Way back on April 1st, the Washington Nationals were supposed to open the season on Sunday Night Baseball against the New York Mets with two of this generation's greatest pitchers on the mound. Then COVID struck and delayed both teams' Opening Day. The Nationals were forced to wait four more days to start playing and the Mets had to wait until April 5th to get started. Besides the initial delay, the Mets have also had to deal with multiple weather issues that caused some cancellations. Neither team has really been able to get into a groove and it shows. The Nationals newest offensive additions Kyle Schwarber and Josh Bell have been unable to get back on the great Spring Training path they started before COVID protocols sidelined them for over a week. Both teams need to find some consistency and, hopefully, this series will be the start of that for the Nats.

Friday, April 23, RHP Erick Fedde (1-1, 5.56 ERA) vs. RHP Jacob DeGrom (1-1, 0.45 ERA) First Pitch 7:05 pm EST

Unfortunately, this is a Nationals/Mets series that will not include another great DeGrom and Scherzer pitching duel. Instead, the Nationals will send out Erick Fedde, who has looked much better in his past two starts. In his first start he gave up 5 runs over 1.2 innings, but in the two starts since, he has only allowed 2 runs in 9.2 innings.

Ideally, the Nationals would like more length out of Fedde, but if he gives up 1 or 2 runs over 5 innings, I am sure they would be fine with that production from their fifth starter as well. Fedde was showing off a much better tempo the last 2 starts and fans can look for that to be a key to continued success.

Oddly enough, there are only six Mets that have had more than 3 ABs against Fedde, who has spent his whole career in Washington. Of those six players, Michael Conforto really stands out as he has crushed Fedde to the tune of a .714 batting average and a 1.286 OPS. The matchup is one Fedde must win (or at least tie) to keep the Nationals in this game.

The other side of this pitching matchup is much more prominent. Jacob DeGrom is currently the best pitcher in baseball and he seems to be getting better with time. He currently has a 0.45 ERA and his fastball is averaging 98.7 MPH. Obviously, the Nationals are facing an uphill battle here, but there is always the famous trend of a lack of run support in DeGrom starts that they can hope for.

Andrew Stevenson and Starlin Castro have surprisingly had some success against DeGrom in the past. Maybe that continues and the Nationals can pull out a surprise win here.

Saturday, April 24, RHP Joe Ross (1-1, 5.87 ERA) vs. RHP Marcus Strowman (3-0, 0.90 ERA) l First Pitch 4:05 pm EST

On Saturday evening, the Nationals will face another hot pitcher. Marcus Stroman has started out this season strong with a 0.90 ERA and opponents are hitting just .159 against him so far. Josh Harrison has hit Stroman very well in 7 ABs, but outside of that there aren’t many Nationals with much experience against Stroman.

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Joe Ross is also going to face a lineup that has not seen him that much. Brandon Nimmo has done a very good job against him in the past, but I doubt he is focused on that. Ross will likely want to bounce back from his last start and find that magic he had from his first two starts of the year. Joe Ross was never going to be the team ace, but he can certainly be a valuable fourth starter in the meantime if he can keep opponents off balance by mixing his pitches and accurately locating them.

Sunday, April 25, LHP Patrick Corbin (0-2, 10.95 ERA) vs. RHP Taijuan Walker (0-1, 3.21 ERA) l First Pitch 1:10 pm EST

The series finale on Sunday afternoon may not even happen if Mother Nature has her way. Unfortunately, there is a 100% chance of rain in Queens. There is some hope that the game could be delayed and played later in the day, but we really won’t know for sure until Sunday comes around. If the game does get played, the Nationals are going to need Patrick Corbin to build off of his last start. He was great against the Cardinals, tossing six scoreless innings on only 76 pitches.

The Mets will send Taijuan Walker to the mound and so far he has looked pretty good this season. Many Nationals fans wanted the team to bring in Walker instead of Lester and, so far, Walker has provided more valuable. Lester has been unable to pitch so far, but hopefully, he proves those fans wrong in the near future when he returns.

Despite some lopsided pitching matchups on the paper and the absence of Juan Soto, this could be a great opportunity for the Nats to surprise the division leaders. If the team can at least steal one or maybe even two games, they will be in a great spot when they head down to Florida to face the Toronto Blue Jays next week.

Series Notes for the Nationals-Mets

- After starting 1-5, the Nationals are now 7-9 overall and 6-4 since the regulars returned from COVID.

- The Nationals are 1.5 games out of first place going into Friday, April 22nd - Josh Bell is second on the team in exit velo and hard hit rate, while being .110 points below league average in BABIP. Those numbers scream that a turn around may be happening soon!

- Stephen Strasburg has begun throwing and is slowly inching toward a bullpen session. - According to Juan Soto, he just needs rest and some treatment to fix his shoulder. If that is the case he should be on track to return soon after his 10-day IL stint is up.