The visitors were the victors in both Nationals games yesterday, as the home Nats lost, 2-1 in 10 innings while the road Nats won, 8-5.
At the BotPB, Stephen Strasburg made his first spring start and tossed two scoreless innings, allowing one hit and no walks while striking out three. Journeyman Vance Worley gave the first St. Louis run in the 3rd while Derek Eitel let in the gamewinner in the 10th to take the loss. In between, Oliver Perez, Neil Cotts, Matt Grace, and Enny Romero combined for four perfect innings of relief.
Pedro Severino and Brian Goodwin both were in the starting lineup at home, with the catcher going 1-for-2 with a single and the outfielder walking twice in two PA’s.
Here’s a rundown of how the watchlist players fared in West Palm Beach:
• Raudy Read pinch-hit for DH Jayson Werth and grounded out in his only at-bat.
• Drew Ward replaced Anthony Rendon at 3B and went 1-for-2 with a single.
• Matt Skole followed Ryan Zimmerman at 1B and was hitless in two tripe to the plate.
• Jakson Reetz was the third catcher of the game and struck out in the 9th. In the 10th, he completed a strike-’em-out-throw-’em-out DP as St. Louis’s Alberto Rosario committed the, um, cardinal sin of baserunning by making the third out at third.
• Blake Perkins subbed for Michael Taylor in CF and went 1-for-2 with a single and a strikeout and was also caught stealing.
• Telmito Agustin took over for Goodwin in LF but was 0-for-2
In Jupiter, A.J. Cole made his second spring start was got lit up again – four runs on six hits, including another home run, and one no walk and zero strikeouts over three innings.
Austin Voth was the winning pitcher with two scoreless innings pitcher and two whiffs while Koda Glover struck out the side in the 7th while working around a single to earn a hold. Erick Fedde closed out the game with an unearned run given up on two hits over two innings.
Osvaldo Abreu got the start at SS and played the whole game, going 1-for-5 with an RBI. Andrew Stevenson also started (RF) and was 1-for-2.
Here’s how the watchlisters did coming off the bench:
• Ian Sagdal played 1B after Adam Lind and was 2-for-2 with an RBI and a run scored.
• Victor Robles took over in LF for Clint Robinson. Shockingly, he was hit by a pitch and scored while finishing the game at 0-for-1.
• Kelvin Gutierrez subbed for Barndon Snyder at 3B and had was 2-for-2 with an RBI but also committed an error.
• Rafael Bautista replace Stevenson in RF and went 1-for-3
After the first full week of play, the Nats are 5-3. They play the Cardinals again this afternoon, but this time on the road at Roger Dean stadium. The game can be heard over the air locally on WJFK 1580AM and on MLB Audio (both home and away), and seen MLB.tv (St. Louis feed).