Game 22 lineups: Nats at Cardinals

ST. LOUIS - Hello from the Gateway City, where the biggest event in town this weekend isn't the Nationals-Cardinals series but the FIRST Championship, a national robotics competition that has left the downtown area overrun with thousands of teenagers who are infinitely smarter than you or I will ever be. While these kids are creating artificially intelligent robots, we're sitting in a ballpark obsessing over the Nats' inability to score a run. Talk about a blow to the ego...

But anyway, we're here to talk baseball, so baseball we'll talk. The Nationals tonight begin one of the most daunting 10-game road trips I can recall for this club: three against the Cardinals, three in Kansas City, then four in Chicago against the Cubs. The fact they're commencing this trip after getting swept at home by the Phillies without scoring a run in their last 22 innings isn't ideal.

It'll be Stephen Strasburg and Mike Leake in tonight's opener, a reunion of former Little League teammates from San Diego who wound up both becoming top 10 picks in the 2009 draft. Strasburg will be working with Jose Lobaton, who again is behind the plate while Wilson Ramos remains on bereavement leave following his grandfather's death...

WASHINGTON NATIONALS at ST. LOUIS CARDINALS
Where: Busch Stadium, St. Louis
Gametime: 8:15 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN2, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, XM 869, MLB.com
Weather: Chance of rain late, 68 degrees, wind 10 mph in from right field

NATIONALS
CF Michael A. Taylor
3B Anthony Rendon
RF Bryce Harper
1B Ryan Zimmerman
2B Daniel Murphy
LF Jayson Werth
SS Danny Espinosa
C Jose Lobaton
RHP Stephen Strasburg

CARDINALS
2B Matt Carpenter
RF Stephen Piscotty
LF Matt Holliday
1B Matt Adams
CF Randal Grichuk
2B Jedd Gyorko
SS Aledmys Diaz
C Eric Fryer
RHP Mike Leake