Nats (24-23) at San Francisco Giants (23-22)
So beating Tim Lincecum wasn’t so hard, apparently. Whatever is ailing San Francisco’s two-time Cy Young winner the Nats took advantage in a 7-3 win on Wednesday night. Washington knocked Lincecum off the mound in the fifth inning after scoring six runs on six hits and five walks. That was also Lincecum’s first loss of the season.
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A mere 12 hours later the Nats were back at AT&T Park getting set – maybe? – for this afternoon’s scheduled 3:45 p.m. game. That was the plan anyway. The weather in San Francisco might not cooperate for a while. Expect them to get this game in, though. Washington isn’t back on the West Coast until August – and the Giants have a home game during the lone day off during that trip to Phoenix and Los Angeles. They’re going to wait a while on this one.
The Nats send an unconventional lineup out to face left-handed pitcher Barry Zito (6-2, 2.80 ERA) in the series finale. All right-handed batters save Adam Dunn – and even he switches spots with Ryan Zimmerman in the lineup. Zito is opposed by Craig Stammen (1-2, 5.96 ERA), who might be pitching for his job considering Stephen Strasburg is set to join the rotation next month. Luis Atilano, despite pitching well on Wednesday night, is still the likely candidate to return to Triple-A Syracuse. But Stammen doesn’t want to give anyone in the front office ideas, either. Here are the lineups.
Nationals:
Maxwell – CF
Guzman – RF
Dunn – 1B
Zimmerman – 3B
Willingham – LF
Desmond – SS
Gonzalez – 2B
Maldonado – C
Stammen – P
Giants:
Torres – RF
Sanchez – 2B
Sandoval – 3B
Huff – 1B
Uribe – SS
Rowand – CF
Bowker – LF
Whiteside – C
Zito – P
