MLB Baseball Betting: Philadelphia Phillies at Washington Nationals

Two teams heading in different directions will do battle on Saturday at Nationals Park in Washington, DC as the Washington Nationals host the Philadelphia Phillies. The Nationals have been in good form so far during the month of June winning 7 of their last 10 and opening up a 2.5 game lead over the New York Mets atop the National League East. The Phillies are heading South and are in fourth place in the AL East. That’s for all intents and purposes last place since the Atlanta Braves barely count (18-42 18.5 games out). Philadelphia started the season in decent form but have lost two straight and 7 of their last 10.

The Nationals were a loser in their final game of the midweek series against the Chicago White Sox but got their three game weekend set against the Philadelphia Phillies off to a good start with a win on Friday night. They’ll try to make it two straight on Saturday as they send Tanner Roark to the mound. Roark has pitched fairly well this year butr the Nats haven’t won when he takes the mound. He’s got a 3.21 ERA overall and a 2.68 home ERA. Nonetheless, Washington is 5-7 overall when he starts and 2-4 at home.

The Phillies will counter with talented young Aaron Nola who might be one of the most underrated pitchers in baseball at the moment. Nola has a 2.88 ERA that improves to 2.02 on the road. Philadelphia is 7-5 overall in his starts but 5-1 away from home. They’ve won two of his last three starts with Nola putting up a 3.00 ERA which was all due to a substandard outing at Detroit on May 25.

What’s interesting about this series is that even as the Phillies have been awful in recent years and the Nationals been a divisional contender the series has remained very even. Washington has won 27 of 48 meetings overall but are just 13-11 -6.2 units at home. Nola is such a solid pitcher though he hasn’t had much success against the Nationals during his brief career (4.82 ERA with Philadelphia having a 1-4 record in his starts). Eventually, he’s going to become a ‘darling’ of baseball bettors and for that reason we’ll take him while we can get a good price.

BET PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES +150 OVER WASHINGTON NATIONALS