The Washington Nationals got back to their winning ways on Monday with a 6-3 victory over the Houston Astros. Tuesday, Gio Gonzalez looks for his first win of the season against Houston. Gonzalez had a shaky first start, pitching three and two-thirds innings while allowing four runs on seven hits and walking three batters in the April 7 game against the Chicago Cubs. Gonzalez rebounded on April 12, pitching seven innings and striking out seven batters against the Cincinnati Reds.
The Astros will send pitcher Wandy Rodriguez to the bump as he also looks for his first win of the season. Rodriguez pitched five innings and allowed four runs on six hits in his last start, a loss against the Atlanta Braves. However, his recent history against the Nationals is good, going 5-1 in his career, including 3-0 in Washington.
Ryan Zimmerman went two for four in Monday's game, increasing his hitting streak against the Astros to nine consecutive home games. In that span he is hitting .425, and has hit .369 against the Astros since 2007, the highest against any opponent.
Per CSN Washington's Mark Zuckerman, here's the Nationals lineup for tonight's game.
#FirstPlaceNats vs #Astros: Desmond 6, Espinosa 4, Zimmerman 5, Werth 8, LaRoche 3, DeRosa 9, Nady 7, Flores 2, Gonzalez 1.
— Mark Zuckerman (@MarkZuckerman) April 17, 2012
The game is scheduled for a 7:05 first pitch from Nationals Park. Television coverage will be provided by MASN with radio coverage on 106.7 The Fan FM and 1500 AM WFED.
For more on this series check out the SBNation Nationals blog Federal Baseball. For more information on the team in the other clubhouse, check out the Astros blog The Crawfish Boxes. For more news and notes from around Major League Baseball, check out the MLB Hub on SBNation.com.