Opening Day 2015 officially ushers in the 10th season in Washington Nationals’ franchise history. At 1 p.m., the start at Nationals Park was preceded by new MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred announcing that the nation’s capital will host the 2018 All-Star game.
A 3-1 loss to the NL East rival New York Mets will keep the first curly W off of the Nationals record for the time being. While today’s fanfare was marred by a home-opening loss, Washington’s stars show a bright future for the season ahead.
The biggest headline going into the offseason was the question of where pitcher Max Scherzer would land for the 2015 season. Much to the chagrin of the rest of Major League Baseball, he ended up in Washington, D.C., bolstering an already thriving starting rotation. Once Scherzer was announced as the Opening Day starter, Nats fans circled April 6 several times over their already-circled Opening Day date.
While the former Detroit Tiger will be handed a loss in his Nationals debut, he had a strong first outing against what is being called a revitalized Mets team. Giving up three runs, zero of those earned, Scherzer commanded the zone while striking out eight batters. Of the 97 pitches he sent to the plate today, 71 of those were strikes and he managed to walk just two batters on the day. If not for the Mets taking advantage of two Nats’ shortstop Ian Desmond errors, this game could have been much closer.
Bryce Harper, Washington’s outfielder and golden boy, went 2-4 today with one strikeout. Harper opened up the scoring in the bottom of the fourth with a blast to right center. His third Opening Day home run in his first four seasons would be the only run in the National’s box score. In the bottom of the ninth, Harper nearly mustered up some serious heroics when he lifted a ball to right field, but it did not have the legs to leave the park before Mets’ centerfielder Curtis Granderson ended up underneath it. Listening to the radio call, you could hear Nationals fans trying to scream the ball out of the stadium. But they could not defy physics and Washington would fall following two ground-outs to Mets’ shortstop Wilmer Flores.
What really doomed the Nats was the inability to get hits with runners in scoring position. Going a combined 0-4 with RISP (runners in scoring position); the Nationals couldn’t find that finishing effort when in striking distance.
Moving forward, this team will seldom find themselves under .500 after the early-going… especially with the pending comebacks of some of their core talents. Baseman Anthony Rendon, centerfielder Denard Span and right fielder Jayson Werth are all on pace to be back by the end of April, so expect the Nats to grind through these first few weeks before ratcheting up the heat in May.