Corbin Carroll in Starting Lineup Tonight vs. Nationals

The Diamondbacks star outfielder is playing DH as he recovers from knee injury

The Washington Nationals (13-18) visit Chase Field this weekend for a three game series against the Diamondbacks, (17-14) starting tonight at 6:40 P.M. 

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Corbin Caroll will be in the starting lineup tonight for the first time since injuring his knee in Colorado on April 29th. He won't be in the outfield however as Torey Lovullo is easing him back by giving him the Designated Hitter assignment. He did some light outfield drills today and they'll see how he feels tomorrow. Carroll said before the game that he has been dealing with fluid on the knee but has not had any draining procedures done. They are letting the swelling come down naturally. 

Dominic Fletcher is in Left Field in Carroll's place and Pavin Smith gets the start in Right, with Lourdes Gurriel Jr. getting a day off. 

The Nationals offense ranks 27th in runs per game, (3.71) and OPS (.665). Their best hitter has been Victor Robles who is batting .302 with a .394 OBP, but has yet to homer this year. Jeimer Candelario leads the team in homers with four. 

Pitching Matchups

Jack Sommers

Josiah Gray is having a somewhat of a breakout season so far.  After giving up five runs in his first start, he's allowed just five over his last five starts. Last year he led all of MLB with 38 homers allowed and issued the most walks with 66. This year the walk rate is down to 3.5/9 and he's give up four homers and struck out 31 batters. 

Last year Gray's 94 MPH fastball was hammered to the tune of a .742 slugging percentage as 24 of those homers allowed were off the four seamer. The solution has been to drastically reduce fastball usage. He throws it just 30% of the time, using his slider 32% and his curveball 22%.  Despite the slider having a below average spin and movement profile, he's had success with this approach.  

Merrill Kelly is shooting for his second straight victory. In his previous outing he went six innings in Coors Field giving up just one run in a 9-1 Diamondbacks route. The key was control, as he walked just one batter. In his other victory he also walked just one batter. In his three losses and one no-decision he walked at least four batters in each of those outings. 

Bullpens

Kyle Finnegan is the Nationals closer, and has seven saves despite a 5.54 ERA.  The Nationals are without a left hand reliever on their active roster.

Torey Lovullo continues to spread the bullpen work load around evenly as five relievers have between 13-15 outings each. Joe Mantiply is working his way back into the mix, and spoke before the game about being motivated by needing to earn his way back into high leverage situations. 

"Missing time, those roles kind of got set and I feel like I need to pitch my way back into those roles" said Mantiply. "It definitely gives you a little more incentive", [having to earn it]. "I've always pitched better when my back has been against the wall and I have to prove it. I don't like being handed things. It definitely gives me more incentive"

Injury Updates:

Kyle Lewis is still building back strength recovering from an undisclosed illness. He has been taking at bats against live pitching, but progress appears to be slow.

Zach Davies through a 41 pitch bullpen today, and is expected to throw two innings in five days in the Arizona Complex League. The current plan is have him make two starts in the ACL and then evaluate where he's at.  The earliest he would be back with this timeline is around May 20th, and the latest would be May 25th. Whether he gets a third rehab outing to build up further or completes his buildup program in MLB depends on how the rest of the rotation is doing as much as Davies own progress. The team admitted some concern with sending 

Carson Kelly has been playing light catch. He has still not resumed any hitting. He is about a week away from beginning to swing a bat. 

You can listen to Carroll and Lovullo down below: