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• Nats Make 25-Man NLDS Roster Official: Washington Nationals' skipper Davey Johnson joked with reporters last night in the first press conference from St. Louis, the site of the first two games of the NLDS, that he had his 25-Man Roster set but wasn't going to release it until Cardinals' manager Mike Matheny announced his, though he didn't mention the Cards' skipper by name. "We're going to hold that off so nobody gets an edge on us," the 69-year-old skipper winkingly told reporters, "I informed all the guys that were going to be activated for it. There were some tough decisions. But, since I haven't gotten their roster, I haven't given mine." The roster came out anyway with various media entities reporting that it was pretty much as expected, but the official announcement wasn't made until this morning when the Nationals' PR department sent it out:
• Washington Nationals' NLDS 25-Man Roster:
• No real surprises as everyone noted last night, especially after MLB.com's Bill Ladson had previously reported that IF Mark DeRosa and LHP John Lannan had already been informed that they would be left off the roster before the official announcement was made. Lannan might have made sense against Atlanta, adding an extra left-hander to the mix against a team that struggled against lefties, but with a St. Louis club that clobbered them another left-handed starter made little sense.
Johnson did also announced the rotation for the first four games of the series telling reporters that after Gio Gonzalez today and Jordan Zimmermann tomorrow in St. Louis it will be Edwin Jackson in Game Three on Wednesday in D.C. and Ross Detwiler in game four setting up the following matchups: Gio vs Adam Wainwright; Zimmermann vs Jaime Garcia; E-Jax vs Chris Carpenter; Detwiler vs Lohse.