Nice homestand for the Nationals! They swept the Marlins.  On Wednesday, it was a come-from-behind win off a Jayson Werth grand slam.  On Thursday, they won it on another Werth home run, a Desmond grand slam, and Strasburg’s 12 Ks.  Starting the season 7-2 and winning 4 out of 6 on the homestand is really good!

The only problem is, though, that the team we lost 2 out of 3 against, the Atlanta Braves, host Washington in a 3 game weekend series in the Peach State. The Nats post Tanner Roark to square off with Julio Teheran on Friday; Taylor Jordan to face off with Alex Wood on Saturday, a rematch of last Sunday’s 2-1 defeat of Atlanta; and Gio Gonzalez to face Aaron Harang on the Sunday game.  The Sunday game caps off the series in Atlanta and the Nats go to the sunny beaches in Miami.

The Nationals faced Teheran and Wood in the series last weekend, but in these games the Braves have Teheran and Wood back-to-back. This is an advantage for the Nationals Nats because the Nats have already seen Teheran and Wood a week before. On the other hand, the Braves did not face either Gonzalez or Roark on the last go-around, so they will be seeing their stuff for the first time this year.

Of course, Atlanta hitting is pretty good. But the Nats got through ATL last time without giving up many runs. The Nats pitching needs to be on its game to face the tough Braves hitting, and the bullpen has had a lot of work in the past days.  We need our starters to go deep in the games and the offense to put up a lot of runs before having to face Craig Kimbrel.

Last time the Nats lost 2-1.  The goal is to win the series, not even sweep.  Coming off the sweep of Mets and Marlins, the Nats could be fine winning even 1 of 3.

But if the Nats pitching is solid and the offense produces great hits, the Nats could take 2 out of 3.

#BashTheBraves

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