The Washington Nationals defeated the Houston Astros 6-3 in their first spring training game of 2025. It was very exciting to see the team active and return in the winning column. After a long winter, baseball is finally back!
For me, the most interesting part of the game was looking at Jarlin Susana. I’ve never seen him perform in a lot of live shows so it was great to have the opportunity to see how he gets thrown and how he works on the mound. Everything about monster right-handedness is explosive. It was obvious that he would definitely be able to see him throwing gas even without a radar gun. This was backed up by a stadium reporter. Sitting at 101 mph. He also did not remove some catastrophic sliders.
Susana had a scoreless inning and hit two. But it was a bit of a mixed bag. His orders were everywhere, and he threw over 30 pitches. He is a raw pitcher who has yet to complete his mechanics. Susana is a very enjoyable outlook because it’s so easy to see the possibilities, but it’s also easy to find what the average fan needs to improve.
As is common in spring training, pitchers were ahead of the batters. Many national batters looked uncomfortable, especially in their first bats. Things have been picked up a little more. Dilncrue troubled the RBI single in the middle for the second time with BAT. Josh Bell also hit a laser and hit a double gap. You could see people adapting to live competitions that are fun to watch.
After the Astros returned to tie the crowbar game, Robert Hassel cleared the clutch bases into two to make it 6-3. 2025 has been a massive year for previous top prospects, and it’s good to see him start it with a bang.
The NAT was very aggressive on the basis. I wrote about how they need to be a little more conservative on the base, but obviously they didn’t listen. Jacob Young and Tray Lipscomb both stole the bass. On the negative side, Alex Cole was dumped at home with an advised transmission of illness.
The pitching is mostly excellent, with Jake Irvin and Jose being the Fellers that look particularly impressive. It’s the first day of spring training and it’s good to see baseball come back. Buckle up and the 2025 season is right around the corner and will be a pivotal year. Welcome to the 20th season of Washington Nationals baseball.
