Gonzalez gets his turn today

VIERA, Fla. - Gio Gonzalez gets his first chance of the Grapefruit League season when he starts today against the Atlanta Braves at Space Coast Stadium in a 1 p.m. game that will be aired live on MASN HD. He's the last of the big five in the star-studded Nationals rotation, but maybe the least celebrated heading into this season.

Yet, of the other four Nats starters, Max Scherzer is the only one other than Gonzalez to reach 20 wins in a season. Scherzer finished with 21 wins in 2013 en route to the American League Cy Young Award, while Gonzalez matched that total a year earlier and ended up third in the voting for the National League Cy Young.

So here's Gonzalez coming off a frustrating season in which he landed on the disabled list for the first time in his career. Left shoulder inflammation bothered him throughout much of the first half of the season and eventually caused him to miss time. His ERA hovered around 4.00 while the shoulder continued to bother him.

"That's one of the toughest things is just trying to stay on top of the ball, knowing your arm kept dropping little by little," Gonzalez said. "But as soon as I came back from the injury, you could see that it was starting to turn it back on and just get going. I just wish I would've started a little earlier for the guys so I could try to help out as much as possible, but that's just the way it is, you know? Play the chips how they lie."

Gonzalez was able to recover and record a 2.77 ERA over his last nine starts. Gonzalez has also started three games in the playoffs for the Nats, more than any other pitcher in the organization. Scherzer and Doug Fister have started more postseason games overall.

It's possible that Gonzalez ends up being the surprise of this power-packed rotation. The 29-year-old lefty has expressed a return of confidence that was somewhat lost while dealing with the injury last year.

"Oh, it's unbelievable," Gonzalez said. "I'm just happy to finally get that shoulder back to where it needs to be and finally pound the strike zone where I wanted to and get that curveball where I needed it to be. It's all signs of a nice and effortless year and just enjoying it, so hopefully it just kicks in when the season starts."