MLB Game Preview - Washington at Philadelphia

Sun Apr 9, 2017 1:35 PM EDT

PHILADELPHIA -- The 2017 season has barely started and Washington Nationals manager Dusty Baker is already concerned about his bullpen.

The veteran manager mentioned before his team's game Saturday night that his bullpen would be short, with potentially three pitchers unavailable.

Jeremy Guthrie picked the wrong night to last two-thirds of an inning. The Phillies blasted Guthrie for 10 runs and ended his night early in a 17-3 blowout, but Baker commended reliever Joe Blanton for "saving" the Washington bullpen with three solid innings.

"We didn't know how we were going to fill the rest of those innings," Baker said. "Joe Blanton saved my whole bullpen for today and tomorrow. And then we got a tough series coming up against the hard-hitting Cardinals."

Before the Cardinals, there's one last game to play in Philadelphia. So Baker and the Nationals will rely on the arm of Stephen Strasburg (1-0, 2.57 ERA) to go as long as he can Sunday afternoon.

The right-hander will be pitching in a ballpark that's been friendly to him. Strasburg is 2-0 with a 1.22 ERA in six starts at Citizens Bank Park with 53 strikeouts.

Baker intimated after the game Saturday that a move may be made to bring bullpen help. Whether that move is made before the Sunday afternoon finale in Philly remains to be seen.

Another concern for the Nationals is the health of shortstop Trea Turner, who left the game Saturday in the first inning with a hamstring injury that occurred while running the bases.

Strasburg opposes Jeremy Hellickson (1-0, 1.80 ERA).

The biggest concern for Phillies manager Pete Mackanin entering Sunday is if his team has any runs left.

"Hopefully we saved some for tomorrow with facing Strasburg," Mackanin joked.

The Phillies stopped a streak of seven consecutive home losses to the Nationals on Saturday and are desperate to finally win a home series against them Sunday.

That task will obviously be difficult with Strasburg on the other side. But with the Nationals bullpen short, the Phillies know that if they can chase the hard-throwing righty early, they stand a good chance to win the game.

For an offense that sputtered for most of 2016 and wasn't all that great in the first four games entering Saturday, Mackanin is hopeful Saturday is a jump-start.

"You never know, when you're facing (Max) Scherzer and Strasburg and (Noah) Syndergaard and guys like that, (Zack) Greinke, you really have to battle and look for any mistake they give you and grind out at bats," Mackanin said. "But when you face somebody like Guthrie who, he was in the minor leagues last year, you still have to focus, you still have to bear down because he's capable of pitching a good game, he has in the past. As I said, location, command are a pitcher's best pitch. You don't have to throw 98 mph to get people out."

Strasburg, of course, will be hitting 98. The look and feel to those pitches will be a lot different than Guthrie's. Mackanin should have a better idea how his new-look offense is looking come Sunday night.