After sweeping the Miami Marlins in their opening series, the Washington Nationals will head to hitter-friendly Great American Ball Park to face a more formidable foe, the Cincinnati Reds.

The Reds posted the second-best record in baseball last season – 97-65 to the Nationals’ MLB-best 98-64 – and are a favorite to win the National League Central. The Nationals were 5-2 against the Reds last year, and will play them seven times this season, all in the month of April.

This week in MLB’s first-ever Interleague Opening Series, the Reds topped the Los Angeles Angels, hitting three home runs in the series finale. Back in Ohio for their home opener, the Reds will look for revenge on the Nats, who walked off against the Reds in an exciting 10-inning victory in their own home opener last season.

The Nats went on to sweep that series, and will now attempt to get their brooms out again and extend their winning streak to six games.

Stacking Up The Stats

As the two best teams in baseball in 2012, the Nats and the Reds put up similarly successful stats. In the National League, the Reds were ninth in batting average (.251), 12^th in on-base percentage (.315), and sixth in slugging percentage (.411). The Nationals ranked slightly higher in all those categories with a team slash line of .261/.322/.428.

On the pitching side, their team stats were almost identical. Washington pitchers put together a 3.33 ERA with an average of 8.12 strikeouts per nine innings, with Cincinnati very close behind with a 3.34 ERA and 7.73 strikeouts per nine. According to James Wagner’s article in today’s Washington Post, when the stats are adjusted to the ballpark specifications, the Reds’ pitching stats actually surpassed the Nationals’ as best in the majors in 2012.

With the majority of last years’ Reds returning for the 2013 campaign, including All-Stars Jay Bruce and Joey Votto and all five of their starting pitchers, there is no reason why the Reds won’t be able to put together a repeat performance of last year’s success. The Nationals will just have to try to stay one game better.

Haren’s First Start

We’ll get to see Dan Haren in action today for the first time in a Nationals uniform, as he will get the ball in the series opener. In case you need a refresher on the history of the newest addition to the Nationals rotation, Haren posted a 4.33 ERA with the Angels last season, which was almost a full run higher than his career mark of 3.66 through 10 seasons. 

It was a fun series to start a 2013 season with a whole lot of expectations for the Washington Nationals. They start the season 3-0 behind remarkable pitching and a late offensive explosion. So, with all the excitement surrounding this team and this series, rather than doing a full game review, here are some awesome bullet points:

- It’s the little things - The Nationals were able to do all of the little things right, which makes it much easier to win games. Denard Span laid down a perfect drag bunt that caused Marlins pitcher Wade LeBlanc to make an ill-fated decision to flip the ball toward first unsuccessfully. Span scored on a Bryce Harper hit.

- Zimmermann has success without dominance - Jordan Zimmermann continued the success of the Nats pitchers. He did give up the first run of the Nats season in the second inning on a Justin Ruggiano home run in the second, but that was all. He threw 89 pitches through six innings, but he didn’t own the game. It appeared, at times, that he was throwing too many strikes, and the Marlins hitters knew what was coming. You can’t knock his performance, though, as the team walked away with the win.

- Bryce Harper is ridiculous - Harper had a 2-for-4 day driving in a run. He is unreasonably locked in at the plate, and he can seem to do no wrong. When he was caught stealing third base in the third inning, it was certainly a questionable decision. There was just one out with Ryan Zimmerman at the plate. He was already in scoring position. We’ll have to start taking the unbelievably great with the marginally poor decisions, though.

- Decent day for The Franchise - Ryan Zimmerman had a 3-for-3 game with a walk and 2 RBI in his best day of the young season. Zimmerman is clearly capable of hitting clean up in a roster so stacked with talent, and he’s getting locked in early after a three strikeout game on Opening Day.

- Oh, Henry - Despite the success in that he had a 1-2-3 inning, Henry Rodriguez had his usual control issues at times. He wildly missed on several pitches in the seventh inning. He threw seven of his 12 pitches for strikes, but when he missed, it wasn’t very close. It’s infuriating that such a talented pitcher can’t harness the talent with any regularity, but the results were good for today.

- Jayson Werth channels NLDS Game Four - Werth hit a major blast that blew the game wide open in the seventh inning to much the same place that he hit his infamous home run in Game Four of the NLDS last postseason. It was a three-run shot over the visiting bullpen in right center field that put the game at 6-1.

So, the first series is in the book, and the Nats have a 3-0 record with just 159 games to go. They will head to the friendly confines of Great American Ballpark to face the Cincinnati Reds this weekend, which should be a fun thing to watch, even if the temperatures aren’t all that warm. That ballpark is not big.

