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Stephen Strasburg and the Washington Nationals Versus Tommy Hanson and the Atl Braves
After being dismantled and embarrassed in the early innings of Thursday's loss the Washington Nationals never gave up. Zimmerman, Laroche and Flores were all pulled prior to the late innings and the Nationals still found a way to fight back. Down 9-4 they had Harper come up with the bases loaded in the bottom of the 8th and showed some life in the 9th as they tacked on another run and had a few base runners. Following the game the team felt they had an opportunity to win the game and they let it slip away with a few bad mishaps. Atlanta had just 3 hit tough fought 3-2 victory early on Thursday against Madison Bumgarner. Travel/fatigue will not have much of an affect on this game as both played early on Thursday and it is a short flight time from ATL to Wash. Stephen Strasburg comes in with a 10-4 record and a 2.66 ERA, Tommy Hanson comes in with a 10-5 record with a 4.02 ERA.
Last time Hanson faced the Nationals he gave up 2 runs in 7 innings while taking the victory against Gio Gonzalez. Hanson has gone 3-1 in his past 5 starts with an ERA of 5.87. Stephen Strasburg has seen the Braves three times this season already and holds a 2-1 record thus far. His one loss came from a day where he pitched just 3 innings in Atlanta after being pulled for heat exhaustion on the road. His only start versus Atlanta at home was a 4 hit shutout where he pitched 7 strong innings.
I'm not gonna sit here and bore you with anymore statistics or trends because I know one game has nothing to do with another but for some reason I think the Nationals will respond strong today and get to Hanson early leaving Strasburg with good run support to be able to pitch deep into the game. They will be motivated to take this one down as they were taken out early from yesterdays ball game and some key players got some time off. The Nationals bats have been swinging hot as of late, Zimmerman has come alive, Morse is getting a groove and with bats like Desmond back in the starting lineup I think we can see a at least 5-6 runs on 8-10 hits today. Atlanta is closing in our their heels at just 3.5 games back from first place and that is something the Nationals do not want to give up. I see Strasburg going 7 innings, giving up 2 runs on 5 hits and having 8 K's.
Nationals (-155) win 5-2 vs Atlanta Braves.
With that being said, this is the only team I truly follow in the MLB, hopefully my predictions are correct and we can cash this ticket! Goodluck to anyone that follows or fades.. Any thoughts?
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Originally Posted by Madison
or 3-2 !!!!