Washington Nationals: 5 storylines to watch against reeling Mets

The Washington Nationals are back home this weekend for a four game series against the struggling New York Mets. Here are our five storylines to watch

In what could be a potential World Series preview, the Washington Nationals (76-49) went into Minute Maid Park and took two of three from the Houston Astros this week. Out of their seven road games on this trip, the Nats won five and their magic number to clinch the NL East is now at 24.

During the Astros series, one of the things that stood out was despite the bullpen blowing a 3-0 lead last night, the team responded by scoring two runs in the 11^th inning to get the win. In all three games, the Nats starting pitchers combined to give up five runs.

Now, the Washington Nationals are back home to begin a seven game homestand. Tonight, they start a four game, three day series against the New York Mets (55-71).

These two teams haven’t played each other since June. In their 12 meetings this year, the Nats are 9-3. Of course, when these two teams get together, the conversation usually centers around Daniel Murphy, who is hitting .391 with 13 RBI’s against New York this year. The Mets look a lot different since the last time these two teams played.

Over the last couple of months, New York has traded away first baseman Lucas Duda, reliever Addison Reed, outfielders Curtis Granderson and Jay Bruce, and catcher Rene Rivera. Plus, Michael Conforto dislocated his shoulder yesterday and has a tear in the posterior capsule in his shoulder.

Without Conforto and Granderson, the Mets will need Yoenis Cespedes to stay in the lineup. Cespedes has hit the ball well in August (.325, 7 home runs, 15 RBI’s in 22 games). But, the focus around the Mets is their young position players (shortstop Amed Rosario and first base Dominic Smith).

On the mound, the Mets starters have just five wins this month and three of them are from Chris Flexen. The rotation still has Jacob deGrom, but Seth Lugo and Steven Matz are now on the disabled list joining Noah Syndergaard and Matt Harvey.

As far as the bullpen goes, the Mets did add AJ Ramos at the trade deadline to help out their bullpen for 2018. They will be getting some reinforcements back this weekend as Jeurys Familia will be activated from the disabled list after being out since May (blood clot in his right arm)

Check out the four pitching matchups for this series:

Tonight: Jacob deGrom (13-7, 3.49 ERA) vs. A.J. Cole (1-3, 5.32)– 7:05 p.m ET, broadcast on MASN2

Tomorrow: Robert Gsellman (5-5, 5.65) vs. Gio Gonzalez (12-5, 2.39) – 4:05 p.m – MASN2/FS1

Sunday, Game 1: TBD vs. TBD/Tanner Roark (10-8, 4.64) – 1:35 p.m, MASN2/WUSA9

Sunday, Game 2: TBD vs. TBD/Roark – 8:08 p.m, ESPN

Now, let’s get into some of the storylines for the series and we start with the two Mets that will be a part of their future

Smith and Rosario lead youth movement

With all the trades the Mets have made, it opened up spots at shortstop and first base for some of their top prospects. The Washington Nationals will get to see Dominic Smith at first and Amed Rosario at shortstop for the first time.

Smith has struggled in his first 14 games for the Mets, hitting .174 with three home runs and five RBI’s. With first base being a power position, the Mets are hoping he adds more power to his game after hitting .330 in 114 games for Triple-A Las Vegas before being promoted.

As for Rosario, he has shown more progress at the plate, but he has been up for more games than Smith. In 23 games, he’s hitting .256 with three home runs, three triples, and seven RBI’s. At Triple-A, he had 19 stolen bases, so he can play a factor on the bases.

While Rosario is known for his defenses, he’s made a couple of mistakes in his first few games. On Sunday, he threw the ball late to first, which kept an inning alive where Jacob deGrom gave up a home run to Giancarlo Stanton.

Due to the Mets being out of playoff contention, Smith and Rosario have an opportunity to make a good impression on the front office heading into next season. Those two players are likely the future at their respective positions.

Of course, these rookies will make their fair share of mistakes, but thee is a level of excitement in New York around these two players that are finally in the big leagues.

Can Rendon bounce back against Mets?

With the Washington Nationals missing many of their regulars, it has taken its toll on the lineup. The team has scored 77 runs in August, which is the fewest of any team in the National League.

One player who has been hurt by all the injuries is third baseman Anthony Rendon. This month, he is hitting .224 with one home run and nine RBI’s in 64 at-bats. His 14 strikeouts are tied for third most on the team and Rendon isn’t known for striking out. With that being said, he did drive in the game winning run and had two doubles last night.

Throughout this season, Rendon has been one of the more valuable players on the Washington Nationals. His defense hasn’t missed a beat, which is a good sign. However, if the Nats are going to accomplish their goals, they need Rendon to heat up again in the lineup.

This weekend could be the perfect thing that gets Rendon going again. He has been excellent against the Mets this year. He is 15-for-41 (.366) against the Mets with four home runs and 15 RBI’s. Of course, ten of those RBI’s came on April 30, but those are very good numbers.

In terms of the two pitchers that are confirmed for this series right now, Rendon has bad numbers against deGrom (0-for-16, five strikeouts), but he is 3-for-7 with two doubles and two RBI’s against Gsellman.

There’s no need to panic about Rendon’s struggles yet, but it is something to keep an eye on when you consider that he hit .392 last month.

Players Weekend in the spotlight

This weekend, you will see something unique across all major league ballparks. Every player in baseball will have a nickname on the back of their jerseys as part of Players Weekend.

While some have criticized the promotion, I wrote last month that it was a good idea by baseball because it gave the players an opportunity to be creative for the weekend. Plus, they were allowed to have a name on their sleeve of someone who helped them on their baseball journey.

Baseball had great success with the promotion last week when the Cardinals and Pirates played in Williamsport in front of the kids participating in the Little League World Series. Since the Nats are on ESPN this weekend, maybe some of their stories will be told during the telecast.

Yes, some of the cooler nicknames such as Triple T (Trea Turner), Big Kid (Bryce Harper), and Dub (Jayson Werth) are on the disabled list for this series, but there are some other fun nicknames on the Washington Nationals. Some of them include Double G (Gio Gonzalez), Doo (Sean Doolittle), and T-Ro (Tanner Roark).

It may be a different audience this weekend compared to last Sunday night’s game, but I would expect the promotion to be a success for baseball.

Can Gio continue dominant August?

During the month of August, Gio Gonzalez has had one of the best months of his career. While its only been three starts, he is 3-0 with a 0.46 ERA and has struck out 18 batters in 19.2 innings.

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If you go back to his near no-hitter against Miami on July 31, that ERA shrinks down to 0.33 in his last four starts. Since the All-Star break, Gonzalez has been one of the best pitchers in baseball and has put himself into the Cy Young conversation.

A lot of people were concerned that Gonzalez threw 121 pitches in his start last Sunday against the San Diego Padres. However, the Nats needed him to do that after most of the bullpen pitched Friday and the left-hander doesn’t throw the ball that hard, so that should help him.

One of the teams that Gonzalez has pitched well against in his Washington Nationals career is the New York Mets. In two starts this year, he is 2-0 with a 2.03 ERA and has held the New York hitters to a .149 average.

If you are looking for a Mets hitter that could have success against Gonzalez, keep an eye on Juan Lagares. The Mets center fielder is 15-for-40 with three doubles, a triple, a home run, and four RBI’s. He will get more playing time in the outfield with Conforto on the disabled list.

Next: Dusty deserves return in 2018

Which players/storylines will you be focusing on this weekend? Let us know by sending us a comment below.