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 The interleague foes, meeting for the first time since 2012, will
play a split doubleheader on Tuesday. The first game will start at
1:05 p.m. EDT, with the second game scheduled for 7:05 pm.
Washington right-hander Jordan Zimmermann (4-2, 3.26 ERA) and
Toronto right-hander R.A. Dickey (2-5, 5.77), both of whom were
slated to start Monday, will start the first game Tuesday. The
starters in the second game of the doubleheader will be Washington
right-hander Max Scherzer (6-3, 1.51) and Toronto right-hander Marco
Estrada (1-3, 3.89).
"It is really not a benefit," Washington manager Matt Williams said
of the rainout. "It doesn't help our starting pitchers' situation."
This is the only series between the teams this season. The series
finale is set for Wednesday, with left-hander Mark Buehrle (6-4,
4.97) pitching for the Blue Jays. Williams did not name his
Wednesday starter prior to Monday's game. The Nationals will need a
rotation fill-in as right-hander Stephen Strasburg lasted just 16
pitches in his start Friday and he went on the 15-day disabled list
Saturday due to neck soreness.
Williams said the Nationals may bring up a 26th man for the second
game of the doubleheader, as per Major League Baseball rules.
Toronto manager John Gibbons was not made available to the media
after the rainout Monday.
The postponement delayed a possible outing by Washington reliever
Casey Janssen against his former team. A right-hander, Janssen was
drafted out of UCLA by the Blue Jays and began his minor league
career in 2004.
He made his big league debut with Toronto in 2006 and he had 90
saves with the Blue Jays through the 2014 season. Janssen stood
around the batting cage about four hours before the scheduled first
pitch Monday and chatted with four Blue Jays players.
"I enjoyed my time there. I felt I was part of the solution and not
part of the problem," said Janssen, who signed with the Nationals as
a free agent on Feb. 2, 2015. "It was time to move on."
Janssen began this season on the disabled list and is now 0-1 with
an ERA of 9.82 in four games with Washington.
"I'm glad they had interest in me," he said of the Nationals. "They
are a first-class organization."
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Janssen was 3-3 with 25 saves and a 3.94 ERA in 50 games for the
Blue Jays last year. However, he had a rough second half of the year
after he got sick in the Dominican Republic during the All-Star
break.
"I tried to make every inning a zero and maybe tried too hard," he
said of the second part of the season.
Janssen, a California native, admitted that the Blue Jays needed
some new blood.
"There are things that probably needed to change," he said. "(The
team added) great people in the clubhouse and great baseball players
as well."
One of those new players is third baseman Josh Donaldson, who was
selected the American League Player of the Week on Monday after he
hit .440 with six homers and 11 RBIs in six games. He was traded by
the Oakland A's to Toronto after the 2014 season.
NOTES: The Nationals called up LHP Felipe Rivero from Syracuse and
sent LHP Matt Grace to the Triple-A club in a switch of relievers.
Rivero went on the disabled list April 22 due to gastrointestinal
bleeding. He was 0-2 with a 6.75 ERA in eight games for Syracuse.
Grace was 2-1 with a 5.25 ERA in 17 games for the Nationals. ...
Washington OF Bryce Harper finished May with a franchise-record 13
home runs while hitting .360 with 28 RBIs, 22 walks and 24 runs. ...
Toronto is the only team that has not been shut out this season. The
streak of 52 games is the second longest in team history. ...
Nationals bench coach Randy Knorr won World Series rings as a player
with the Blue Jays in 1992-93.
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