Nationals vs Phillies 5/3/2014 Lineup and Things to Watch
This is Washington Nationals that were favorites to win the World Series this year as well as last year, currently 0.5 games behind the Atlanta Braves in the National League East with a record of 17-12 and ranked 8th in the latest ESPN power ranking list. But with the Nationals continued struggles against the Braves they are going to have to beat the rest of the teams in the division to get enough of a lead over the Braves so their repeated losses to them do not cost them a chance in this year’s playoffs, like it did last year.
With a record of 9-1 against those other teams in the division to start the year the Nationals are doing just that and look to continue that against the Phillies today against veteran pitcher AJ Burnett. They will attack the Phillies veteran pitcher with this lineup:
Span CF
Rendon 3B
Werth RF
LaRoche 1B
Desmond SS
Espinosa 2B
McLouth LF
Lobaton C
Roark P
Things to Watch:
- Tanner Roark coming off a complete game shutout and on a 18 inning scoreless streak
- Closer, Rafael Soriano, starting off the season on a 11 inning scoreless streak with 6 saves
- Anthony Rendon has a .333 average with 3 home runs and 13 runs batted in away games this year
- Adam LaRoche has 8 runs batted in in the last 8 games as well as a batting .348 with 1 home run and 5 runs batted in against Burnett in his career
- Jayson Werth batting .356 in away games and is 10-20 with 1 home run in the last five games.
The Nationals will look to take the first series against the Phillies and moved to 10-1 against NL East teams not named the Atlanta Braves with a win but they will also look to take first place in the division if the Braves lose tonight against the San Francisco Giants. With Tanner Roark, the hottest pitcher in the Nationals rotation, on the mound in this 7:05 game against The Philadelphia Phillies it looks like another curly W can be in store for Nationals faithful.