Earlier today, the Washington Nationals announced that they signed righty starter Chris Young to a minor-league deal, and he will report to Triple-A Syracuse after extended spring training. Young spent time in Nationals spring training before opting out of his spring contract. Signing a journeyman veteran pitcher to a minor league deal is usually not big news for a team like the Nats, who have the best pitching rotation in baseball. However, it is this time. While the Nats have some of the best five starters in the game, the sixth starter was a real problem without Young around.

The three leading candidates for the sixth starter spot inside the organization before the Young signing were, well, let’s just call them underwhelming: Yunesky Maya, Ross Ohlendorf, and Zach Duke.

Maya was signed to a four-year, $8 million deal in 2010, and I feel pretty confident in saying that it’s GM Mike Rizzo’s worst, and perhaps his only bad, signing to date. Maya has been pretty dreadful ever since signing with the team. In 2011, in 22 games started in Triple-A Syracuse, he posted a 5.00 ERA. In 2012, he spent the whole season with Syracuse and started 28 games posting a 3.88 ERA, but his 4.52 FIP tells the real story of his performance. He’s a low-velocity pitcher who has to be just about perfect to have success, and he’s very rarely perfect.

Ohlendorf actually had a cup of coffee with the Padres in 2012, and there wasn’t too much positive to draw from that, either. He had a 7.77 ERA and a better, but still not at all good, 4.90 FIP in nine starts and four relief appearances spanning 48.2 innings. He had even worse numbers in 2011 in nine starts with the Pirates: 8.15 ERA, 6.28 FIP.

Duke had some serious success after his call up in September last year, and it was good enough to earn himself a spot as the only lefty in the Nats bullpen for 2013. He will be the main long reliever, but it’s not usually the best idea to move guys around during the season without properly stretching them out. Not to mention, it would open a gap in the Nationals bullpen. Duke may be capable, but the Nats won’t want to remove him from his current role.

Young provides a veteran presence if a sixth starter is needed for a doubleheader or, in the worst case scenario, if one of the Nats’ starters get hurt. That’s not to say Young is the best pitcher in the world here, but he’s not too shabby for a number six starter who would slot into the five spot in case of an injury. In 20 starts with the Mets in 2012, he had a 4.15 ERA and 4.50 FIP. Great numbers? No, but his FIP at the major league level is marginally better than Maya posted in the minors last year, and it’s leagues better than Ohlendorf in the majors in each of the last two seasons.

Remember this: a sixth starter is never something for which you can truly plan. If the player is that good, he’s going to be on an MLB 25-man roster already. These are either veteran free agents who have nowhere else to go, like Young, or they’re prospects you don’t have room for on the big league club who are almost big league ready. Most teams aren’t lucky enough to have the latter available in their farm system, so they rely on guys like Chris Young. As far as sixth starters go, the Nationals have landed a pretty good option.

The temperature at Nats Park clearly had an impact on both the Washington Nationals bats and arms Wednesday night, but the April chill wasn’t enough to stop the club en route to their second win of the season, a 3-0 decision over the Miami Marlins.

Gio Gonzalez threw six scoreless innings in this, his first start of 2013, but he was far from regular season form. The lefty only spotted 55 of his 91 pitches for strikes on the night, and gave up two free passes, including one to the Marlins starter Kevin Slowey.

It was the kind of evening where you could tell Gonzalez was getting by on his craft, rather than his stuff. His fastball danced around 90 while his curveball was inconsistent in producing outs. While he did manage five strikeouts, he was often behind in the count and relied on some weakly hit balls to get out of jams. Gio has expressed in the past that he has difficulty locating pitches when it gets colder outside, but its certainly a trend we’d like to see bucked when October baseball comes around.

Gonzalez did boost the Nationals poor offensive showing early by taking matters into his own hands. His fifth inning solo home run off Slowey gave Washington a 1-0 lead, which was all they would need on the night.

Some Thoughts: 

This was a strong second win for the Nationals, as the team's bats slowly began to come alive. Still, it is really hard to gather much from these games, as the Marlins aren't really much of an opponent. That's not to put the Marlins down by any means, but their roster was completely gutted by their front office this offseason, leaving them with a starting lineup of journeymen and youngsters. So while it's great that Nationals opponents are scoreless against them through the first 18 innings of the years, those numbers must be taken with a grain of salt. 

A Few Nuggets:

- Bryce Harper was 2-4 with a single and a double, extending his hitting streak to 11 games dating back to last season. 

