Fresh off their extra innings win over the Marlins in Florida, the Nationals head to New York for a three game set against the Mets. The first game will be played at 4 p.m. on Friday and can be seen on MASN.
The Nationals will send Jordan Zimmermann to the mound for his second start of the year. In his first start against the Braves Zimmermann went six innings and allowed two earned runs. The Nats were only down 2-1 when Zimmermann left the game, but the bullpen imploded and the Nats lost the game 11-2.
The Mets counter with knuckleballer R.A. Dickey, who was dazzling in his first start of the year against the Marlins. He went six strong innings, allowing five hits and 0 runs. The Nats have had some trouble swinging the bat this year, so maybe a change of pace like seeing the knuckleball will be good for them. Or maybe it will totally perplex them and make them look silly. Could go either way really.
The Nats have a little bit of momentum going into this game after their two big offseason acquisitions came through in their win over the Marlins. Both Jayson Werth and Adam LaRoche hit their first home runs in Nationals jerseys yesterday, with LaRoche's two run bomb in the top of the eleventh representing the deciding runs.
It's going to be a pretty chilly day in Queens, which should benefit the hitters a little bit more than the pitchers. We'll see if that has any effect on the outcome of the game.
We'll be covering this game in this StoryStream. For more on the Nationals, check out Federal Baseball.