The Washington Nationals will welcome back a familiar face to Nats Park this weekend, as Daniel Murphy comes to town with the Chicago Cubs.
Daniel Murphy was traded away by the Washington Nationals in late August as they attempted to get something for some of their pending free agents. Now he’ll return to D.C. with his new team, the Chicago Cubs.
Joining Blake Finney on the DoDCast this week to look ahead to the series is Cubbies Crib contributor and Climbing the Ivy co-host, Alex Patt. You can check out the episode here.
On this edition of the podcast, they discuss the following:
- Bryce Harper and his continued resurgence against the Cardinals
- All aboard the Victor Robles hype train
- Has Blake recovered from seeing the David Bote walk-off home run?
- A check-in on how Murphy has been getting on at Wrigley
- Some other players to watch out for in this series
- Preview and predict each pitching matchup
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Obviously, Murphy is the headliner in this series given his history with the Nats. In his Nationals career, he hit .329 with 54 home runs, 226 RBIs and recorded a .930 OPS with a139 wRC+.
Since arriving on the north side of Chicago, he’s put up a slash line of .316/.339/.579 while primarily batting leadoff, hitting some key homers along the way. Hopefully, the Nats Park faithful will recognize him accordingly for his tremendous two and a half seasons in Washington.
The man that Murphy replaced in the leadoff spot, Anthony Rizzo, has been tearing the cover off the ball lately. Over the last 30 days, he’s hitting a lofty .371, with seven home runs, 16 RBIs, and walked four more times than he’s struck out. A 1.110 OPS in that time means he’s the main player to circle on the lineup card.
In the series with the Cardinals, we got a taste of what Victor Robles can offer to the Nats moving forward. He went 1 for 2, but the out was a laser and he also was lightning on the basepaths running first to home in the blink of an eye. With three lefties on tap to start for the Cubs, we may well see Robles’ make several starts in this series, giving him another chance to wow the Nationals fans.
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Daniel Murphy is sure to deserve a loud round of applause from the Washington Nationals fans. Hopefully, he doesn’t come back to haunt them like he did with the New York Mets.