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Nationals vs Padres: Series preview Q&A with Gaslamp Ball

The San Diego Padres are in the nation's capital for the start of a four-game set with the Washington Nationals. In advance of the series opener tonight, we talked with the SB Nation's Padres site, Gaslamp Ball.

By Patrick Reddington
Patrick McDermott

The Washington Nationals dropped two of three to the Los Angeles Angels, and it took a dramatic, ninth-inning comeback win to get it done last night in the nation's capital.

"You make mistakes to somebody like Albert, and you're going to pay for it. He's been doing that for a long, long time." - Matt Williams on Pujols hitting 500th HR off Taylor Jordan

Tonight in D.C., the Nats welcome the San Diego Padres for the first game of a four-game long weekend set.

One of the writers from the SB Nation's Padres site, Gaslamp Ball, reached out to us recently to ask a few questions about what's going on with the Nationals right now.

We've included one question and answer below, and there's a link to the full Q&A at the bottom of the post.

Gaslamp Ball: With Doug Fister on the disabled list, Taylor Jordan is the fifth man in the Nationals rotation. He showed himself to be a respectable enough sixth starter in his 9 games last season, but he's not exactly a hot prospect. What's the status on Fister, and how long a leash does Jordan have in the meantime?

Federal Baseball: Barring any setbacks or issues in the next couple of days, Fister is scheduled to make his first minor league rehab start on Sunday. From what the Nationals have said, they think it will probably take a start or two in the minors to get him up to full strength.

The way things are going now, it's looking like Taylor Jordan might be the odd man out when Fister returns. As several people have noted at this point, he and Fister are lined up and pitching on the same day right now.

The issue with Jordan, from what I've seen, is a drop in velocity and an inability to keep the ball down at times, especially early in his last few starts. He was throwing a low-90's sinker last season and it's sitting high-80s now. He told reporters the other day that he's aware of the drop in velocity, but doesn't think it would be an issue if he was locating his pitches. Not sure I agree with him, but it certainly doesn't help when a ground ball pitcher can't keep the ball down in the zone.

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