The first place Washington Nationals head to the Big Apple to meet their divisional rival, the New York Mets,in a National League showdown between the top two teams in the division. The Nationals hold a four game lead over the Mets and it’s games like these that determine the outcome in October.
The Mets are playing their best baseball of the season; they are getting solid starting pitching, playing good defense and getting timely hitting during their current hot streak that his seen them win six out of their last seven games.
Washington has been in first place from the start of the year and remain one of the most consistent teams in all of baseball. They currently have won seven of ten games which included a three game sweep of the Mets.
ODDS ANALYSIS/INFO
The Nationals are 50-34 overall, 24-20 on the ROAD and an impressive 27-13 against teams from their own division.
New York Mets trail the Nationals by four games in the National League East and stand 45-37 on the year. They are 24-16 at HOME and 18-19 versus NL East foes.
Washington and New York will face each other 16 times this year, so far, the Nationals have the upper-hand winning seven of the nine games, including a sweep in the last three game set.
PROBABLE PITCHERS
GIO GONZALEZ 4-7, 4.77 continues to struggle for the first place Nationals. His latest loss was the seventh in the last eight games he’s pitched and control issues once again were his problem. The left-hander has now walked at least three or more batters in four of his last five starts. He rarely makes it six innings and if he doesn’t start throwing strikes, he is in for a long year.
STEVEN MATZ 7-3, 3.27 gets the call for the red hot New York Mets. The lefty has been consistent when he’s been healthy. He took a hard luck loss Tuesday against the Marlins, allowing two runs on six hits in seven innings. He struck out six and walked two. Matz seemed to be was cruising and heading for his eighth win of the year until Giancarlo Stanton stepped to the plate in the seventh inning and smashed a two-run shot to put the Marlins ahead for good. Now the question is if Matz can stay healthy and feed off this positive start.
SPOTLIGHT PLAYERS
JAYSON WERTH -OF
Werth had a great month of June where he batted .358 to raise his average 23 points, the problem is he was batting .232. The veteran slugger has 10 dinger’s and 37 RBI’s on the season and has flourished since Manager Dusty Baker decided to mix things up and bat Werth second - he’s been feasting batting in front of Bryce Harper.
YOENIS CESPEDES - CF
Cespedes is the Mets offense and leads them in every stat category. He went 3-for-5 with a double, a run scored and two RBI in Monday's win over the Marlins and continues to be the driving force in the Mets erratic offense. He’s been red hot as of late with four multi-hit efforts and now five extra-base hits after his two doubles Monday. The Mets would be in big trouble without Cespedes who will garner MVP votes this fall.
THE PICK
The Nationals have owned the Mets so far in 2016 winning seven of nine but New York is playing well right now and a win here would bring them closer to Washington in the standings and give them some much need confidence versus the Nats. I would take Matz over a struggling Gonzalez any day of the week. Mets win!
MLB ODDS: New York Mets 5, Washington Nationals 3
First pitch for the game between the Washington Nationals at New York Mets is scheduled for Sunday, July 10, 2016 at Citi Field.
