Game 42 lineups: Nats vs. Orioles

It was an enjoyable Friday night at Nationals Park, where the home team saw Stephen Strasburg pitch 5 1/3 scoreless innings in his return from the injured list, Josh Bell go 3-for-5 and make a key play in the field, and a season-high crowd of 14,369 cheer the Nats on to victory over the Orioles. Whether they can actually use that as a springboard to a winning streak is up to them.

Jon Lester starts this afternoon's game on South Capitol Street, and after a rough outing in his return to Wrigley Field, he'll be looking to get back on track. As always, the veteran lefty needs to keep the ball down in the zone. On a warm day with the wind blowing out to right, he can't afford to leave pitches up.

Conversely, the Nationals do need to try to take advantage of Bruce Zimmermann's typically high fastball and drive it in the air. They can't afford to keep pounding balls into the ground the way they have for much of the season.

As you'd expect with a lefty on the mound, Ryan Zimmerman gets the start at first base. Add up his numbers over the last four seasons, and Zimmerman is batting .349 with 18 homers and a 1.032 OPS in 310 plate appearances against southpaws. That's pretty, pretty good.

And as you'd expect, Victor Robles remains out of the lineup for the third straight day after spraining his right ankle. For now, Robles remains on the active roster. But today it's Josh Harrison making his first start of the season in center field, with Jordy Mercer at second base.

BALTIMORE ORIOLES at WASHINGTON NATIONALS
Where: Nationals Park
Gametime: 4:05 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, MLB.com
Weather: Mostly cloudy, 91 degrees, wind 12 mph out to right field

NATIONALS
SS Trea Turner
RF Juan Soto
1B Ryan Zimmerman
3B Starlin Castro
LF Kyle Schwarber
CF Josh Harrison
C Yan Gomes
2B Jordy Mercer
LHP Jon Lester

ORIOLES
CF Cedric Mullins
SS Freddy Galvis
1B Trey Mancini
RF Anthony Santander
C Pedro Severino
3B Maikel Franco
LF Ryan Mountcastle
2B Pat Valaika
LHP Bruce Zimmermann