Davey Johnson guided the Washington Nationals to the their first postseason appearance last year. With their playoff hopes fading, the Nationals will honor Johnson prior to Saturday's game against the Miami Marlins.
The Nats are still technically alive for a wild card spot, although with a five-game deficit behind Cincinnati and Pittsburgh, it's likely this will be Johnson's final two home games of his career. He previously announced this would be his last season as manager of the Nationals.
Johnson's team has yet to lose at home in eight games to the Marlins this season. The Nationals have outscored Miami, 37-7 in DC.
Stephen Strasburg will make his final home start of the 2013 season. The right-hander, who need six strikeouts to reach 500 for his career, is 2-0 over his last seven outings and hasn't lost since July 30 at Detroit. Strasburg has a 6-3 mark with a 3.86 ERA in 13 games against the Marlins.
Tom Koehler, who is 0-4 over his last eight appearances, counters for the Marlins. The right-hander threw eight shutout innings against the Mets Sunday, but didn't get a decision. He suffered a 9-0 loss at Nationals Park on Aug. 29 when he allowed six runs on seven hits over five innings.
Jordan Zimmermann allowed just two hits en route to his second career shutout in an 8-0 final last night. Zimmermann (19-8) carried a no-hitter over 5 2/3 innings until serving up a base hit to Donovan Solano to left-center field. He walked one and struck out nine to notch his fourth complete game of the season.
"This probably one of the better starts I've had. My bullpen session before the game wasn't that good, I thought this might be kind of a long one, but as soon as I stepped out there in the first inning I knew I had pretty good stuff," said Zimmermann.
Denard Span and Jayson Werth each drove in a pair of runs while Bryce Harper, Ian Desmond and Wilson Ramos added one RBI apiece for the Nationals, who remain five games behind the Cincinnati Reds and Pittsburgh for the final NL Wild Card spot.
The Reds downed the Pirates, 6-5, in extra innings on Friday.
Jacob Turner (3-8) allowed five runs on seven hits over 5 1/3 innings to absorb the loss.
"He can take some confidence away from that game after getting through those first five innings. He moved the ball around and got a lot of ground balls. He showed the stuff that we've seen a lot from him this year," said Marlins manager Mike Redmond.
The Nationals are 13-4 against the Marlins this season and have prevailed in eight of the past nine matchups between the clubs.
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