Washington Hopes to Snap Five-Game Losing Skid Facing St. Louis

The Washington Nationals are 0-5 over their last five games since winning their season opener against the Atlanta Braves. The Nationals will try to end their skid with a win on the road Monday night against the St. Louis Cardinals.

Sportsbook Odds Analysis

The Cardinals opened as -130 favorites and have since been bet up to St. Louis -140 while the Nationals have settled in as +120 road underdogs. Early action on the OVER 8.5 runs has bumped the total up to 9 runs in this matchup. St. Louis is 4-2 over its last six games.

Starting Pitchers Analysis

Erick Fedde is making his second spot start while the Nationals wait for Jon Lester (quarantine) to return to the starting rotation. Fedde owns an underwhelming career ERA of 5.29 and a WHIP of 1.54. The 28-year-old got tagged for six hits, three walks and five earned runs in just 1.2 innings in his first start of the season against Atlanta.

John Gant is also filling in for injured starters as Miles Mikolas (shoulder) and Kwang Hyun Kim (back) are both on the injured list. Gant pitched in 17 games as a reliever in 2020 and compiled a tidy 2.40 ERA and a 1.07 WHIP with 18 strikeouts in 15 innings of work. He pitched four innings without allowing an earned run in a 4-2 win over the Miami Marlins last Tuesday.

Washington News & Notes

The Nationals hit seven singles and didn’t draw any walks in a 3-0 loss against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Sunday. This was alarmingly the third time in the team’s last four games that the offense was held without a run – Washington lost to the Dodgers 1-0 last Friday and to the Braves 2-0 last Wednesday.

Juan Soto and Trea Turner each have two home runs and four RBIs through the Nationals’ first six games; their production accounts for all of the team’s home runs and 47 percent of its runs batted in.

With a lineup that includes Soto and Turner, and one of the best pitching rotations in the major leagues, the Nationals can’t afford another season like last year when they went 26-34 and missed the playoffs. This squad is one year removed from its World Series run in 2019.

St. Louis News & Notes

The Cardinals fell into a 7-1 hole after just two innings on Sunday and were unable to climb out of it in a 9-3 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers. It was St. Louis’s second straight loss and the second straight game in which the team gave up nine runs. St. Louis has a team ERA of 2.00 across its five wins this season and a staggering 9.75 team ERA in its four losses.

In one of the offseason’s biggest moves, St. Louis traded Austin Gomber and a handful of prospects to the Colorado Rockies in exchange for Nolan Arenado. Arenado is off to a strong start in St. Louis with five runs, two home runs, five RBIs and a .333 batting average through his first nine games.