The Washington Nationals are off to their best start since moving to D.C. and the best start in franchise history since 1981. They can crack 10 wins on the season against the Houston Astros on Wednesday night. By comparison, they didn't win game number 10 until they played 20 games in 2011.
After Gio Gonzalez shut down the Astros by pitching seven shutout innings for his first win as a National, Jordan Zimmermann now remains the only National in the starting rotation to not have a win. This has not been for a lack of good pitching, Zimmermann currently has a 1.29 ERA in two starts including seven innings allowing one run, against Cincinnati on April 13. The Nationals offense has only plated one run with Zimmermann pitching this season while his run support is 2.82 since the start of last season, worst in the league.
The Astros send Lucas Harrell to the bump Wednesday. Harrell is currently 1-0 with a 3.27 ERA but is looking to rebound from a shaky four inning start with four runs allowed against the Miami Marlins on April 13.
The game is scheduled to start at 7:05 p.m. from Nationals Park. Television coverage will be provided by MASN with radio coverage provided by 1500 WFED AM and 1580 WFHS AM.
Here's the Nationals starting lineup for tonight's game.
#Nats Lineup: Desmond SS, Espinosa 2B, Zimmerman 3B, LaRoche 1B, Werth RF, Ankiel CF, Ramos C, Bernadina LF, Zimmermann RHP
— Washington Nationals (@Nationals) April 18, 2012
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.