Where: Nationals Park
When: 4:05 EST
The Starters: Hand (0-0, 0.00) vs. Lannan (1-0, 2.57)
The Line: Nats -175, Marlins +155, O/U 8.5 Runs, Nats -1.5
Starters - John Lannan will make his 2nd big league start of the year tonight in game one of Friday’s double header. Lannan has been pretty terrible in triple-A this year, going 6-10 with a 5.24 era, while his replacement Ross Detwiler has been great, going 6-4 with a 3.02 era. However, Lannan stepped up huge in his one major league start this year, allowing just 2 runs over 7 innings in a pivotal win over the Braves. The Marlins will counter with young lefthander Brad Hand, who will be making his first big league start of 2012. Hand has spent his whole season at triple-A and has fared pretty well, going 8-5 with a 3.66 era. In 12 big league starts last year, Hand pitched well for a rookie, finishing with a 4.20 era in 60 innings of work. In his most recent big league start, against the Nats last September, Brad took the loss giving up 3 earned runs in just 4 innings. Advantage Nationals
Lineups – The National’s lineup had a pretty terrible series against the Phillies, scoring just 5 runs in the 3 game set. However, it’s worth noting that they were without 3 of their four best hitters (Zimmerman, LaRoche, and Desmond) for at least one game each (Desmond missed all 3). Despite their struggles against Philly, the Nats continue to hold their place as a slightly above average National League offense, ranking between 6th and 8th in all the major statistics. The Marlins are also coming off a series in which they struggled, scoring just 8 runs over 4 games in Atlanta. However, their struggles have been season long and probably won’t get much better with Stanton injured and Ramirez traded to the Dodgers. They are currently dead last in runs scored and ranked no higher than 11th in any stat except for steals, which they lead the league in. Advantage Nationals
Bullpens – The Nationals bullpen had a pretty good series against Philadelphia and lowered their era to 3.47, which ranks 7th best in the National League. They have four guys with eras under 3 (Burnett, Stammen, Gonzalez, and Clippard) and former closer Drew Storen seems to be improving with every outing. With all of the weak links being removed from the 25-man roster (either by injury or otherwise) the worst era of any active reliever is a respectable 3.42 (Tom Gorzelanny). The Marlin’s bullpen has improved quite a bit since they demoted Heath Bell from the closer role (finally) and replaced him with Steve Cishek. They currently have a 4.08 era as a group that ranks them just outside the top half of the NL in 9th place. They’re still not a great group but having Cishek closing games at least makes them respectable. Advantage Nationals
Game Summary - Lannan comes up big again with a solid start and the Nats offense snaps out of it’s slump to claim another curly W.
Prediction: Nationals 6, Marlins 3
Key Players (Stat Prediction): Lannan (7 IP, 3 ER, 7 H, 4 K, 1 BB), Espinosa (2-4, HR, 2B, 3 RBI), Hand (5 IP, 4 ER, 6 H, 4 K, 2 BB), Reyes (2-4, 2B, SB, RBI)
Jesse’s Picks W/L: 61 – 43