Washington Nationals v Chicago White Sox preview

The background

It's been a funny start to the season for Washington. Many people expect them to win more games than any team in the National League, and almost as many think they'll win the World Series (I have a healthy pessimism borne from watching Ipswich Town as well as the Nats, I don't think anything until it happens). They started off against the worst team in their division by a mile, and promptly swept the Miami Marlins 3-0 at home. Although they made light work of the Fish, shutting them out for the first two games, they never really looked that comfortable on the offence, except Bryce Harper who is already awesome.

The weekend series in Cincinnati brought us back down to earth as Dan Haren got beaten up on Friday night and Stephen Strasburg took more of a beating than usual on Sunday as the Nats dropped 2 of 3 in the Great American (Sm)Ball Park (silent B, it works).

So we come back to Nationals Park for the first taste of interleague action and the first series with the other good team in the National League East. This will be the first time that that Chicago White Sox have provided the opposition since June 2011, when wins from Collin Balester and Livan Hernandez recorded the wins as the Nats took 2 out of 3. The game they lost in that series will be repeated tonight as Jake Peavy goes against Gio Gonzalez.  

The pitchers

Gio had a pretty good outing first time round when he faced the Marlins. He tossed 91 pitches over 6 innings giving up 2 hits, walking 2 and striking out 5. The only problem continues to be his command, especially of his fastball, as he threw just 55 of his pitches for strikes. He then helped his own cause with a solo Home Run.

Zimmermann looked impressive in the final game against the Marlins, although he was the only pitcher to concede a run as Justin Ruggiano took him deep in the second inning. Zimmermann threw 89 pitches in his 6 innings with 60 for strikes as he allowed 8 hits, and walked 2 while striking out just 1.

Haren had by far the worst debut of the rotation, as he was chased from the game in Cincinnati after just 4 innings and he threw 78 pitches (58 for strikes) giving up 6 runs, all earned on 9 hits, 4 of them homers and striking out 5. About the only nice thing to say is that he didn’t walk anyone. Zach Duke and Henry Rodriguez also got pounded during the 15-0 loss though.

The keys

·         Get the offence going – even when winning their first 3 home games of the year the Nats failed to really get any offence going. If they can get on the board early and often, without relying on Harper, they’ll be in business.

·         Get the easy outs – Ian Desmond punted a couple of times during the loss against the Reds on Sunday, and you can’t afford to let people get on base, especially with Zimmermann and Haren on the mound.

·         Keep Bryce hot – the 20 year-old wonderkid is 9-25 so far this year (.360) with 3 Home Runs. Every time he goes to the plate at the minute you expect him to score. He needs to keep that going until the others can catch him up.

·         Seal the deal – on Saturday the Nats gave up four runs over the 8^th and 9^th innings to take themselves into extra innings before getting the win. Again on Sunday when they were on top they let it slip to lose 6-3.

The stats

Because this is an interleague game, there are naturally not many previous encounters to draw on, so the sample sizes for all are small. But for what it’s worth, here are the White Sox numbers against the 3 Nats pitchers pencilled to go this week.

	Gio Gonzalez (Tuesday)	Jordan Zimmermann (Wednesday	Dan Haren (Thursday)
Tyler Flowers	-	-	0-2, K
Paul Konerko	1-12, 3BB, 4K	0-3	7-19, HR, 3K
Gordon Beckham	1-4, BB	1-3, K	0-7, 2K
Alexi Ramirez	3-11, 3BB, K	1-3	2-8
Jeff Keppinger	-	-	8-16, 2x2B, HR, 2BB
Dayan Viciedo	0-3, 2K	-	0-4, K
Alejandro De Aza	-	-	1-6, K
Alex Rios	3-15, BB, 3K	2-6	6-20, HR, BB, 3K
Adam Dun	0-1, BB	0-3, 2K	2-15, HR, 2BB, 7K

And here are the Nats batters numbers against the 3 White Sox due to go. The two which are closest to being worthy of attention here are Denard Span who bats a shade under .500 against Gavin Floyd and Chad Tracy who bats .200 in 50 trips against Peavy, with 7 of those hits going for extra bases. This will be the first time that any of the Nats batters have seen Dylan Axelrod as he starts his third year.

	Jake Peavy (Tuesday)	Gavin Floyd (Wednesday)	Dylan Axelrod (Thursday)
Denard Span	5-17, 4x2B	17-35, 2B, 3B, 7BB, 3K	-
Jayson Werth	2-13, 7K	-	-
Bryce Harper	-	-	-
Ryan Zimmerman	3-15, 2x2B	1-6, 2K	-
Adam LaRoche	4-11, HR, 3BB, 4K	2-8, 2B, HR, 3BB, 2K	-
Ian Desmond	2-4, 2K	1-3	-
Danny Espinosa	0-1, K	-	-
Kurt Suzuki	0-3	1-10, 2BB, 3K	-
Wilson Ramos	-	-	-
Chad Tracy	10-50 3x2B, 3B, 2HR, 3BB, 16K	1-3	-