Nationals-Brewers Preview (8/2-8/4)

Pitching Matchups/TV Times
Friday:     Jordan Zimmerman (12-6 3.19) v. Tom Gorzelanny (2-4 2.83)
Saturday: Dan Haren (5-11 5.49) v. Donovan Hand (0-2 3.56)
Sunday:   Taylor Jordan (1-3 3.31) v. Kyle Lohse (7-7 3.22)

Five Things to Watch
Increased attendance due to vouchers? - As most of you know, the Brewers will start giving away 10 dollars for every fan that walks through the door in August to basically say sorry for their season and Ryan Braun. My assumption is there will see a little bump in attendance this week plus there is a bobblehead on Sunday. In the Miami series, they drew 30,000 on Friday and Sunday, then 37,000 on Saturday night. My guess is they will be over 35,000 on Saturday/Sunday and closer to 30,000 today.

Kyle Lohse's continued pitching dominance - In his three starts since the All-Star Break, Lohse has been damn near unstoppable.  He has only given up one run in his three stars with only three walks (All happened against Chicago) and has 16 strikeouts. Lohse's ERA is down to 3.22 as well. Washington is easily the toughest team he has faced since the All-Star Break but as we will talk about in the next point, it might be easier than others believed.

The Nationals cannot score runs - This has been a problem for the Nationals all year long and a reason why they are four games under .500.  They are second to last in runs in the National League with only the putrid Miami Marlins are worse. From the numbers alone, it seems like Washington's batters applies a boom/bust attitude and it is home run or nothing. They are seventh in the National League in home runs yet near the bottom of the league in anything else meaning a lot of their bombs are solo ones as well. Brewers pitchers have been much better in the last two or three months so the Nats might not be out of the woods with their hitting ineptitude.

Jordan Zimmerman returns home and will he pitch better? - For those unfamiliar, Jordan Zimmerman is from Auburndale, Wisconsin and pitched at UW-Stevens Point.  Zimmerman is struggling big time lately giving up seven and five runs in his last two appearances and he scuffled his feet when he pitched against the Brewers in Washington. My prediction is Zimmerman will be pretty composed and pitch his ass off. I am not saying that because I am negative about the Brewers, rather hometown kids show up for their games when they are not there often.

WIll Caleb Gindl's hot play continue at Miller Park? - We talked about this during the other previews with Braun's departure from the team; if we would find a bright spot from Caleb Gindl or Logan Schafer. Gindl is excelling on offense thus far.  In the last five games where Gindl started, he has multiple hits. The only thing is he'll need to be better defensively. Hopefully, that will come with time.

Notable Musician from DC


Even though I am behind on him, I will recommend Wale for the weekend. I am a bigger fan of pre-MMG Wale, but both work for the weekend tunes.

Tweets to follow
I do not follow any Nats beat writers, but I do follow Dan Steinberg and Sarah Kogod, both Washington Post writers worth following.

Charlie.