With only a couple more days left in the regular season, the Washington Nationals will travel to the Queens to meet up with their divisional rivals in the New York Mets for the second game of a doubleheader on this Tuesday. Join us for our MLB odds series, where our Nationals-Mets prediction and pick will be revealed.
After dropping their last two games at the hands of the Phillies, the ‘Nats enter the last series of the season eager to finish off the regular season on a high note. Obviously, it hasn't been the type of season Washington had hoped for, but they can secure a ton of confidence heading into next year if they can play fundamental baseball down the stretch. Making his last start of the season, Washington will send out Paolo Espino, who is still seeking his first win of the season as he sits at 0-8 with a 4.30 ERA in 18 starts on the year.
Now trailing the Braves by 1.5 games for the top spot in the NL East, the Mets came out flat during the most important series of the season as the Atlanta steamrolled their way to a series sweep of New York. Needing to win out and hope for the Braves to lose out themselves, the Mets will call upon RHP Taijuan Walker one last time before the postseason begins in less than a week. Thus far in 2022, Walker has been a productive 12-5 with a 3.59 ERA in 28 games started.
Here are the Nationals-Mets MLB odds, courtesy of FanDuel.
MLB Odds: Nationals-Mets Odds
Washington Nationals: +1.5 (+105)
New York Mets: -1.5 (-126)
Over: 7 (-122)
Under: 7 (+100)
Why The Nationals Could Cover The Spread
Despite being manhandled in their previous two games against the Phillies and being outscored 16-3 in those pair of contests combined, surely the Nationals are motivated to put this ugly season behind them by winning out the rest of the way. Not only that but there are reasons to believe that the ‘Nats can cover the spread and officially play spoiler in sending the Mets to a Wild Card appearance.
For starters, Washington hasn't done a whole lot right over the past couple of days, as the hope is that the Nationals day off yesterday due to weather has helped to clear their heads and get back to the fundamentals of what it takes to play a complete game. Offensively, this is a super young squad that is playing the rest of the year with four players that are 27 years of age or younger. Not only that, but don't be surprised if 30-year-old rookie Joey Meneses continues to leave his mark out on the diamond with his 13 total home runs in his first 211 at-bats.
Pitching-wise, can Espino get his first win of the season in his final start of the regular season? Surprising enough, even though Espino allowed four earned runs in five innings pitched during his last outing, he had only surrendered a total of two runs in his four starts prior. Simply put, Espino is not as bad as his season numbers suggest and is due for a stellar performance even against a team like the Mets.
Why The Mets Could Cover The Spread
While the worst possible outcome happened over the weekend in a must-win scenario for the Mets against the Braves, New York will get a chance to fine-tune their play prior to the postseason starting up in the coming weeks. Sitting only two games away from 100 wins on the season with a record of 98-61, New York has been one of the more successful major league baseball teams within the confines of their home ballpark at Citi Field with an overall record of 51-27.
In order to cover the spread later tonight in game two of Tuesday's scheduled doubleheader with the ‘Nats and to keep their division hopes alive, New York must play with a greater sense of urgency when it comes to their offensive approach. In the three games played down south in Georgia against the Braves, the Mets never scored more than three runs once and were silenced for the better portion of the series. Conversely, the Mets need to take advantage of their opportunities on offense that has been explosive for most of the campaign.
Not only that, but New York has to get the best out of expected starter Taijuan Walker, who is 2-1 with a 3.99 ERA in five career starts against the Nationals and even fired an impressive seven shutout innings back on May 12th in a 4-1 victory.
Final Nationals-Mets Prediction & Pick
While things have been gloomy in New York the past several days, the time is now for the Mets to right their wrongs as they don't have time to be playing their worst baseball at this point in the season. Expect the Mets to come out guns a blazing and to dispose the ‘Nats who don't have much to play for in the final days of the regular season.
Final Nationals-Mets Prediction & Pick: Mets -1.5 (-126)
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