Everything A Bettor Wants to Know for Nats-Dodgers Doubleheader: Nate Take Opener; 1H „Under“ in the Evening
Bettors will want to incorporate the rain dance into their routine. The Nationals-Dodgers series opener was postponed to Saturday due to rain. The doubleheader will start at 2:05 ET and game two will ensue at 8:05 ET. The Nats look promising in the opener while both pitchers will duel in the evening.
MLB Pick: Game 1 Nats ML Game 2 1H "Under"
Both teams are coming off at least one rest day due to Friday’s rainy weather and both teams tend to respond differently to rest. The Dodgers are 1-6 after a day off. Conversely, the Nats are 4-0 since 2016 after resting multiple days.
Ross Stripling (0-1, 2.20 ERA) starts for LA. Stripling goes back and forth between being a starter and reliever. Stripling’s ERA looks very good, but he’s had the fortune of starting, and therefore pitching most of his innings, against poor competition. Two of his three starts were against the Reds and Padres. Both rank in the bottom-10 in runs per game.
Stripling primarily relies on a fastball-slider combo. When he faced the Nats last year, they slammed his slider. Problematically, Stripling’s slider is getting hit just as hard while his fastball is faring much worse in terms of opposing slugging percentage. Stripling makes himself vulnerable to a stronger lineup because he doesn’t vary the location of his pitches well. There are four spots in the strike zone which he hits over 6.8% of the time. He is also predictable when he falls behind in the count. Against both lefties and righties he relies over 60% of the time on his slider, the Nats’ favorite pitch of his to hit. This season, Stripling is failing to induce as many swings-and-misses either inside or outside of the zone. So expect some juicy sliders.
The Nats look forward to Stripling because they are 20-9 against righties with an OPS (on-base plus slugging) .105 higher against them than against lefties. In 2017, Stripling allowed four earned runs in 1.2 innings pitched in Washington.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="de"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Tonight's <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Nats?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc^tfw">#Nats</a>-Dodgers game has been postponed. <br><br>For more information, please visit <a href="https://t.co/XQCfYB8cuG">https://t.co/XQCfYB8cuG</a>. <a href="https://t.co/hkT1WpARU5">pic.twitter.com/hkT1WpARU5</a></p>— Washington Nationals (@Nationals) <a href=" ">18. Mai 2018</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Tanner Roark (2-3, 3.33 ERA) counters for Washington. Roark relies mostly on his sinker but throws four other pitches more than ten percent of the time. One key for Roark will be to keep the ball inside the ballpark. In the three starts where he hasn’t allowed a homer, he is undefeated and didn’t allow more than two runs in seven innings. Fortunately, the Dodgers rank in the bottom-five in home runs per game. His second key will be to keep the ball low. He tends to do well when he induces a higher ground ball rate. For instance, in his last strong start, he hit the lowest row of the strike zone with six percent more frequency than in his start on April 24 in which he allowed a 16% lower ground ball rate and two homers. Expect a strong performance from Roark today, whose career ERA is .61 lower in the daytime than at night.
The Dodgers’ lineup is in poor form. They scored fewer than 4 runs in five of their past seven games. Their success the past two games derived largely from slamming Miami's incompetent reliever Junichi Tazawa for seven runs in two games. Tazawa is no longer in the Majors.
With better hitting, pitching and a fresh bullpen, the Nats are primed to improve their May record to 12-2.
In the evening, Rich Hill (1-2, 6.20 ERA) looks on the surface like a terrible choice for an „under“ bet. But his ERA has been ballooned by injury issues, which no longer exist, and rust. While dealing with both issues he had to face an Arizona team twice that slams left-handed pitchers. Conversely the Nats’ OPS is .105 lower against left-handed starters than right-handed. For instance, Bryce Harper is hitting .158 against lefties at home.
Hill already looked more like his old self in his last start against the Reds which, like the D’backs, are much stronger against southpaws than right-handed pitchers. He allowed two earned runs in five innings, both of those runs coming off a homer—so he simply made one mistake against a hitter (Eugenio Suarez) who excels at slugging one of his primary pitches, the curveball. Since 2017, the Nats slug below-average against this pitch, against which Hill has induced a lower opposing BA in each of his last three starts.
Bettors can rely on perennial Cy Young candidate Max Scherzer (7-1, 1.69 ERA). This season, he’s striking out more batters and allowing fewer walks and homers than ever before. He throws more often in the zone while inducing more whiffs because his stuff is great. His largest improvement is with his fastball, which is his favorite pitch. He is elevating it to the highest row in the strike zone with seven percent more frequency and thereby inducing a .220 lower opposing slugging percentage against it.
In his starts, the 1H „under“ is 6-3 largely because he has yet to allow more than two runs in an outing all season. In 103 career at-bats against him, LA is hitting .165. On six days’ rest, Scherzer's career ERA is 2.96, compared to 3.48 on four days’ rest.
