Take An After Work Nap Because We Have Strasburg vs Kershaw Tonight

It’s not often the planets line up so you get two of the best squaring off against each other, but tonight is one such night. From Los Angeles, 10-0 Stephen Strasburg is facing off against 10-1 Clayton Kershaw in a battle of what could end up being the top 2 guys in Cy Young voting.

Strasburg comes into tonight with a 2.90 ERA through 93 innings with 118 Ks. Not to be outdone, Kershaw has 133 Ks in 108 innings, giving up only 7 walks with an incredible 1.58 ERA. It’s definitely a game worth staying up to watch.

The Nats will need a strong showing from Stras tonight, as the bullpen is depleted. Saturday was especially brutal, after Scherzer went 6 innings with 10 Ks, Felipe Rivero gave up 6 runs before recording an out. And poor Rivero. Should have been a strong option out of the pen, but has been overworked, having appeared in 4 of the last 5 games and is on pace to appear in 82 games this season. 82. That’s just way too many. He had a 2.79 ERA in 49 appearances last season, but has a 6.61 ERA in 35 this season. Not great, Bob!

Rivero’s struggles aside, the Nats are playing good baseball with the starters still cruising and the once dead bats like Ben Revere heating up. After struggling early, Revere is hitting .296 in the month of June with 7 steals, exactly what they brought him in for. After batting .211 in April and .235 in May, Jayson Werth is swinging the stick to the tune of a .327 average this month. And even Espi is swinging it well this month, hitting .273 with 6 HRs, while playing tremendous defense. I guess he didn’t like that game Trea Turner played. And the chosen one himself is bouncing back this month with a .288 average after hitting only .200 in May, don’t count him out of the MVP race yet!

If the Nats can find some bullpen help, they can continue to stretch that NL East lead over the Met…nope! Over the Marlins! The Nats are 5.5 up on the 2nd place MARLINS, while the Mets now sit in 3rd after getting swept by the Braves over the weekend. Also, the Phillies are 1-9 in their last 10. But hey, they swept the Nats earlier this year, hat tip to everyone from Philly who can afford the Internet for letting me know that weekend and disappearing ever since.

But anyway, I digress, Strasburg vs Kershaw tonight. Must watch baseball. 10:10 start time from LA.