Washington Nationals’ lineup for home opener with the New York Mets...

With the season opener in Cincinnati postponed for 24 hours, the scheduled off days before home openers, early start times, (like yesterday’s 12:10 game in Atlanta’s SunTrust Park), and some bad weather in the first week of the season, it’s been an odd start to the 2018 season for the Washington Nationals and their rookie manager Davey Martinez.

“You talk about the hump, we always talk about the hump, that is part of the hump, getting over these little obstacles,” Martinez said before the finale with the Braves.

“But these guys get it, they’re professional, they come ready to play every day no matter what time we play, and like today, they were all amped up and ready to go.”

The results weren’t there in the 7-1 loss in Atlanta, where the Nationals dropped two of three games to their NL East rivals, but now they head home for a three-game set with New York’s Mets.

“4-2, good road trip, it’s a good start,” Martinez said. “So, get on a plane tonight and we go open up at home and have a lot of fun.”

This afternoon’s game, which Stephen Strasburg is starting, is a 1:05 PM EDT game in the nation’s capital, with all the pomp and circumstance that goes along with a home opener.

There is more bad weather coming to Washington, D.C. this weekend which may force the Nationals to move things around, but the forecast for the opener looks good so far.

Under Dusty Baker last season, the Nationals were actually better on the road (50-31, .671 winning %) than they were at home in Nationals Park (47-34, .580).

They start the home-half of the 2018 schedule against the Mets, against whom the Nats were 13-6 in 2017.

Are you ready for baseball, Washington? Ready or not, it’s almost time...

HERE’S THE NATIONALS’ LINEUP FOR THE HOME OPENER VS THE METS: