beautiful as ever right now following a major renovation this winter. They really did a nice job modernizing what already was one of the great, traditional spring training ballparks in Florida. The Nationals made the long drive (nearly three hours) here for today's game, their lone trip to Lakeland this spring. The lineup doesn't include many prominent names -...
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Starting lineups: Nats vs. Astros in West Palm Beach

Starting lineups: Nats vs. Astros in West Palm Beach
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - The day has arrived. Not everyone was convinced it would happen, at least not in time. But it is happening, and it's happening on time. Today, the Nationals and Astros play a game inside their new spring training stadium after years of planning and 16 furious months of construction that went right down to the wire. "I'm very impressed, cause they've been working around the clock," manager Dusty Baker said. "Every day, I see something new. The other day I was coming...
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Starting lineups: Nats vs. Cardinals in Jupiter

Starting lineups: Nats vs. Cardinals in Jupiter
JUPITER, Fla. - If you want to know what the real benefits of the Nationals' spring relocation are, here's a perfect example: I just drove from The Ballpark of the Palm Beaches to Roger Dean Stadium in 17 minutes. And, had I been gutsy enough to try to beat a yellow light, I might've done it in 15 minutes. That's a beautiful thing. You should notice a difference on the field, too, as a result of these short drives, with more veterans making road trips than they did while training in Viera....
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Starting lineups: Nats vs. Twins in Fort Myers

Starting lineups: Nats vs. Twins in Fort Myers
FORT MYERS, Fla. - The biggest reason the Nationals moved their spring headquarters from Viera to West Palm Beach was to avoid all the excessively long road trips that were a byproduct from training in such a remote locale. But while they will reap the benefits of that switch over the course of the entire spring, with the majority of their road games requiring a drive of 15 minutes or fewer, there do remain a couple of doozies. Like today's trip to Fort Myers, a short 2 1/2 hours west of West...
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Starting lineups: Nats vs. Mets in Port St. Lucie

Starting lineups: Nats vs. Mets in Port St. Lucie
PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. - No, it doesn't count for anything, there are a bunch of non-regulars in the lineup and the pitchers will be going one inning apiece. But disregard all that and just focus on the following three words: Ball. Game. Today. Yes, the Nationals play the first of what they hope will be more than 200 baseball games in 2017 this afternoon, and while the games that are played months from now will matter far more than today's Grapefruit League opener against the Mets, it's still...
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When it comes to lineup combinations, Baker has options

When it comes to lineup combinations, Baker has options
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - When Dusty Baker's first lineup of the spring was posted yesterday morning, it was impossible not to immediately notice how the Nationals manager chose to align his top four hitters. The batting order: Trea Turner, Adam Eaton, Daniel Murphy, Bryce Harper. There's certainly nothing controversial about that order. It features perhaps the fastest player in baseball leading off, a high on-base percentage guy batting second, a guy who hit .347 last season batting third and...
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NLDS Game 5 lineups: Nats vs. Dodgers

NLDS Game 5 lineups: Nats vs. Dodgers
And so it has come to this. Game 5. Winner-take-all. One team heads to Chicago this weekend for the National League Championship Series. One team heads home for the winter, wondering what might have been. We've experienced this once before during this era of D.C. baseball. The final outcome is one that continues to haunt everyone. Tonight's result could go a long way toward pushing those bad memories aside. This is, quite simply, Max Scherzer's game. He's rested. He's ready. He was brought...
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NLDS Game 4 lineups: Nats at Dodgers

NLDS Game 4 lineups: Nats at Dodgers
LOS ANGELES - The Nationals today have the opportunity to do something they've never done before, not to mention something no major pro sports franchise in D.C. has done in a long time. With a victory in Game 4 of the National League Division Series, they would advance to their first National League Championship Series. In doing so, they would become the first D.C. team to reach the semifinals of its sport since the 1998 Capitals went to the Stanley Cup Final. So no pressure today, guys....
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NLDS Game 3 lineups: Nats at Dodgers

NLDS Game 3 lineups: Nats at Dodgers
LOS ANGELES - Greetings from Chavez Ravine, where it is an absolutely perfect day for postseason baseball in Southern California. It is expected to be 83 degrees at first pitch at Dodger Stadium. Left-hander Gio Gonzalez is 0-0 with a 3.21 ERA in three playoff starts. In his last matchup against the Giants in 2014, Gonzalez tossed four innings, allowing two unearned runs on four hits with one walk and one strikeout. He made it known Saturday he doesn't want to look back to his up-and-down...
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NLDS Game 2 lineups: Nats vs. Dodgers (take two)

NLDS Game 2 lineups: Nats vs. Dodgers (take two)
The good news: There's no rain in sight today. (Not that there turned out to be much of it yesterday after Major League Baseball postponed Game 2 of the National League Division Series.) The bad news: It's cold. And it's windy. There's a stiff wind blowing from left field to right field, and it's supposed to stay that way all afternoon. That wouldn't seem to benefit a right-handed-heavy lineup like the Nationals have, but potentially benefit a left-handed-heavy lineup like the Dodgers...
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NLDS Game 2 lineups: Nats vs. Dodgers

NLDS Game 2 lineups: Nats vs. Dodgers
It's a gray, dreary afternoon in the District, perhaps appropriate given the mood around here after last night's frustrating 4-3 loss in Game 1 of the National League Division Series. The Nationals are basically in must-win territory today in Game 2, not a position they want to be in, but the position they find themselves in regardless. Tanner Roark, though, is a good person to have on the mound for a situation like this. You know Roark isn't going to let the pressure get to him. And you...
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NLDS Game 1 lineups: Nats vs. Dodgers

NLDS Game 1 lineups: Nats vs. Dodgers
The day has come at last. It's been a long wait since the Nationals clinched the National League East title 13 days ago. But this afternoon, the postseason begins in D.C. It's Game 1 of the National League Division Series, and it's as good a pitching matchup as you can get: Max Scherzer vs. Clayton Kershaw. The two aces will take center stage and draw most of the attention in the buildup to the game, but there are other storylines to this one as well. Such as the significant presence of...
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Orioles and Blue Jays wild card lineups

Orioles and Blue Jays wild card lineups
TORONTO - Michael Bourn is in the Orioles' lineup for tonight's wild card game against the Blue Jays. Bourn is playing right field and Mark Trumbo is serving as the designated hitter. Hyun Soo Kim is batting second against Blue Jays right-hander Marcus Stroman. For the Orioles Adam Jones CF Hyun Soo Kim LF Manny Machado 3B Mark Trumbo DH Matt Wieters C Chris Davis 1B Jonathan Schoop 2B Michael Bourn RF J.J. Hardy SS Chris Tillman RHP For the Blue Jays Devon Travis 2B Josh Donaldson 3B Edwin...
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Game 162 lineups: Nats vs. Marlins

Game 162 lineups: Nats vs. Marlins
And so we have reached Game 162, always a big day on the baseball calendar. This, of course, isn't the end of the 2016 season for the Nationals, who have far more important things still to come later this week. But it's officially the day to turn the page from the regular season to the postseason. What's at stake today: Max Scherzer is going for his 20th win and perhaps one last push for Cy Young Award votes. Daniel Murphy isn't expected to play, but if he does get a pinch-hit appearance,...
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