Game #58
The Nats (27-30) and Cincinnati Reds (32-24) play the finale of a three-game series this afternoon at Nationals Park. Big day for Washington starter Craig Stammen (1-2, 5.88 ERA), who needs to match Luis Atilano’s effort from Saturday night to ensure he keeps a spot in the starting rotation. Someone has to go back to Triple-A – or to the bullpen – when Stephen Strasburg makes his major-league debut on Tuesday.
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Interesting to see if any more comes from Nats reliever Miguel Batista hitting Reds second baseman Brandon Phillips in the ninth inning last night. That led to Batista’s ejection and a highly entertaining post-game press conference where he denied hitting Phillips on purpose – even as his own teammates said that he did. Phillips acted a little bit too animated after knocking the ball loose from catcher Wil Nieves on a play at home plate. Nieves was not happy and didn’t acknowledge Phillips’ chatter when he stepped into the batter’s box in the next inning. But was Phillips’ stirring the pot on purpose with that collision? Or was it just an in-the-moment reaction? Had some comments from Nieves last night in the blog. Here are some expanded thoughts from him.
“Probably that’s the way he is. You can see it when he gets base hits. He gets really happy running to first base and stuff like that. That’s just the way he plays. He gets really excited and sometimes he cross the line and he’ll show you up. It’s a fine line. You can celebrate and stuff. But if you cross it and obviously you show up the pitcher or you show me up like he did today that’s what you don’t want to do. You can celebrate. But it’s a fine line….He asked me ‘Are you okay, Papi?’ But I was so mad that I didn’t want to talk. Like I say – I know he’s not a bad guy. I know he’s not a bad guy. He just did what happened in the moment. I’ve talked to him. I’m pretty sure after today we’ll probably talk. I don’t hold any grudges. I’m one of the guys that will not hold grudges. It happened. He got hit. And he did the right thing. He went to first base. He didn’t say anything. He knew. He knew it was going to happen. So pretty sure that’s it and it’s over with right there and hopefully he won’t do it again.”
Other pregame news: Ivan Rodriguez ran the bases and warmed up pitchers in the bullpen prior to the game. The veteran catcher, on the disabled list with a sore back, reported no problems and will proceed with a rehab start at Single-A Potomac in Woodbridge tomorrow night. If that goes well then Rodriguez will catch Strasburg’s debut on Tuesday. If not, Nieves will be in the lineup after Monday’s day off. Meanwhile, left-handed pitcher Ross Detwiler, who had hip surgery in January, will make a rehab start at Potomac on Wednesday. The 24-year-old was the team’s first-round draft choice in 2007, No. 6 overall. And while he’s had his ups and downs, Detwiler looked good last September in Washington. Here are today’s lineups.
Reds:
Cabrera – SS
Cairo – 3B
Votto – 1B
Phillips – 2B
Bruce – RF
Nix – LF
Stubbs – CF
Miller – C
Arroyo – P
Nationals:
Guzman – 2B
Morgan – CF
Zimmerman – 3B
Dunn – 1B
Willingham – LF
Bernadina – RF
Desmond – SS
Nieves – C
Stammen – P
