Get ready for another thrilling night in the MLB, as the Washington Nationals (66-65) hope to avoid suffering a sweep from the major league-leading St. Louis Cardinals (86-46) in the final bout of their three-game set at Busch Stadium later tonight. Will the Nationals succeed in doing so? Or will the Cardinals put the exclamation point in the series?
Read on further for a comprehensive preview of this crucial National League matchup. And if you’re craving for other sports action, click here to see our Grand Slam tennis action featuring Simona Halep vs. Kateryna Bondarenko and Victoria Azarenka vs. Yanina Wickmayer. Enjoy.
[sc:MLBArticles ]Washington Nationals vs. St. Louis Cardinals Preview
Where: Busch Stadium, St. Louis, Missouri
When: Wednesday, September 2, 8:15 PM ET
Line: Washington Nationals (+105) vs. St. Louis Cardinals (-115); total: 6.5—View all MLB Lines
Betting on the Washington Nationals
Two consecutive defeats have really hurt the Washington Nationals’ already faint postseason bid. The Nats are now nine games behind the Cubs for the second wild card spot in the National League and six games behind the Mets for the top seat in their division. They’ll try to avoid falling any further when they put their ace Max Scherzer (11-11, 2.88 ERA) on the mound for their series finale with the St. Louis Cardinals.
[sc:MLB240banner ]Scherzer is definitely happy to be done with August, one of the worst months of his career. During that stretch, he went 0-3 with an awful ERA of 6.43 across five turns. The 2013 Cy Young Award winner hasn’t tasted a victory since July 30 at Miami, where he fired seven scoreless innings.
Fortunately though, Scherzer, who makes his fourth career start against St. Louis this evening, is on track to end his winless drought as he owns a 7-5 record with a quality 2.54 ERA while limiting his opponents to a batting average of .207 across 14 roads starts this year.
Needless to say, the Nats’ success will also be determined by their efficiency to deliver on offense. Looking to lead them at the plate is none other than Bryce Harper, who boasts an NL-best .333 batting average this season. Harper is 12-for-33 (.363) in his previous 10 games and holds a triple-slash line of .318/.440/.601 on the road this year. But he’s only 2-for-9 in his career off the Cardinals’ ace, Michael Wacha.
Washington has lost eight of its last 10 road games.
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Betting on the St. Louis Cardinals
The St. Louis Cardinals have been red-hot lately, winning nine of their last 10 games and are in the midst of a four-game winning streak. As a result, the Cards have strengthened further their hold of the No.1 spot in the NL Central division with a 5.5-game edge over the resilient Pirates.
The continuation of their run will be greatly depend on their ace Michael Wacha (15-4, 2.69 ERA), who aims to notch his 16th win of the year at the expense of the Washington Nationals.
It’s been gerenally all smiles for St. Louis whenever Wacha takes the mound; however, that wasn’t the case in his previous outing. The 24-year-old righty surrendered four unearned runs on six hits through six innings of work for the 5-4 defeat at San Francisco Friday night.
A bounce back performance from Wacha can be expected as he’s pitched extremely well versus Washington, registering a 2-1 record, an unforgiving 0.79 ERA, a 0.66 WHIP and a .138 opponents’ batting average through three career starts.
Wacha’s success this season wouldn’t have been possible without his teammates, who’ve provided him 6.19 runs support per nine innings, which is among the best in the majors. Playing a key role to this productivity at the plate is the duo of Jason Heyward and Matt Carpenter.
Heyward is 7-for-18 (.388) over his past five contests and is batting .327 at Busch Stadium on the year. Carpenter, on the other hand, is 6-for-20 (.300) in the same stretch but is only a .228 lifetime hitter when facing the Nats.
Also, it’s good to note that Heyward and Carpenter have provided headaches to Max Scherzer. Both of them are 2-for-3 (.667) opposite Scherzer.
St. Louis is 9-3 in its past 12 home games.
Writer’s Prediction:
The Cardinals (-115) win, 6-4, to complete the sweep.
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