NL East rivals will begin a three-game series on Friday night at Citi Field with the Washington Nationals visiting the New York Mets. Washington is having a nightmare campaign at 45-87, but took two of three from the Oakland Athletics including a 7-5 extra innings win in Thursday's dramatic rubber game as a -107 favorite. New York impressively took two of three from the Los Angeles Dodgers, capped off by a 5-3 triumph on Thursday as a +125 underdog to extend its division lead to 3.5 games at 84-48.
As expected, this has been a one-sided matchup, with the Mets holding a 10-3 head-to-head advantage on the year.
There haven't been too many exciting moments for the Nationals during a lost season, but Thursday provided one of their more dramatic victories of the year as they closed out a series win over Oakland. Joey Meneses got Washington off to a fast start in the bottom of the first on an RBI single, yet it wouldn't score again until Nelson Cruz's RBI groundout in the seventh before Ildemaro Vargas tied the score in the eighth with an RBI single. Down to their final out in the 10th, the Nationals secured the win as Meneses stayed red hot with a walk-off three-run homer.
Paolo Espino went a strong five innings, allowing just one run on five hits and no walks while piling up six strikeouts. Hunter Harvey picked up the win in relief despite allowing two runs (one earned) in his lone inning. Meneses had a four-hit game with four RBI as he continues to post unreal numbers since getting called up. 3;
Washington remains down a massive amount on the money line for the season while going just 57-73 on the run line. Overs are 61-64-5 for the Nationals, with two of their last three games going over the betting total.
This is a bottom five scoring offense at 3.73 runs per game on a .687 team OPS. It's been even worse for the pitching staff, which is dead last with a 5.11 collective ERA including a mark of 4.12 out of the bullpen.
Meneses is absolutely on fire since being called up 25 games ago, batting .354/.385/.626 with seven homers and 15 driven in. Vargas has also been on a tear, posting a .778 OPS with four homers and 13 driven in across 31 games.
Promising youngster Josiah Gray will make his 24th start of the season, having gone 7-8 with a 4.67 ERA and 140 strikeouts across 123.1 innings. The 23-year-old tossed five innings of one-run ball against the San Diego Padres in his most recent start back on August 20, allowing four hits and five walks while striking out three.
Third baseman Carter Kieboom is recovering from Tommy John surgery, while outfielder Yadiel Hernandez has a strained calf. The rotation is down Cade Cavalli (shoulder inflammation), MacKenzie Gore (elbow inflammation), Joe Ross (Tommy John surgery), Stephen Strasburg (stress reaction in ribs), and Jackson Tetreault (stress reaction in shoulder). Relievers Sean Doolittle (elbow surgery), Will Harris (thoracic outlet syndrome), Evan Lee (strained flexor) and Tanner Rainey (Tommy John surgery) are out.