James Wood

The runs came on back-to-back homers from CJ Abrams and James Wood leading off the sixth. Francis, though, recovered to finish the inning. He had a no-hitter going up to that point, not that there was ever a chance of him finishing the game. Francis actually gave up 20 hits in 15 1/3 innings this spring, but he's allowed just 26 over 65 innings in his last 10 regular-season starts. He'll face the Mets on Sunday.

Not great. It's way too early for fantasy managers to be concerned, but Wood is off to a frosty start at the dish, batting .167 (2-for-12) with seven strikeouts through three contests. The uptick in strikeouts is the alarming variable here, but it's too small of a sample to be overly panicked yet. It's a development that fantasy managers should monitor closely since it was the lone bugaboo in an otherwise nearly flawless fantasy profile during his minor league career until last year when he made significant progress in the contact department.

Bell struggled this spring, hitting .130/.231/.217 with 19 strikeouts in 15 games. He will still regularly hit in the middle of the lineup, at least at the start of the season. The Nationals' full lineup is: SS CJ Abrams, LF James Wood, 2B Luis Garcia Jr., DH Josh Bell, 1B Nathaniel Lowe, 3B Paul DeJong, C Keibert Ruiz, RF Dylan Crews, and CF Jacob Young.

Lowe has mostly hit cleanup this spring, so seeing him pushed behind Josh Bell and Luis Garcia Jr. is a nasty surprise for everyone who has already invested in him. Most likely, though, Dave Martinez will go with the hot hand behind his seemingly stable top three of CJ Abrams, Dylan Crews and James Wood. We're just happy that he no longer seems to be leaning towards hitting Paul DeJong ahead of Garcia against right-handers.

Bell had been hitting behind Nathaniel Lowe in the lineup, but Lowe was fifth today, as Dave Martinez was looking for a new way to break up his lefties. Maybe this is something Martinez should try against left-handed starters, but it'd be a mistake to bat both Lowe and Luis Garcia Jr. outside of the first four spots against righties. Those are probably two of the team's top three hitters against righties, along with James Wood.