The big story of the day — Stephen Strasburg‘s MRI — has no official news yet. Nats manager Jim Riggleman‘s pregame chat with reporters makes it sound like Strasburg will be placed on the DL and the team will proceed from there. Nats GM Mike Rizzo gave us this update later in the afternoon.
Moving on to tonight’s ball game, the Chicago Cubs come into town for their first game without manager Lou Pinella — who retired following Sunday’s home game against the Atlanta Braves at Wrigley Field. Former third base coach Mike Quade will man the helm for the Cubbies for the remainder of the season.
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The Cubs (51-74) head into Nationals Park struggling and have been busy on the trade front the last month to clear room — despite beginning the season with an immense payroll and postseason aspirations. The Nationals (53-71), in an unusual role reversal, hold a better record than the Chicago northsiders this late in the season.
Casey Coleman (0-1, 7.82 ERA) will make his second start for the Cubs and his sixth appearance this season after making his Major-League debut on Aug. 2.
Old Faithful, a.k.a. Livan Hernandez (8-8, 3.06), will take the mound for the Nats.
Game time is 7:05 p.m. and can be seen on MASN-HD and heard on 1500 AM and XM 183.
Here are the starting lineups:
| Cubs |
Nationals |
| DeWitt – 2B Castro – SS Byrd – CF Ramirez – 3B Nady – 1B Colvin – RF Soriano – LF Soto – C Coleman – P |
Morgan – CF Kennedy – 2B Zimmerman – 3B Dunn – 1B Bernadina – LF Rodriguez – C Harris – RF Gonzalez – SS Hernandez – P |
