Subscribe
Follow Us
The Washington Nationals and New York Mets will begin a three-game series on Tuesday night. It's time to continue our MLB odds series and make a Nationals-Mets prediction and pick.
This is a huge series for the Mets. They were recently dethroned in the NL East by the Philadelphia Phillies and currently sit in third place in their division, trailing the first-place Phillies by 2.5 games. Philadelphia is starting a series against one of the best teams in baseball in the Los Angeles Dodgers, so this could be the perfect opportunity for the Mets to make up some ground. The Nationals would love to play spoiler to their rival and help crush New York's playoff chances, so this should be an interesting game.
Here's how the bookmakers have set the lines for Tuesday's game.
MLB Odds: Nationals-Mets Odds
*Watch MLB games LIVE with fuboTV (click for free trial)*
Washington Nationals +1 1/2 runs (-108)
New York Mets -1 1/2 runs (-112)
Over 8 1/2 runs (-103)
Under 8 1/2 runs (-117)
Why The Nationals Could Cover The Spread
Washington has one of the most underrated offenses in all of baseball. They rank inside the top 10 in the league in batting average, OBP, and slugging percentage. Despite all of their recent trades, this is still a tough lineup to deal with. Mets starter Carlos Carrasco will have a difficult task in front of him as he continues to return from an extended trip on the IL.
Carrasco is a great pitcher when he's healthy, but he has spent most of this season on the IL. He has made two starts in 2021, with neither of them going past the fourth inning. Even if Carrasco gives the Mets four innings of good pitching, the New York bullpen will have to carry the team for a majority of the game. The relief corps has been good this year, but asking any bullpen to pitch a majority of the game against the Nationals is a big ask. Washington should be able to take advantage of that and put up some runs.
Why The Mets Could Cover The Spread
Carrasco will still be on a pitch limit in this one, but it's possible that the Mets increase his workload. He didn't make it past four innings in either of his first two starts, but he put together solid starts in each of them. If the Mets think he's healthy enough to go further, it's certainly possible that New York gets five or six solid innings of work from him.
The Nationals will send out pitcher Paolo Espino for the start in this series opener. Espino has been deployed as both a starter and a reliever, and his stats at first glance look pretty good. A closer look reveals a pitcher who has struggled in his recent appearances. Espino owns a 5.58 ERA and a 1.37 WHIP over his last seven outings, numbers that prove he is hittable even for this struggling Mets offense. It helps that Espino is much worse on the road than he is at home, shown by his ERA skyrocketing from 3.18 to 4.71.
