With yesterday’s game between the Washington Nationals and the Baltimore Orioles at Nats Park being postponed due to rain, the Nats did not announce their starters last night other than Gio Gonzalez, who takes the ball tonight against Ubaldo Jimenez. Today, manager Matt Williams shuffled the rotation up a little bit by flipping Max Scherzer’s and Tanner Roark’s start dates around:
Scherzer will pitch tomorrow, Roark Thursday and Zimmermann Friday. #Nats
— Chase Hughes (@ChaseHughesNBCS) September 22, 2015
Roark was supposed to pitch tomorrow night with Scherzer originally set to pitch on Thursday. By pitching the Nats’ ace tomorrow night, it allows Williams to pitch Scherzer on regular rest. Plus, Roark’s matchup becomes a little more favorable for Thursday afternoon.
Scherzer will be going up against Chris Tillman tomorrow with Roark facing O’s rookie right-hander, Tyler Wilson, on Thursday afternoon (4:05 PM ET). In Scherzer’s lone start against the Orioles this season, he gave up two runs (Adam Jones solo home runs) on four hits and struck out seven over 8.2 innings in a win on July 12, the day before the All-Star Break.
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There was an option for the Nats to go to Jordan Zimmermann on short rest Thursday afternoon, but that move is not going to happen as Zimmermann will begin the series against the Philadelphia Phillies Friday night at Nats Park. However, Zimmermann is going through some health issues himself, but it’s not going to cause him to miss a start:
Williams also told the media how Zimmermann could still pitch in the final regular season game against the New York Mets at Citi Field (Sunday, October 4), but that will likely depend on where the Nats are on the standings. Coming into tonight, their tragic number is seven as they trail New York by 6.5 games in the NL East with 13 to play.
According to Baseball Reference, Zimmermann has a career ERA of 3.13 in 91 starts when pitching on four days rest. However, it will be interesting to monitor this situation only because if the Nats are out of the NL East race, do they still pitch Zimmermann against the Mets? The 29-year-old right-hander is a free agent at the end of the season and the team could go a different direction and try a pitcher like A.J. Cole or Taylor Jordan in that spot.
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