- Ian Desmond seemed to struggle a bit with his throws tonight, potentially due to the cold weather. He had a throwing error in the second after an outstanding play with the glove. Several other throws to first baseman Adam LaRoche seemed off but were snagged by the club’s Gold Glover at the bag.

- Drew Storen made his first appearance on the mound at Nats Park tonight since blowing a save in Game 5 of the NLDS against the Cardinals last fall. The former Nationals closer retired the side on 14 pitches, tallying one strikeout.

- Ryan Zimmerman earned his first hit of the season with a triple to right. Giancarlo Stanton misplayed the ball of the wall.

- Marlins first basemen Kasey Kotchman left the game with a left-hamstring strain after attempting to leg-out a ball to first. He’s listed as day to day.

Welcome to the 2013 Opening Day episode of Nats Talk On The Go. As you'd expect, we spend essentially the entire podcast talking about the excitement that was Opening Day. We talk about the Bryce Harper home runs, Stephen Strasburg's great outing, and Ryan Zimmerman's great play, and the great crowd at the Park. Welcome back to baseball season, folks!

All of the excitement during the pomp and circumstance from the pre-game festivities didn’t take long to materialize into real excitement. The Washington Nationals beat the Miami Marlins 2-0, though the game seemed more lopsided than the box score showed with the help of some dominant individual performances.

In his first at-bat of the season, Bryce Harper mashed a line drive home run to the right center field stands for a home run. It was a second-pitch curveball, which followed a splitter, which shows you how much he is respected, or feared, by MLB pitchers. He wasn’t nearly done yet, though. Later, in the fourth inning on a 3-2 slider, he put another ball in the right center field seats for his second home run of the season in his second at-bat of the season. Harper is the youngest player in the live-ball era to hit two home runs in his team’s Opening Day game, according to ESPN Stats and Info. He’s also the first defending Rookie of the Year to homer on Opening Day since Ryan Howard did it in 2006.

Harper also made a great play in the field to end the seventh inning. After catching a Rob Brantly fly to left, he used his arm to throw a strike to Wilson Ramos with Giancarlo Stanton tagging up to try to score. Stanton retreated to third, but with Placido Polanco, who was on first, trying to advance to second to draw a throw, the Nats infield played it perfectly. Ultimately, it was scored a 7-2-3-4-2 double play to end the inning.

The Nats offense was, otherwise, pretty quiet. Wilson Ramos reached twice with a walk and a hit, and Ian Desmond had a hit in the seventh.

The other major story of this Opening Day, besides Bryce Harper’s monster game, was Stephen Strasburg’s incredible start. He was able to dominate all of his pitches with his fastball reaching 98 mph on several occasions. He gave up a hit to start the game, but he then retired 19 consecutive batters before giving up his next hit. He had the Marlins hitters freezing with regularity on fastballs, the hitters obviously expecting something else. He made it through seven innings allowing just three hits and striking out three. He was pulled after just 80 pitches.

In the eighth, Tyler Clippard came on in relief. He struggled early with his command, walking Donovan Solano to lead off the inning, but he settled down to retire the next three batters in a lengthy 23 pitch inning.

The ninth inning was utterly dominated by closer Rafael Soriano in his Nats debut. He retired three batters in 11 pitches, and two of them struck out looking. On most of those pitches, Wilson Ramos never moved his glove to catch it. He was putting it exactly where he wanted it to go for his first save of the season.

The Nats have now won their Opening Day game for the second straight season, and it’s the second home opener they’ve won at Nationals Park. They take a 1-0 record into an off day before coming back for a 7:05 pm matchup against the Marlins on Wednesday.

Other notes:

-In the top of the first, Ryan Zimmerman made an incredible diving stop to his left and throw to first, which robbed Placido Polanco of a sure single and RBI and ended the inning. It allowed Strasburg to get into a rhythm  after allowing a leadoff hit to Juan Pierre.

It’s a beautiful spring day at Nationals Park. The sun is shining, music is playing, people are laughing, and the Washington Nationals are taking batting practice. It is Opening Day of the 2013 baseball season. This offseason lasted for what felt like forever, but it’s finally here. Welcome to the season you’ve been waiting for, perhaps more than any other since the 2005 Inaugural campaign.

The expectations have been written about on our site and others essentially since November. Today starts a new day, a new season, and truly a new year. For those of you who watch baseball passionately, there are few things better than today. Everyone is excited about the new, shiny, fresh season, and rightly so.

