The Mets and Nationals start a new series on Tuesday night in Washington.
David Peterson is scheduled to pitch for New York, while Jake Irvin will take the mound for Washington.
Mets at Nationals prediction, preview
David Peterson has been the Mets’ best starting pitcher this season. Peterson has a 3.30 ERA on the season, leads the team in strikeouts and made his first-ever MLB All-Star Game a few weeks ago. Peterson should be excited to see this Nationals lineup. When he faced Washington earlier this season, Peterson threw a complete game shutout, dominating the Nationals’ lineup. Peterson has always liked facing the Nationals and sports a 2.64 ERA in 13 career appearances against Washington. He should be confident on the mound tonight and bounce back after a couple of poor outings over the Mets’ losing streak.
Jake Irvin is having a career-worst season for the Nationals. After showing some signs of promise in his sophomore season, his ERA has dropped from 4.41 to 5.14, and his K/9 has dropped from 7.5 to 6.0. Irvin is walking more batters, giving up more hits and allowing more home runs than he did last season, seeing regression across the board. The last time he faced the Mets was actually the same game that Peterson threw his complete game shutout. In that game, Irvin gave up four runs in five innings to New York, with Brandon Nimmo and Juan Soto both hitting home runs in that game. The Mets’ bats have been performing well over the past couple of weeks, and they should be able to rack up a few runs against Irvin once again.
Mets at Nationals pick, best bet
The Mets and Nationals are facing off in Washington for one final series in the nation’s capital before their final series in New York in September. So far this season, the Mets are 5-2 against the Nationals. It has been an awful run of form for the Mets, who are 4-11 in their past 15 games. Things haven’t been much better for Washington. Since the All-Star Break, these have been two of the six worst teams in baseball. The Mets’ pitching has struggled, which is why they will be happy to see David Peterson on the mound tonight, who has been by far their best starting pitcher this season.
My best bet for this game is for the Mets to cover the spread of -1.5 runs. Despite only winning four of their past 15 games, the Mets are seventh in the MLB in runs scored over that stretch. Their bats have not been the problem, so if those stay hot and they get another quality start out of David Peterson, they should comfortably win this game. The team did finally win a series against the Mariners over the weekend, then got a day off, so they should be confident and well-rested. If the Mets want to revive their season, now is the time to get hot and they should be able to make it three straight wins tonight against Jake Irvin and the Nationals.
