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There's no reason to be concerned that a veteran right-hander like Dan Haren's (0-4) in five starts this Spring in which he's posted a 6.05 ERA while allowing 23 hits, four walks and 13 runs, all earned in 19.1 IP in which he's struck out 15. Spring Training stats are meaningless, of course, though folks have been watching the radar gun in his outings to see if the Haren's velocity is up after it's decreased over the last few seasons. But Grapefruit League wins? They're even less important than regular seasons "wins" right? Right. Moving on. Haren takes the mound for the sixth time this Spring this afternoon in Jupiter, Florida's Roger Dean Stadium, where he'll take on the Miami Marlins. According to a report by MLB.com's Bill Ladson this morning, Haren drove to Jupiter last night so that he could avoid having to take the long drive to the park which negatively affected him last time he did it. He also apparently had the option of skipping this start and throwing against Nats' minor leaguers. "Haren had the choice to pitch in a Minor League game at the team's complex," Mr. Ladson wrote today, "but he felt he would be motivated by pitching against the Marlins."
"'I didn't want the last start before the season [to be] a Minor League game,'" Haren explains in the article, "'I thought it was smarter to do a big league game.'"
Haren faced the Marlins in his first start with the Nationals earlier this Spring, giving up two hits and one run while striking out three in 2.0 IP. The right-hander will face the Fish again this afternoon when the Nationals take on the Marlins at 1:05 PM EST. MLB.com's Gameday has the following lineup listed for this afternoon's game, though there's been no official announcement from the Nats or any of the other writers covering the team in Florida:
#Nats' lineup vs #Marlins acc to @mlb: 1. Span 2. Werth 3. Harper 4. Zim 5. LaRoche 6. Desmond 7. Espinosa 8. Suzuki 9. Haren 1:05 pm EST...
— federalbaseball (@federalbaseball) March 26, 2013
Today's Game is available via MLB.tv and it's on MLB.com's Gameday audio as well though both feeds are from the Fish. No Bob and FP and no C&D, sorry. But there's baseball being played at 1:05 pm EST. Who's Watching the Nationals?