It’s finally here! The first Astros game of 2026. It’s Spring Training, but “Play Ball!” will still be heard, and the air will be filled with the familiar sounds of bats cracking and crowds roaring.
The Houston Astros take on the Washington Nationals in West Palm Beach, Florida in their shared Spring Training facility. Colton Gordon will start for the Astros. Jake Eder will start on the mound for Washington.
Astros Manager unveiled the starting lineup for today’s game on Thursday:
The Nationals will send a split squad roster to the match, as they also play the Cardinals in Jupiter, Florida today.
Come join your fellow TLA readers in watching and discussing the game! You can post in the comments here on this page or you can join the Launch Angle’s discord server. Just use this link to join: https://discord.gg/DKXDJw9qF. For those of you who have participated in gamethreads at other site(s) in the past, you’ll probablyu recognize some familiar names and fellow Astros fans. Here is a sample of the Discord server gamethread from the last game of the 2025 season: Game 7 of the World Series:
Hope to see you here or there! Go Stros!
(Feature photo courtesy Pixel Pete)
Everyone’s in the discord server. Get yourself there: https://discord.gg/gne7Tk66
that link did not work for me. FYI
Hmm
Try this
https://discord.gg/KFcv8KaN
Or this
https://discord.gg/DKXDJw9qF