The Washington Nationals took this division last year and are the favorites in the NL East again in 2017. The Philadelphia Phillies aren’t a threat to overtake the top spot, but they should provide a bit more competition on a game-by-game basis this year with the additions of a few veterans to help the youngsters. With these two teams kicking off a three game series on Friday night, the Phillies will hope to cut into the Nats’ 14-5 record against them from a year ago and make things at least a little harder for Washington this year.
This series will be contested from Friday, April 7, 2017 through Sunday, April 9, 2017 at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia. The game on Friday night can be seen on the MLB Network.
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Pitching Matchups
A finger injury pushed Max Scherzer back a bit, but the defending Cy Young Award winner will get his first start of the season on Friday, matching up against the Phillies’ Vince Velasquez.
Velasquez is the Phillies’ best pitcher based on raw stuff, but he’s also prone to go to deep counts in an effort to put away hitters and struggles from time-to-time with command. That’s great, but Scherzer is the best pitcher in the National League, non-Kershaw division.
In the past four years, Scherzer has come in the top-5 in Cy Young voting each time, twice in the AL and twice in the NL. Since joining the Nats, he’s 34-19 with a 2.88 ERA and 0.943 WHIP in 67 games over two seasons.
While this all points to a Phillies’ loss, there is some hope. If you’re going to beat Scherzer, it’s easiest in the first two months. Before June 1, Scherzer has a 3.86 career ERA. His career mark the rest of the year: 3.16.
Interestingly, last year Velazquez was the opposite. The young righty slowed down the stretch, but in the first half of the year, he was 8-2 with a 3.32 ERA. In April, he was arguably the best pitcher in baseball, going 3-1 with a 1.78 ERA and a 0.868 WHIP in four starts.
After the first game, the Nationals figure to go with some combination of Stephen Strasburg and Joe Ross in the Saturday and Sunday games while the Phillies will toss Aaron Nola on Saturday before probably circling back to Jeremy Hellickson on Sunday to kick off the second time through the order.
Offensive Breakdown
The Nationals got a really good sign on Opening Day after struggling against Edinson Volquez, the lineup broke out for four runs in the win, with Bryce Harper squaring one up for a home run. Adam Lind provided another bomb off the bench.
On top of that, the key offseason acquisition—Adam Eaton—added a pair of hits from the second spot in the order and both he and Trea Turner each recorded a stolen base.
Overall, the Nationals have the offensive advantage everywhere except for maybe at first base where Ryan Zimmerman’s best days are behind him. While he’ll have to prove he deserves to be an everyday player with Lind vying for at bats on the bench, he did well in the first game of the year with a pair of hits.
In the end last year, the Nationals ended up scoring the fourth most runs in the National League while the Phillies were dead last in baseball, plating 153 fewer runs than Washington.
The Nats are better than they were in that department this year with the addition of Eaton and a likely better season from Harper, but so are the Fighting Phils.
Philadelphia added Howie Kendrick and Michael Saunders to the mix while handing the everyday first base job to Tommy Joseph. While those three—along with Maikel Franco—should provide most of the power for this team, it was the middle infield that went yard in the season opener as Cesar Hernandez and Freddy Galvis both smashed homers in the contest.
Questions and Concerns
After Game 1 of the season, there’s already a bit of a closer controversy in Philadelphia.
Jeanmar Gomez had a great first half of the season last year, but struggled down the stretch in the closer role. He managed to hang on to the job heading into this year, but had a rough season debut, giving up a two-run home run to Scooter Gennett of the Reds before ultimately recording the save.
After the game, the beleaguered closer didn’t get the vote of confidence from his manager that you typically expect this early on as Pete Mackanin admitted his concern and noted Gomez isn’t showing the ability to get the ball down in the zone that afforded him success to start 2016. It may not be long until we see Joaquin Benoit or Hector Neris in the closer role.
Until then, however, the Phils cannot go into the ninth feeling comfortable, even with the lead, and that has a tendency to have a trickledown effect to other parts of the team if allowed to go on for too long.
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