Where: Nationals Park
When: 1:35 EST
The Starters: Strasburg (11-5, 3.12) vs. Nolasco (8-10, 4.90)
The Line: Nats -240, Marlins +220, O/U 7.5 Runs, Nats -1.5
Starters – Stephen Strasburg will take the mound for the Nationals this afternoon coming off possibly the worst start of his career. Strasbeast didn’t looke himself in his last start, allowing a career high 6 earned runs in 4 innings against the Phillies. However, he’s still Stephen Strasburg and he’ll be facing a team tonight that he pitched 6 scoreless innings against (7 Ks) less than a month ago in Miami (July 15). The Marlins will attempt to counter with righthander Ricky Nolasco. Nolasco has always been a pretty mediocre pitcher (career 4.55 era) and this season has been no exceptioin with his era now approaching 5. On top of that he has gotten worse as the season’s gone on. Ricky’s now 2-7 with a 5.56 era in his last 10 starts and hasn’t given up less than 4 earned runs in any of his past 4 outings. One of those 4 outing was against the Nats when he allowed 4 earned runs over 5.1 innings in a loss (July 15th). Advantage Nationals
Lineups – The National’s lineup had a pretty terrible series against the Phillies, scoring just 5 runs in the 3 game set. However, it’s worth noting that they were without 3 of their four best hitters (Zimmerman, LaRoche, and Desmond) for at least one game each (Desmond missed all 3). Despite their struggles against Philly, the Nats continue to hold their place as a slightly above average National League offense, ranking between 6th and 8th in all the major statistics. The Marlins are also coming off a series in which they struggled, scoring just 8 runs over 4 games in Atlanta. However, their struggles have been season long and probably won’t get much better with Stanton injured and Ramirez traded to the Dodgers. They are currently dead last in runs scored and ranked no higher than 11th in any stat except for steals, which they lead the league in. Advantage Nationals
Bullpens – The Nationals bullpen had a pretty good series against Philadelphia and lowered their era to 3.47, which ranks 7th best in the National League. They have four guys with eras under 3 (Burnett, Stammen, Gonzalez, and Clippard) and former closer Drew Storen seems to be improving with every outing. With all of the weak links being removed from the 25-man roster (either by injury or otherwise) the worst era of any active reliever is a respectable 3.42 (Tom Gorzelanny). The Marlin’s bullpen has improved quite a bit since they demoted Heath Bell from the closer role (finally) and replaced him with Steve Cishek. They currently have a 4.08 era as a group that ranks them just outside the top half of the NL in 9th place. They’re still not a great group but having Cishek closing games at least makes them respectable. Advantage Nationals
Game Summary - Strasburg bounces back from the toughest outing of his career and the Nats offense picks up right where it left off last night.
Prediction: Nationals 6, Marlins 1
Key Players (Stat Prediction): Strasburg (6 IP, 1 ER, 4 H, 9 K, 1 BB), Morse (2-4, HR, 2 RBI), Nolasco (5 IP, 4 ER, 6 H, 3 K, 2 BB), Reyes (2-4, 2B, SB)
Jesse’s Picks W/L: 63 – 44