Game Thread: Nats vs. Cardinals in Jupiter
Zack Littell and a bunch of regulars are facing St. Louis this afternoon, with the Spring Breakout prospect game to follow at 4:30 p.m.
JUPITER, Fla. – It’s a doubleheader day at Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium. In addition to the official Grapefruit League game between the Nationals and Cardinals at 1:05 p.m., prospects from both clubs will meet at 4:30 p.m. in the “Spring Breakout” game (which you can watch on Nationals.TV, though it’s actually MLB Network announcers calling that one).
The big-league game will see Zack Littell take the mound for the Nats, bumped back a day after Wednesday night’s game was rained out. Littell is slated for four innings, and if all goes well, he’d then make one more start before the season begins.
Blake Butera is fielding what might just be an Opening Day lineup, though not necessarily in this particular batting order. Jacob Young, who needs all the at-bats he can get, is batting third. You probably won’t be seeing that come next week. Several guys today are scheduled to play all nine innings for the first time this spring.
We don’t have the lineups for the Spring Breakout game yet, but I’ll be sure to include those (and some observations along the way) down below in the comments section …
WASHINGTON NATIONALS vs. ST. LOUIS CARDINALS
Where: Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium
Gametime: 1:05 p.m. EDT
TV: None
Radio: MLB.com (Cardinals feed)
Weather: Mostly cloudy, 74 degrees, wind 17 mph in from left
NATIONALS
LF James Wood
2B Nasim Nuñez
CF Jacob Young
3B Brady House
DH Daylen Lile
1B Luis García Jr.
SS CJ Abrams
C Keibert Ruiz
RF Dylan Crews
RHP Zack Littell
CARDINALS
SS Masyn Winn
1B Alec Burleson
3B Nolan Gorman
LF Nelson Velásquez
C Yohel Pozo
CF Victor Scott II
2B Ramon Mendoza
DH Bligh Madris
RF Dakota Harris
LHP Quinn Mathews
Dylan Crews batting ninth, I won’t extrapolate anything from that, nope, not at all.
In all seriousness, I lean towards agreeing with what was said on the podcast. I wish we had more data on his batted ball this Spring, but he’s been trying to force results from the start of the exhibition. Really it all could be up in the air how he does to start the season (I’m going to side towards “slow start”), this spring has given us little to nothing on how the new regime has changed his approach.
You don’t need to be a lip reader to know what he very clearly said aloud after his second groundout in the Mets game Monday. He’s looked overly frustrated at himself, and who can blame him when Wood and Lile have started to pick up steam and he has not come close to his draft day expectations. It is a reminder of what the early Gore days looked like, when he’d slam his glove to his leg and have his small outbursts of frustration: a clear overachiever on public display who tends to beat themselves up when things go wrong. Hopefully, with all the advancements in the sport (and this organization) around technology and data, there’s equal care being put to consulting professionals when it comes to mental health.