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Baseball on your television! It's back! After two Grapefruit League games which were available only on the radio and only through the opposing team's radio broadcast, the Washington Nationals are on t.v. today with MASN on the scene in Viera, Florida's Space Coast Stadium to capture Stephen Strasburg's first start of the Spring and beam it back into all of our homes.
The defending NL East champions are taking on the St. Louis Cardinals and left-hander Jaime Garcia this afternoon at 1:05 PM EST in a game which can also be heared on 1580AM WJFK in D.C., which means Charlie and Dave!! If you miss the game on MASN, it's being shown on the MLB Network on delay later today.
The Nationals posted the lineup for this afternoon's game on Twitter earlier this morning:
#Nats vs. #STLCards: Rendon 3B, Espinosa SS, Harper RF, Zimmerman 1B, Ramos C, Uggla DH, Burriss 2B, Gwynn CF, Kobernus LF, Strasburg P
— Washington Nationals (@Nationals) March 7, 2015
MASN's Dan Kolko also posted a helpful list of all the pitchers who are expected to see action this afternoon after Strasburg is done with his standard two innings/45 pitches-ish Spring debut:
Here's the list of arms you'll see Saturday in our first spring training broadcast on MASN. Strasburg gets the start pic.twitter.com/uRKfgucLa7
— Dan Kolko (@masnKolko) March 5, 2015
It will be a good chance for anyone who hasn't seen him work to get a good look at right-handed prospect A.J. Cole. Nats' skipper Matt Williams talked Cole up in a recent meeting with reporters:
"[W]e know about his fastball and his curveball," Williams said. "Depending on the day he can touch mid-to-high 90s with his fastball and a curveball with feel to go with it. That's unique in that he's got the feel and velocity at the same time. Certainly a very promising prospect for us and still very young..."
Nationals 9-8 over Braves: Tyler Moore off to hot start
Photo © Reinhold Matay/USA TODAY Sports
Cole finished his 2014 campaign with eleven starts for the Nationals' top minor league affiliate, going (7-0) with a 3.43 ERA, a 4.48 FIP, 17 walks (2.43 BB/9) and 50 Ks (7.14 K/9) in 63 IP.
Though he'll likely start the season back at Triple-A Syracuse, Nats' GM Mike Rizzo said this winter that the 23-year-old right-hander was, "... a guy that you're going to hear from in the very near-future in Washington."
Strasburg on the mound. Cole to follow. Baseball on t.v. Who could ask for anything more? It's Saturday, there's baseball. Who's watching the Nationals?