Meet the Nats!

Four game series are too long. I guess one positive is that the Nats will see our four best pitchers (according to rotation rank, I suppose) so we should be able to shake off that 13-2 loss to the Pirates. Getting Chipper back would help, but he is no definite to play tomorrow in the first game against...

Jason Bergmann. On April 12th, he matched up with John Smoltz and allowed a hit over six innings before the pitch count got him. He'll get Smoltz again and Bergmann is still chasing his first win, despite a 3.07 ERA. He walks quite a few batters so don't be surprised if control problems get him early.

The Nats are without their two best starters, though John Patterson has yet to pitch like it. Patterson is on the DL and Shawn Hill is not there yet, but he probably will be headed there before Tuesday's start when Jerome Williams will be activated. Hill tossed five no-hit innings and then his arm went dead.

The Nats are hot, coming off a sweep of the Marlins that stopped an eight game slide and they are riding their first winning streak of the year. None the less, they cannot hit. In 37 games, they have scored all of 118 runs, or 3.2 runs a game. They batting average is under .240 for God's sake. Smoltz and Hudson should have no problem with them and James and Davies are pitching in winnable games, but we can take nothing for granted.

It's important to win this series. God knows we don't want to go into Fenway with a split.

Will be nice to see Ryan Langerhans. Since his trade from the A's, Langer is 4 for 14 with 3 runs scored and a double. Hope he gets some starts. Since his trade, he has started four games in center, including the last two.

Pitching matchups
John Smoltz vs. Jason Bergmann
Tim Hudson vs. Jerome Williams
Kyle Davies vs. Larry Speigner (first start)
Chuck James vs. Matt Chico