The Washington Nationals (48-87, 60-74 RL, 63-66-5 O/U) take on the St. Louis Cardinals (79-56, 77-58 RL, 64-66-6 O/U) in the third of a four-game series on Wednesday night. The Nationals will have Cory Abbott on the mound. The Cardinals will give the nod to veteran Jordan Montgomery targeting his ninth victory. The season series is even at 2-2.
Cory Abbott will get the nod for the 10th time of the season. Abbott exited after tossing one shutout inning against the Mets last weekend. The young right-hander is pitching well, conceding only two runs in his last nine innings, and enters with a 4.56 ERA and a 1.21 WHIP to go with a 0-2 record in 25.2 innings on the year. Abbott has conceded two runs in six innings against the Cardinals. He has made four starts while the rest of his outings have been out of the pen.
The Nationals have now won two consecutive series propelled by plenty of runs. They won two of three against the lowly Athletics and followed with two wins in three meetings against the Mets at Citi Field this past weekend. They only conceded nine runs in the series.
Luke Voit has cooled down after a decent stretch at the plate, recording one RBI in his last five games. The veteran slugger h as five home runs since arriving in the trade and has 18 homers with 58 RBIs and a .719 OPS on the season. He is 3 for 15 with two RBIs against the Cards this year.
The Nationals are scoring an average of 3.81 runs per game, ranking them 25th overall. The pitching staff has logged a 5.02 team ERA, pegging them 29th.