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Happy Friday, TGP readers! It's time for weekend baseball. When we can drink as much as we need to make the game tolerable. When we can yell at the screen as loudly as we want without worrying about being hoarse tomorrow. When we can wonder why we're watching this because life is short and so, so precious.
The Phillies begin division play tonight with a three-game series against the Washington Nationals. The Nationals just dropped two of three against the Mets, so I'm guessing they're looking to bounce back against the Phillies. The Phillies are trying to win their second game of the season and score runs. Any runs. Let's look at the lineups to see how likely that is!
Whatever hope you may feel upon seeing Dan Uggla's name on the left is probably immediately extinguished when you see Freddy Galvis hitting second over on the right. (Oh god how is Dan Uggla still playing somewhere? And why does it have to be in the NL East!?) Ryan Howard has the night off, and so Darin Ruf is hitting fourth and playing first. Cody Asche and Carlos Ruiz are also getting the night off. Does Ryne Sandberg hate Jerome Williams? It's his 2015 debut and three starters are on the bench. Poor guy.
The game hasn't even started yet and I already feel bad for Jerome Williams. Though to be fair, he voluntarily signed with the Phillies this offseason. He had to have some idea what he was getting himself into.
In other news, Washington's rotation is absolutely insane. It's the fourth game of the season and they're sending Gio Gonzalez to the mound. Their fifth starter is Doug Fister. And then the Phillies will probably face new staff ace Max Scherzer. For a team looking to get their offense on track, this is not ideal. But let's all dare to dream. Anything could happen!
Discuss the game in the comments below.