Washington Nationals drop a surprising Opening Day lineup

Davey Martinez made some unexpected decisions when drawing up the Opening Day lineup

The Washington Nationals Opening Day lineup came out, and I am surprised. There were several interesting things in there and one big shocker.

The big shocker is Dylan Crews hitting 8th. This came as a total shock to me for a number of reasons. For one, he has been hitting second all spring and had a solid, if unspectacular Spring Training. There was not a reason to take Crews out of the two hole the way he had been performing. If he was always going to hit eighth, it is strange that he was hitting second almost every game this spring.

Beyond Crews, it is interesting how many lefties manager Davey Martinez is stacking. Last year, he tended to avoid having two lefties hitting back to back if possible. However, the first three hitters in this lineup are all left handed. The only non-lefty in the top five is Josh Bell who is a switch hitter.

One thing I like about this lineup is Luis Garcia Jr. hitting third. He was the best hitter on the team last year and to see him get rewarded is nice. Garcia Jr. has never felt like a Davey favorite, so it is nice to see Martinez reward his second baseman’s growth.

Besides Crews hitting eight, I like the lineup. It will be interesting to see how long Crews sticks in the 8 hole. On Saturday, left hander Jesus Luzardo will be on the mound, so it is worth monitoring what lineup will look like.

This is the deepest Nationals lineup in years, so Davey Martinez has a lot of decisions to make. Putting Dylan Crews in the 8 hole was his first big decision.