The Washington Nationals and Atlanta Braves will play the third game of their four game series on Wednesday. Washington won the first game of the series on Monday 8-4. Atlanta bounced back with a win on Tuesday; 2-0 over Washington.
The Washington Nationals are 24-29 on the season. Washington is in third place in the National League East. They are chasing Philadelphia and Atlanta, while ahead of the Mets and the Marlins. Washington is 4-6 in their last 10 games.
For Atlanta, they are 31-21 on the season. The Braves are second in the National League East behind the Philadelphia Phillies. Atlanta has split their last 10 games overall.
The Atlanta Braves are -155 at home in this game over the Nationals.
Nationals Looking to Make Move
The Washington Nationals would love to make a move to get into the race for a National League wildcard. Their chances at the divisional title are slim to none with Philadelphia and Atlanta being dominant forces. The Nationals will need to score more, as they are 20th with 4.1 runs per game. They will also need better pitching, as teams are hitting .256 against them.
C.J Abrams is the man in the offense for Washington. The prized shortstop has clubbed nine homeruns this season. Joey Meneses has gotten off to a slow start, with just two homeruns. T Lane Thomas is back from the IL, but has had a bad start to the season with a .196 average and 2 homeruns in 23 games.
MacKenzie Gore is projected to get the start for Washington in this game. Gore is 2-4 on the season with a 3.30 earned run average. Gore has struck out 62 batters, and walked just 17 this season in 53.1 innings pitched. His last outing was on May 24th at home against Seattle. He went 7 innings, and allowed 4 hits and a run in that tilt.
Atlanta Suffering Injury Bug
The Atlanta Braves have two of their top players out with injury. First, it was their ace righthander in the rotation Spencer Strider. Strider is out with an elbow injury. Recently, the Braves lost their top hitter; Ronald Acuna. He is out for the rest of the season with a knee injury. Acuna had a slow start to the season before his injury.
The Braves still are scoring 4.6 runs per game. The Braves are 8th in batting average, at .252, and have clubbed 56 homeruns. The Atlanta offense was the best in baseball last season at hitting homeruns. Marcell Ozuna anchors the power supply for Atlanta. He leads the team with 15 homeruns.
Atlanta is undecided on their starting pitcher for this game. This is as of late Tuesday night. Despite not having a starting pitcher announced, the Braves are still favorites in this game over Washington. The Braves pitching is letting opponents hit .237 against them.
Braves Slide By
Despite not having a starting pitcher announced, we like the Atlanta Braves. The offense is too good. We expect Atlanta to still pitch well. Washington is not a juggernaut on the offensive end.
The Braves win this game, and their second straight in the series. The final bet for this game on Wednesday is the Atlanta Braves -155 over the Washington Nationals. Enjoy the game!