Bettors will want to incorporate the rain dance into their routine. The Nationals-Dodgers series opener was postponed to Saturday due to rain. The doubleheader will start at 2:05 ET and game two will ensue at 8:05 ET. The Nats look promising in the opener while both pitchers will duel in the evening.
MLB Pick: Game 1 Nats ML Game 2 1H "Under"
Both teams are coming off at least one rest day due to Friday’s rainy weather and both teams tend to respond differently to rest. The Dodgers are 1-6 after a day off. Conversely, the Nats are 4-0 since 2016 after resting multiple days.
Ross Stripling (0-1, 2.20 ERA) starts for LA. Stripling goes back and forth between being a starter and reliever. Stripling’s ERA looks very good, but he’s had the fortune of starting, and therefore pitching most of his innings, against poor competition. Two of his three starts were against the Reds and Padres. Both rank in the bottom-10 in runs per game.
Stripling primarily relies on a fastball-slider combo. When he faced the Nats last year, they slammed his slider. Problematically, Stripling’s slider is getting hit just as hard while his fastball is faring much worse in terms of opposing slugging percentage. Stripling makes himself vulnerable to a stronger lineup because he doesn’t vary the location of his pitches well. There are four spots in the strike zone which he hits over 6.8% of the time. He is also predictable when he falls behind in the count. Against both lefties and righties he relies over 60% of the time on his slider, the Nats’ favorite pitch of his to hit. This season, Stripling is failing to induce as many swings-and-misses either inside or outside of the zone. So expect some juicy sliders.
The Nats look forward to Stripling because they are 20-9 against righties with an OPS (on-base plus slugging) .105 higher against them than against lefties. In 2017, Stripling allowed four earned runs in 1.2 innings pitched in Washington.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="de"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Tonight's <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Nats?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc^tfw">#Nats</a>-Dodgers game has been postponed. <br><br>For more information, please visit <a href="https://t.co/XQCfYB8cuG">https://t.co/XQCfYB8cuG</a>. <a href="https://t.co/hkT1WpARU5">pic.twitter.com/hkT1WpARU5</a></p>— Washington Nationals (@Nationals) <a href=" ">18. Mai 2018</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Tanner Roark (2-3, 3.33 ERA) counters for Washington. Roark relies mostly on his sinker but throws four other pitches more than ten percent of the time. One key for Roark will be to keep the ball inside the ballpark. In the three starts where he hasn’t allowed a homer, he is undefeated and didn’t allow more than two runs in seven innings. Fortunately, the Dodgers rank in the bottom-five in home runs per game. His second key will be to keep the ball low. He tends to do well when he induces a higher ground ball rate. For instance, in his last strong start, he hit the lowest row of the strike zone with six percent more frequency than in his start on April 24 in which he allowed a 16% lower ground ball rate and two homers. Expect a strong performance from Roark today, whose career ERA is .61 lower in the daytime than at night.
The Dodgers’ lineup is in poor form. They scored fewer than 4 runs in five of their past seven games. Their success the past two games derived largely from slamming Miami's incompetent reliever Junichi Tazawa for seven runs in two games. Tazawa is no longer in the Majors.
With better hitting, pitching and a fresh bullpen, the Nats are primed to improve their May record to 12-2.
In the evening, Rich Hill (1-2, 6.20 ERA) looks on the surface like a terrible choice for an „under“ bet. But his ERA has been ballooned by injury issues, which no longer exist, and rust. While dealing with both issues he had to face an Arizona team twice that slams left-handed pitchers. Conversely the Nats’ OPS is .105 lower against left-handed starters than right-handed. For instance, Bryce Harper is hitting .158 against lefties at home.
Hill already looked more like his old self in his last start against the Reds which, like the D’backs, are much stronger against southpaws than right-handed pitchers. He allowed two earned runs in five innings, both of those runs coming off a homer—so he simply made one mistake against a hitter (Eugenio Suarez) who excels at slugging one of his primary pitches, the curveball. Since 2017, the Nats slug below-average against this pitch, against which Hill has induced a lower opposing BA in each of his last three starts.
Bettors can rely on perennial Cy Young candidate Max Scherzer (7-1, 1.69 ERA). This season, he’s striking out more batters and allowing fewer walks and homers than ever before. He throws more often in the zone while inducing more whiffs because his stuff is great. His largest improvement is with his fastball, which is his favorite pitch. He is elevating it to the highest row in the strike zone with seven percent more frequency and thereby inducing a .220 lower opposing slugging percentage against it.
In his starts, the 1H „under“ is 6-3 largely because he has yet to allow more than two runs in an outing all season. In 103 career at-bats against him, LA is hitting .165. On six days’ rest, Scherzer's career ERA is 2.96, compared to 3.48 on four days’ rest.
Last edited:
