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It is 2018. We checked. We live in a world where you can watch television on your phones and communicate instantly across long distances, but for some reason you cannot watch this afternoon’s Grapefruit League matchup between the Washington Nationals and New York Mets unless you are actually in Port St. Lucie, FL’s First Data Field.
You can’t listen to it either. That’s right. There is no radio or television coverage of today’s game. What is going on!!!! Someone alert the authorities, this is a travesty!!!!
Max Scherzer is pitching today against the Nationals’ NL East rivals, Ryan Zimmerman is in the lineup for the first time this Spring, and Trea Turner is leading off, but we will all (or at least those of us not in Port St. Lucie) have to settle for live box score updates (but no one is actually going to do that, right?) and whatever updates come from beat writers that are on the scene in Florida send out via Twitter.
Scherzer tossed just 23 pitches in his first outing of the Spring this past Sunday afternoon and he’ll be back on the mound today.
He told reporters after his first start that though it was brief, he did what he needed to do.
“Went out there and threw strikes, and pitched with all the pitches,” Scherzer said.
“For a first outing, you really have no adrenaline whatsoever here in a Spring start for your first one out, [but] was able to at least put a foundation in of establishing off-speed in the zone and working off that.”
Nationals’ skipper Dave Martinez was impressed with what he saw from the right-hander in his first start under the new manager.
“Awesome,” Martinez told reporters. “He went in there, got his work done, threw strikes. That’s what he was worried about. First outing and he felt good, so I’m very pleased.”
Scherzer will try to build on that outing and continue to work towards Opening Day, when we assume he will be the starter in Cincinnati (has that been announced yet?).
Things get underway at 1:05 PM EST today in Port St. Lucie.
HERE’S THE NATIONALS’ LINEUP FOR TODAY’S GAME WITH THE METS:
#Nats at #Mets at 1:05: Turner SS, Kendrick 2B, Zimmerman DH, Wieters C, Taylor CF, Stevenson LF, Dominguez 1B, Sierra RF, Reynolds 3B, Scherzer RHP
— federalbaseball (@federalbaseball) March 2, 2018