2012 Opening Series: Nationals (0-0) at Cubs (0-0)

Post #1 » by **Rafael122** » Wed Apr 4, 2012 9:24 pm

It's finally here, the 2012 season is upon us. The Nationals are arguably one of the most talked about teams in baseball right now and they have their first legitimate chance at making the playoffs. They boast one of the top rotations in baseball, their farm system is still in the top half of the league, and it seems as though big time players like Jayson Werth are due for a bounce back year. I'm really looking forward to watching this team play this year.

They open the season against the Cubs at Wrigley, here are the pitching matchups for the series:

Stephen Strasburg vs. Ryan Dempster - 4/5/2012
Gio Gonzalez vs. Matt Garza - 4/7/2012
Jordan Zimmermann vs. Jeff Samardzija - 4/8/2012

Morse and Storen are going to begin the season on the DL. Adam LaRoche is back and he's batting cleanup, with DeRosa manning left field. I'm assuming there is going to be a platoon there with DeRosa and Ankiel until Morse gets back.

Wizards2Lottery · Post #2 » by **Wizards2Lottery** » Thu Apr 5, 2012 2:24 pm

Post #3 » by **Rafael122** » Thu Apr 5, 2012 2:28 pm

Also forgot to mention, Bryce Harper will most likely be called up within the next couple of months so that is something to look forward to. Once he's up here, he's not going to be sent down. Def gonna try to go to more Nats games this year.

Post #4 » by **Jollay** » Fri Apr 6, 2012 2:24 pm

Good win yesterday, but I am really concerned about this teams' ability to score runs.

However, really good showing by Ian Desmond at the top of the order yesterday which is key to that equation.

I think we'll be seeing alot of 3-2, 2-1, 4-3 type games at Nats Park this year. Fortunately with the Nats' bullpen I think they'll come out the winner more often than the losers.

Post #5 » by **Rafael122** » Sat Apr 7, 2012 8:59 pm

Nats take the 2nd game and win the series with a 7-4 comeback win. The Cubs bullpen is awful and I agree with Jollay, without Morse this team could have trouble scoring runs but they managed to score 7 today, 5 with 2 outs in that 8th inning.

Gio was awful, he struck out 6 but he had command/control issues all game long.

H-Rod may have the best stuff out of all the Nats pitchers. Filthy.