Nats (24-24) at San Diego Padres (28-19)
The Nats get their share of surprise National League teams over the next two weeks. First up is this series in San Diego against the Padres. Pretty sure there isn’t a soul alive who saw this team as a contender in 2010. Most preseason accounts mentioned the likely trade of hometown star Adrian Gonzalez. Instead, the Padres are in first place in the National League West and have the best team ERA in baseball at 2.96. Not bad.
Recommended Stories
Clayton Richard (4-2, 2.73 ERA) starts for San Diego. John Lannan (1-2, 5.55 ERA) is back on the mound for the Nationals, who lost two-of-three in San Francsico this week. The last one was tough to swallow as the bullpen blew a 4-2 lead in the seventh inning. Washington has dropped nine of 13 games overall. The Padres scored all of six runs in a three-game series against the Cardinals at home this week. Yet they still won two of those games.
Lannan has been getting better and better in his three starts since getting skipped because of a sore elbow. That’s a good sign for the Nats, who have had their share of injuries to the starting rotation. The beat corps – Post, MASN. MLB.com, Nats Insider – reports from the road that Scott Olsen will have a bullpen session tomorrow to test his sore left shoulder. Also, J.D. Martin will indeed step in for Olsen on Saturday against the Padres after his recall from Triple-A Syracuse.
Nationals:
Morgan – CF
Guzman – SS
Dunn – 1B
Zimmerman – 3B
Willingham – LF
Desmond – SS
Maxwell – RF
Nieves – RF
Lannan – P
Padres
Venable – LF
Eckstein – 2B
Gonzalez – 1B
Headley – 3B
Torrealba – C
Salazar – LF
Hairston – SS
Denorfia – CF
Richard – P