“How can you not be romantic about baseball?” is how the quote goes in Moneyball, and today is the ultimate example of that. Even with Sunday’s Opening Night matchup between the Texas Rangers and the Houston Astros, when the Astros are widely expected to be the worst team in baseball, a huge number of Astros fans showed up, and they were loud, as they beat the Rangers 8-2. Yes, it’s one game. But the Astros had no business winning that game, and they did. What’s more, they looked impressive doing it. It’s part of what makes baseball so great.

Compared to the Astros, the Nationals have the exact opposite expectations to deal with. They’re widely considered the best and most well rounded team in baseball, and the vast majority national baseball writers have predicted them to win the National League, and almost as many picked them to win the World Series. Starting today, the Nationals have 162 games to prove they can meet those mighty expectations.

For me, there’s nothing better than walking into a ballpark, and it’s that much sweeter on Opening Day when those expectations haven’t been tested yet. There is just unbridled excitement. Harness all that excitement until 1:05 pm today. Then, whether you’re in the stands, watching at home, or listening to the radio broadcast, don’t contain that excitement. Scream as loud as you possibly can in the stands, yell at your TV, mutter under your breath as you listen at your desk. No matter how you do it, let it go.

Baseball has arrived once more.

The Washington Nationals will open their highly anticipated 2013 campaign today at Nationals Park against the Miami Marlins, a team which is on the opposite end of the prognosticated success spectrum from the Nats.

When Sports Illustrated elected the Nationals as its World Series victor, and nearly every other set of predictions has the Nats going nearly as far, it became expected that they will beat teams like Miami, which finished last in the National League East last year. However, the Nationals have a history of struggling against the Marlins.

Since 2005, the Nats are 56-84 against the Fish (.392 winning percentage). They split 18 games evenly last season, and won six of nine at Nationals Park.

This year’s Marlins are rebuilding after trading in nearly their entire roster in exchange for prospects, while the Nationals are already built, and ready to win. So despite their past, there is no reason to think that the Nationals won’t be able to finish this season with their first winning record against the Marlins since 2007.

Marlins Makeover

The Marlins that the Nationals will play today are a nearly unrecognizable version of the team the Nats faced last year. After an off-season fire sale, just one of the Marlins’ Opening Day starters from last year is slated to start this season, and only two of last season’s starters remain with the organization at all (Logan Morrison and Giancarlo Stanton). Talk about a makeover. 

In addition to having an entirely different composition on the field, the Fish also have a new face in the dugout, with the addition of manager Mike Redmond. Redmond will take over for former-manager Ozzie Guillen, who was fired at the end of last season after serving for only one year in that role. This will be Redmond’s rookie season as a big-league manager, as prior to 2013 the highest post he held was manager for the Blue Jay’s Class A affiliate.

Giancarlo: Marlins’ MVP

Almost everything about the Marlins has changed since last year. The one constant, however, is right fielder Stanton, who hit .405/.463/.919 with five home runs off Nationals pitchers last season. The 2012 All-Star had the highest slugging percentage (.608) and the second-most home runs (37) in the National League last year, and went 4-for-5 with two doubles and a home run off Stephen Strasburg.

Any pitcher would be nervous to face him, but considering the caliber of the rest of the Marlins’ lineup, pitchers have no incentive to throw the slugger anything good to hit. One National forecasted that Stanton would draw 160 intentional walks this year, as reported in The Washington Post.

The Opening Battery

It was no surprise to the baseball community when Davey Johnson announced Strasburg as his Opening Day starting pitcher. A bit more surprising, though, was whom he chose to put behind the plate to catch for him. Originally, Johnson had said he would start the season with Kurt Suzuki so Wilson Ramos could be eased back into the program after he sustained a season-ending knee injury last May. However, Johnson saw how much effort Ramos was putting into his extensive rehab, and decided to reward him with “a carrot for hard work” by giving him the Opening Day job.

Johnson wants to alternate catchers every other day, so Suzuki is scheduled to catch for former-Oakland battery-mate Gio Gonzalez on Wednesday.

Who's Hot?

Giancarlo Stanton (RF) .359 AVG, .435 OBP, .718 SLG, 39 ABs (Spring Training)

Who's Not?

Adieny Hechavarria (SS) .183 AVG, .254 OBP, .283 SLG, 60 ABs (Spring Training)

In The Zone

Bryce Harper (LF) .478 AVG, .500 OBP, .716 SLG, 3 HR, 6 SB (Spring Training)

Probable Starters

4/1, Stephen Strasburg vs. Ricky Nolasco

4/3, Gio Gonzalez vs. Kevin Slowey

4/4, Jordan Zimmermann vs. Wade LeBlanc