The Seattle Mariners travel from the land of rain, grunge rock and Starbucks to the Nation's Capital to duke a series out with the Washington Nationals in interleague play on Tuesday night. Seattle ranks sixth in overall interleague play with a record of 140-113 and will be looking to build on that record against the Nats. The Nationals, coming off their first loss in nine games, will be gunning to start a new winning streak at the expense of the Mariners.
Washington has had a lot of momentum lately after an eight game win streak, battling themselves close to .500 and suddenly finding the team name in talks about the Wild Card. However, they hit a bump on Sunday as they lost a sloppy game full of miscues against the Baltimore Orioles. How the team reacts Tuesday night will say a lot about how much has changed in the Washington organization and its character.
To get them back on the winning track the Nationals turn to their veteran, Cuban right-hander Livan Hernandez (4-8, 3.77 ERA). Hernandez is coming off one of the best starts of his career, a three-hit complete game shutout of the St. Louis Cardinals. He will be opposed by Seattle's Doug Fister (3-8, 3.53 ERA) who gave up four runs in the first inning of his last outing before settling down and pitching six scoreless innings afterwards against the Los Angeles Angels.
There is only a 30% chance of rain tonight in Washington so it looks like the game is a go for a 7:05 P.M. start time.
Nationals Line-Up
Jayson Werth - RF
Roger Bernadina - CF
Ryan Zimmerman - 3B
Laynce Nix - LF
Michael Morse - 1B
Danny Espinosa - 2B
Wilson Ramos - C
Livan Hernandez - SP
Ian Desmond - SS