Find out why millions of sports fans trust theScore as their number one sports app!

theScore App

Get all your news, scores and stats personalized to you!

Penalty Kicks

Timeline

Nationals

Zimmerman hit a ground-rule double to center.

D.Murphy singled to left, Zimmerman to third.

Werth grounded out, pitcher D.Duffy to first baseman Hosmer, D.Murphy to second.

Grounded out, pitcher D.Duffy to first baseman Hosmer, D.Murphy to second.

Royals

Zimmerman doubled to right, M.Taylor scored, Rendón to third.

Doubled to right, M.Taylor scored, Rendón to third.

D.Murphy grounded out, first baseman Hosmer to pitcher Vólquez, Rendón scored, Zimmerman to third.

Grounded out, first baseman Hosmer to pitcher Vólquez, Rendón scored, Zimmerman to third.

Nationals first.  M.Taylor walked on a full count.  Rendón singled to center, M.Taylor to second.  Harper struck out.  M.Taylor stole third.  Zimmerman doubled to right, M.Taylor scored, Rendón to third.  D.Murphy grounded out, first baseman Hosmer to pitcher Vólquez, Rendón scored, Zimmerman to third.  Werth struck out.

The Nationals are coming off of a three-game sweep over the Cardinals in St. Louis for only the third time in franchise history, and the first time since the Montreal Expos did so from June 9-11, 1986. The last visiting team to sweep a three-game series at Busch Stadium was the Texas Rangers, who did so from June 21-23, 2013.

The Nationals are 9-3 all-time versus the Royals, though they haven't faced Kansas City since 2013. The Nationals' .750 win percentage against the Royals is their highest against any interleague opponent in franchise history (minimum five games played).

The Royals have an 8-3 (.727) record at Kauffman Stadium this season, the second-best home record in baseball (Baltimore: 9-3, .750). Since the start of 2015, the Royals have a 59-33 (.641) home record, third best in MLB over that span, trailing only the Pirates' 60-32 (.652) and the Cardinals' 60-33 (.645) home records.

Among all second-basemen, Daniel Murphy ranks first in batting average (.365) and on-base percentage (.426), fourth in slugging percentage (.576) and third in OPS (1.002).

Edinson Volquez is making his 20th start at Kauffman Stadium as a member of the Royals, sporting a 10-4 home record. The 19 starts needed to get 10 home wins is tied with Paul Splittorff (1971-72) and Kevin Appier (1989-91) for the third fewest ever by a Royal. Volquez has a 4.68 ERA and a 2-2 record in six career starts against Washington.

Through four starts, Gio Gonzalez has a 1.42 ERA, ranking fourth in the National League behind only Jason Hammel (0.75), Jake Arrieta (1.00) and Kenta Maeda (1.41). Gonzalez has a 7.49 ERA and a 3-3 record in eight career starts against Kansas City.

HP - Gonzalez, 1B - Culbreth, 2B - Bucknor, 3B - Reynolds

Stephen Strasburg may have learned more about himself from his first rocky beginning to a start then he did when he was mowing opposing hitters down from the get-go.
It's pretty common knowledge to the rest of baseball that the Washington Nationals' one-time phenom had it all working in April, and he'll try to continue a pattern of becoming stronger as the game wears on in Wednesday's road finale against the Kansas City Royals.

Nationals-Royals Preview

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP)  Dusty Baker has been around long enough to know hitters tend to heat up with the weather.
In the meantime, the Nationals manager is content to rely on his pitching to win games.

Pitching

Scoring Summary

Game Details

Game Details

Pitching

RELATED NEWS

Line Score
	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
WSH	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
KC	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Washington Nationals @ Kansas City Royals on May 3, 2016

Pitching

Scoring Summary

Game Details

Game Details

Pitching

RELATED NEWS