Friday's Nationals-Reds lineups

Friday's Nationals-Reds lineups
The Nationals open a three-game weekend series in Cincinnati tonight, with right-hander Dan Haren taking the hill and making his first regular season start in a Washington uniform. After all those two-hour bus rides to Jupiter, Fla., in spring training, the flight to Cincy must have seemed like a snap. Here's the Nationals lineup for tonight's 7 p.m. game: CF Denard Span RF Jayson Werth LF Bryce Harper 3B Ryan Zimmerman 1B Adam LaRoche SS Ian Desmond 2B Danny Espinosa C Kurt Suzuki RHP Dan...
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Getting ready for a much tougher test

Getting ready for a much tougher test
The Nationals limited the Marlins to one run in 27 innings over the last four days. Washington outscored Miami 11-1 and held its division rivals to a .167 batting average. After three games against a clearly inferior opponent, the Nats will now get much more of a test. Tonight, they open a three-game set against the Reds, a team that won the NL Central by a whopping nine games last season and posted 97 victories overall. Cincinnati has gotten off to a nice start to the season, taking two of...
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The DH debate

The DH debate
Three games into the season, the Nationals stand alone with the best record in baseball. They have a well-rounded, talented roster to thank for that. They also have the Miami Marlins to thank for that. Let's be honest. The Nats are the only undefeated team left in the majors after their three-game sweep over the Marlins. Now, it's on to Cincinnati to face a Reds team that took two of three from the Angels this week. After that, it's the White Sox coming to D.C. for the Nats' first...
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Zimmermann and Harper discuss Nats' 6-1 win

Zimmermann and Harper discuss Nats' 6-1 win
Jordan Zimmermann ruined it. He ruined the Nationals' shot at 1,458 consecutive shutout innings. Might as well just cancel the season. Zimmermann went six innings today, allowing eight hits and one run. He walked two and struck out one, rounding out a line that's not incredibly impressive by his standards outside of just the one run surrendered, but Zimmermann said he actually felt pretty sharp today. "I felt good, it was the best I felt in a long time," Zimmermann said. "It was just...
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Johnson on Marlins: "It was good to spank them this series"

Johnson on Marlins: "It was good to spank them this series"
It's no secret that the Marlins are rebuilding this season and will likely contend for the worst record in baseball. You look up and down Miami's roster and there really isn't much top-notch talent beyond Giancarlo Stanton. Still, games aren't played on paper. Beyond that, the Marlins have traditionally played the Nationals tough, including last year, when the teams split the season series despite the Nats winning the division and the Marlins coming in last in the National League East. So...
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Werth goes deep as Nats break it open (Nats sweep Marlins)

Werth goes deep as Nats break it open (Nats sweep Marlins)
Davey Johnson was asked before today's game whether he feels he needs to monitor Jayson Werth's left wrist, which doctors expect won't be full strength until after the season ends. That's the wrist Werth broke last May, the one that he says limited his power stroke upon his return to the lineup last year. Johnson said Werth felt like the wrist was pretty weak coming into spring training but that it's gaining strength lately. Given the home run Werth just crushed into the left field...
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The shutout streak is over, Harper gets dinged up (Nats lead after six)

The shutout streak is over, Harper gets dinged up (Nats lead after six)
The Nationals will not play an entire season without allowing a run. The Marlins will not go the whole year without having a runner touch home plate. The dreams are dead. After pitching a scoreless first inning this afternoon, Nats starter Jordan Zimmermann allowed a leadoff homer to Miami center fielder Justin Ruggiano, ending the Nationals' streak of consecutive scoreless innings to begin the season at 19. Stephen Strasburg, Tyler Clippard and Rafael Soriano combined for a shutout on...
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Nats sign Chris Young to minor league deal

Nats sign Chris Young to minor league deal
Chris Young is back with the Nationals. After opting out of his initial minor league deal with the Nats on March 25, Young has returned to the organization, agreeing to terms on a new minor league deal this afternoon. Young, 33, will throw a couple bullpen sessions down at the Nationals' minor league complex in Viera, Fla., and then will report to Triple-A Syracuse to join the rotation there. His new deal does not contain an opt-out clause, according to a source. Young posted a 2.25 ERA in...
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Marlins-Nationals lineups for series finale

Marlins-Nationals lineups for series finale
The Nationals will look for a sweep of the Marlins this afternoon at Nationals Park, with Jordan Zimmermann attempting to match the stellar efforts of Stephen Strasburg and Gio Gonzalez over the Nats' first two games. Zimmermann is 1-3 with a 4.43 ERA in eight career starts against the Marlins and is without a win against them at home. Left-hander Wade LeBlanc will take the mound for Miami. LeBlanc went 2-5 with a 3.67 ERA last season in 25 games (nine starts) with the Marlins. Over four...
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Joining a pretty exclusive club

Joining a pretty exclusive club
Michael Morse smacked another home run last night for the Mariners, giving him three in the last two days. The former Nationals slugger has four hits on the season. Three have left the yard. That man sure can hit. Morse better keep going deep, though. He's got Gio Gonzalez right on his tail in the home run department. For those who haven't gotten a chance to make it out to Nats Park yet, it appears the team is going to be using the song "Take on Me" as part of its seventh-inning stretch...
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Hearing from Gonzalez, Zimmerman and Span

Hearing from Gonzalez, Zimmerman and Span
You might not know it by looking at his pitching line - or his batting line, for that matter - but Gio Gonzalez was battling a pretty bad headache during his 2013 regular season debut tonight. Gonzalez started feeling the headache prior to first pitch and relied on consistent massages on his temple from trainer John Hsu and some Advil in order to get through his six shutout innings in the Nationals' 3-0 win. "Every inning, all the way to the fifth, where it was constantly getting massaged...
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Johnson speaks after another Nats shutout

Johnson speaks after another Nats shutout
The Nationals are red-hot to start the 2013 season. So is their hitting coach. The heater in the Nationals' tunnel serves an important purpose on a night when the temperature at first pitch was 45 degrees and dropped quickly. But for Rick Eckstein, the propane heater nearly did more harm than good. "He went down there and started talking to one of the hitters that was sitting close to the fire, and he was standing close to the fire," manager Davey Johnson said, a smile on his face after...
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Two games, two curtain calls (Nats win 3-0)

Two games, two curtain calls (Nats win 3-0)
Bryce Harper got called out of the dugout by the Nationals Park crowd on opening day, getting a curtain call following his second homer of the ballgame. Tonight, Gio Gonzalez was the one to get the curtain call, and not for something he did while on the mound. The Nationals left-hander took a first-pitch Kevin Slowey curveball into the bleachers in left field for his second career home run. The blast came with one out in the fifth and gave the Nats a 1-0 lead. He circled the bases with a...
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Johnson on where Gonzalez can improve, plus plans for bench guys

Johnson on where Gonzalez can improve, plus plans for bench guys
Gio Gonzalez finished third in the National League Cy Young voting last season. The Nationals left-hander led the majors with 21 wins, posted a sub-3.00 ERA, worked nearly 200 innings and struck out 9.3 batters per nine innings, best in the NL among starting pitchers. It was a heck of a season, and quite a statement in Gonzalez' first season in D.C. after coming to the Nats in a trade with the Athletics. But as Gonzalez prepares to take the mound tonight for his first start of 2013, where...
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Suzuki, Ramos to alternate starts for now

Suzuki, Ramos to alternate starts for now
Davey Johnson has said for months now that he feels he has two No. 1 catchers. From his perspective, how better to use those two guys than to alternate them on a daily basis, giving them equal playing time? After going with Wilson Ramos behind the plate on opening day, Johnson wrote Kurt Suzuki's name into today's lineup as his starting catcher. Those two will continue to trade off days for the foreseeable future. "That's a tribute because I like them both," Johnson said. "They're both...
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Suzuki behind the plate for Gonzalez's first start (with Marlins lineup)

Suzuki behind the plate for Gonzalez's first start (with Marlins lineup)
The Nationals will trot pretty much the same lineup out for tonight's 7:05 p.m. game against the Marlins at Nationals Park. The only changes are the battery, with Kurt Suzuki catching left-hander Gio Gonzalez. Here's the Nationals lineup: CF Denard Span RF Jayson Werth LF Bryce Harper 3B Ryan Zimmerman 1B Adam LaRoche SS Ian Desmond 2B Danny Espinosa C Kurt Suzuki LHP Gio Gonzalez For the Marlins: LF Juan Pierre 2B Donovan Solano RF Giancarlo Stanton 3B Placido Polanco CF Justin...
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Rizzo takes a look back and ahead

Rizzo takes a look back and ahead
With a long offseason behind him and opening day now in the rear view mirror, Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo took a few minutes yesterday to catch up with MASNsports.com to discuss his team's postseason run in 2012, the changes to the roster made over the winter and his expectations for this upcoming season. Rizzo touched on how he's seen Bryce Harper and Stephen Strasburg evolve as players, whether his team is better set up for postseason success this year and what it would mean to...
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Some opening day leftovers

Some opening day leftovers
Under normal circumstances, Rafael Soriano picking up his first save as a National on opening day with a dominant ninth inning would be something we'd be discussing immediately following the game. With what Bryce Harper and Stephen Strasburg did yesterday, however, Soriano's performance took a bit of a backseat. Now that we've broken down Harper and Strasburg's efforts backwards and forwards and backwards again, however, we can talk a bit about Soriano's 1-2-3 ninth, which included two...
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A glimpse into what could be a special few years

A glimpse into what could be a special few years
It's hard, after seeing what we saw yesterday at Nationals Park, not to think big picture. It's hard not to think about what could be happening two or three years down the road, possibly more. It's hard not to envision Bryce Harper and Stephen Strasburg putting together dominating performances like Monday's in front of consistently packed houses, with fans clamoring for tickets to watch the dual phenoms in person. Despite their relative lack of big league experience, we still got to see...
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Harper on his highlight-filled day: "It was a pretty special moment"

Harper on his highlight-filled day: "It was a pretty special moment"
With his mom and dad in attendance along with 45,272 others, Bryce Harper put on a show in the Nationals' regular season opener. Harper crushed two home runs in his first two at-bats of the season, scored the Nationals' only two runs of the day and started a dramatic double play in the seventh inning that brought an end to a would-be Marlins rally and preserved a two-run lead. Talk about an impressive start to a season in which some are projecting Harper as one of the favorites for the...
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