Nationals at Cardinals
Game » NLDS Game 2
Series » 1-0 Washington
Starters » Jordan Zimmermann (12-8, 2.94 ERA) vs. Jaime Garcia (7-7, 3.92 ERA)
When » Monday, 4:37 p.m.
Where » Busch Stadium, St. Louis
TV » TBS
Radio » 106.7 the Fan, WFED 1500, WHFS 1580
Almost time for Game 2 between the Nationals and the Cardinals with Washington taking the opener 3-2 thanks in part to Tyler Moore’s critical eighth-inning pinch-hit single. There were plenty of heroes for the Nats on Sunday, but that game easily could have gone in the other direction.
We’ll see how starter Jordan Zimmermann fares. He gave up a career-high eight runs to St. Louis in a Sept. 1 outing a Nationals Park. He rebounded with 7 1/3 innings of three-run ball on Sept. 29 at Busch Stadium in an eventual 6-4 win. You wonder if the shadows will again wreak havoc with hitters on Monday with the late afternoon start time. Cardinals players are apparently still salty about playing so many afternoon games last season. This makes 2-for-2 in the 2012 postseason. Then again — they still won the World Series so how bad could it have been?
No question the starters will have an advantage early, however. Zimmermann pitched into the seventh inning in just 12 of his 32 starts so the bullpen will likely need to come through again after Sunday’s stellar efforts from Ryan Mattheus, Tyler Clippard and Drew Storen.
Jaime Garcia had a nice September (2.45 ERA in five starts) and pitched well in his last start Oct. 1 against Cincinnati (6 2/3 innings, two runs). That rebound dates to a rough game in Washington on Aug. 30 when he gave up six earned runs in 5 1/3 innings in an eventual 8-1 loss.
“I’ve said this before, that start in Washington, I actually felt pretty good,” Garcia told reporters in St. Louis on Sunday. “It’s one of those things where they had a really good lineup and a really good team, and made a couple mistakes and paid the consequences. I can’t really tell you the reason why I pitched [bad] is because I was doing something wrong and then I found something. That’s not the case. You have a good team.”
Here are today’s lineups, which are the same as Game 1:
Nats
RF – Jayson Werth
CF – Bryce Harper (L)
3B – Ryan Zimmerman
1B – Adam LaRoche (L)
LF – Michael Morse
SS – Ian Desmond
2B – Danny Espinosa (S)
C – Kurt Suzuki
RHP – Jordan Zimmermann
Cardinals
CF – Jon Jay (L)
RF – Carlos Beltran (S)
LF – Matt Holliday
1B – Allen Craig
C – Yadier Molina
3B – David Freese
2B – Daniel Descalso (L)
SS – Peter Kozma
LHP – Jamie Garcia
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