Game Time:  7:05 pm ET, Monday, August 30, 2021

Venue:  Nationals Park, Washington, DC

Where to Watch:  MASN, NBCSP

 

DraftKings:  Moneyline odds:  Phillies -145, Nationals +125; Over/Under:  8 runs

 

Phillies:  65-64, 2nd place NL East

Nationals:  55-73, 4th place NL East

 

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Phillies:  4-7 over their last eleven games.  They went 4 Over, 5 Under and 1 Push.  They got swept 0-3 by the Arizona Diamondbacks, took 2-1 against the San Diego Padres, got swept by the San Diego Padres 0-2, and went 2-1 against the Arizona Diamondbacks with another game still being played (right now) on Sunday.  Monday's matchup with the Washington Nationals will be the 131st game of the season for the Phillies and will determine whether they are 1 game under .500 or 1 game over .500.  

 

Nationals: 5-5 over their last ten games.  5 Over, 4 Under, and 1 Push.  They swept the Toronto Blue Jays 2-0, went 1-2 against the Milwaukee Brewers, went 1-2 against the Miami Marlins, and split the first of a three-game series 1-1 with the New York Mets.  Monday’s game will be their 130th of the season.  They will need to win their next 18 games straight to get to .500 (they won’t).  The bright spot in such misery is their next 8 games are against the Phillies and Mets, so there should be some easy wins in there.

 

With just six weeks left in the Major League Baseball regular season, there's not much time left for Philadelhpia to make up ground in the National League East..  The Phillies are 4.5 games back of the Atlanta Braves and it looks like the Braves are going to keep on winning.  The best chance for the Phillies to make up ground was actually this last ten games when they faced the lowly Arizona Diamondbacks who are resting on a National League worst 44-87.  The Phillies bungled the stretch by getting swept in 3 games Tuesday, August 17th- Thursday, August 19th.  It was a gut punch for the Phillies.  They get a redemption chance against the Diamondbacks with an immediate four-game series again… but they do not get redemption with the chance they had in the standings.  That frittered away.. Especially when they dropped the first of the new series against the Diamondbacks on Thursday , August 26th followed by winning the next two games.  However you slice it… going 2-4 against the Diamondbacks won’t (results not in Sunday's game) get anything done.  Wasted season and opportunity.

 

The Phillies are 19th in batting average .238, 16th in runs scored 581, 19th in home runs 154.  An average offense at best.

 

The Nationals are 4th in batting average .257, 17th in runs scored 565, 21st in home runs 144.  An offense that strands a lot of runners and lost Trea Turner. at the trade deadline

The Phillies pitchers are 18th in team ERA 4.38, 11th in strikeouts 1174, 16th in WHIP 1.29.

The Nationals pitchers are 21st in team ERA 4.56, 21st in strikeouts 1063, and 14th in WHIP 1.31.

It’s odd how they can be so close to each other in so many categories both offensive categories and defensive numbers and so far apart in the standings  (10 games). I think the answer lies in the Division.  Both these teams have a bright spot or two in the lineup and a bright spot or two in the rotation, yet neither is built well enough to compete with MLB’s big boys.  This division is bad, the team’s results have a random effect because they spend so many games playing each other.  

The Phillies will start right-handed pitcher Zack Wheeler 10-9, 2.90 ERA, 204 strikeouts. Zack has struggled as of late, losing his last 3 starts.  He’s been stuck at 10 wins for a while now. He’s still the big name in their rotation.

The Nationals will start Josiah Gray on the mound. A 23 year old call-up who has pitched 36 innings in his entire MLB career since joining the club in July.  His ERA is 3.75 and his record is 0-1.  He is a young guy getting some action in a washed out season against the other team’s star pitcher who is looking for a win.

Our MLB prediction is Phillies 7  Nationals 2.

 

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The Phillies have logged 4 Overs, 5 unders and 1 Push in their last ten games.  They are 33-29-1 in O/U in road games this season.  They are about even on the moneyline 65-64 and about even on O/U 63-62-2 over the whole season.   They are not even when we separate Day from Night.  The moneyline at night is 35-47, a decidedly losing record.  Monday’s game is a night game.

The Nationals have logged 5 Overs, 4 Unders and 1 Push over their last ten contests. They are 27-36-1 O/U in home games.  The Nationals also fare poorly in night games, going 33-44 at night.  

 

 

Phillies:  Didi Gregorious SS  (paternity)

Nationals:  Steven Fuentes SP (shoulder), done for season.

 

Bryce Harper for the Phillies is always a player to watch; he's 12th in MLB batting average .298, 2nd in OBP… and even squeezed in 12 stolen bases so far.  The guy can hit and hustle.  Bryce occupies that rare air of giant contract, solid production and yearly MVP talk… while still his team never wins big.  Baseball is a team sport and you can’t lay losing on 1 guy, but you do have to wonder how Philly hasn’t been able to build around Bryce since signing him away from Washington.

 

The Washington Nationals player to watch is Juan Soto.  He is the only player in the league with a better OBP than Bryce Harper. Juan has 21 homers on the season and 116 hits.  It also boggles the mind to know that if Washington had handled Bryce’s resigning they could have started this season with Trea Turner (best BA in baseball), Juan Soto (#1 OBP) and Bryce Harper (#2 OBP) following each other in the lineup.  

 

"When you have more than one or two guys (hitting) and you have five or six like tonight, that's when you put up big numbers," -Phillies manager Joe Girardi about Saturday’s 7-0 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks.  He did not mention that the other team was Arizona.

 "Like many organizations, the Washington Nationals decided to make COVID-19 vaccines mandatory for all full-time staff. Employees were notified of this policy on August 12 and had until August 26th to either provide proof of full vaccination, proof of first shot or apply for an exemption. As a company, we have a responsibility to do everything we can to keep one another safe and felt that mandating vaccines was the absolute right thing to do for our employees and our community." -Washington Nationals statement after making Covid vaccinations a requirement for employment in their organization for all non-playing employees. 

 

Phillies

J. Segura, 2B

J. Realmuto, 1B

B. Harper, RF

A. McCutchen, LF

J. Bonifacio, CF

F. Galvis, SS

R. Torreyes, 3B

R. Marchan, C

R. Suarez, P

 

Nationals

L. Thomas, CF

A. Escobar, SS

J. Soto, RF

J. Bell, 1B

Y. Hernandez, LF

C. Kieboom, 3B

L. Garcia, 2B

T. Barrera, C

E. Fedde, P

 

 

Nationals

Batting Average:  Juan Soto (.297)

Hits: Juan Soto (116)

Home Runs:  Kyle Schwarber (25)

RBI:  Josh Bell (70)

Stolen Bases:  Victor Robles (8)

Wins:  Max Scherzer (8)

Saves:  Brad Hand (21)

ERA:  Patrick Corbin (6.09)

 

Phillies

Batting Average:  Bryce Harper (.299)

Hits:  Jean Segura (116)

Home Runs: Rhys Hoskins (27)

RBI:  Rhys Hoskins (71)

Stolen Bases:  Bryce Harper (12)

Wins:  Zack Wheeler (10)

Saves:  Hector Neris (12)

ERA:  Zack Wheeler (2.90)

 

Managers:

Phillies:  Joe Girardi

Nationals:  Dave Martinez

 

Cloudy, warm and humid with a 20% chance of rain.  Wind 8 mph, with gusts up to 10 mph.