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Nationals Announce Lineup For Friday's Grapefruit League Opener vs Mets

We already knew that Taylor Jordan will start the Grapefruit League opener with the New York Mets on Friday, and the lineup for that game leaked, but the Washington Nationals made it official this afternoon, releasing the starting nine for Friday's game on Twitter.

By Patrick Reddington
The lineup card for the Washington Nationals' 2014 Grapefruit League opener on Friday afternoon.
The lineup card for the Washington Nationals' 2014 Grapefruit League opener on Friday afternoon.
Photo © and courtesy of @Nationals on Twitter.

Matt Williams told reporters earlier this week that so far Spring Training has been sort-of routine for him after all his years doing the same things as a player and then a coach.

"For me, he's got mid-90's fastball and movement. Good changeup. Breaking ball for strikes. I've been really impressed with what I've seen." - Matt Williams on Taylor Jordan's repertoire

"I'm used to this part of it," the 48-year-old first-year skipper explained. "Used to the fundamental part of it because I've dealt with all of that and doing all the bunt plays and rundowns and all that stuff, because that's what I generally do as a coach."

He was looking forward to one new aspect, however, filling out the lineup cards and making sure everyone gets the work they need. "The lineup part of it, I've never done," Williams said, "so that's a learning process. Making sure that we get everybody in and looking at the first few days of lineups to make sure we get everybody in the game and monitor from there and move from there."

Williams announced on Tuesday that Taylor Jordan would start the first Grapefruit League on Friday at the New York Mets' Spring Training home, but while acknowledging that the lineup for that game already leaked, he declined to confirm published reports.

"I don't want to get too far ahead," Williams joked. "Call it the 'rookie manager paranoia' but I don't want to give you information that we may have to change something on."

This afternoon, the Nationals made the lineup for Friday's game official:

• Note: The only difference between the previously reported lineup and this one is the presence of Eury Perez in center and batting eighth after Michael Taylor was penciled in to the leaked lineup...

According to several reports this morning, the Nationals will have Jordan Zimmermann start the second game of the spring on Saturday afternoon when Washington welcomes the Atlanta Braves to Space Coast Stadium for the spring home opener:

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