MLB Betting: Washington Nationals at New York Mets

Added on Jul 24, 2012 by Jack Thurman in

MLB

To evoke a classic sportswriter cliche, these are two teams heading in opposite directions. The Washington Nationals continue to prove that they’re not a ‘flash in the pan’ and have extended their lead atop the NL East to 4.5 games over the Atlanta Braves. In the other corner, the New York Mets are a mess right now and are finding new ways to lose baseball games. They played well for 9 innings last night and headed into extra innings tied 2-2–only to see Washington score six runs in the top of the 10th for an 8-2 victory.

Washington Nationals at New York Mets
July 24, 2012 4:10 PM Pacific

The best thing that the New York Mets having going for them in this game is that their ace, R.A. Dickey, will make the start. The knuckleballer has been sharp all season long and the Mets have won 8 of his 9 assignments. Dickey has an impressive 2.34 ERA at home, but he’s been far less impressive in his recent starts–it looks like a confluence of factors but to simplify things it doesn’t look as if his knuckleball has the same movement it did earlier in the season and it’s likely that batters are starting to ‘figure it out’ after getting multiple swings at it over the course of the season. That could be significant here since the Mets and Nats played just a week ago and while New York won the game Washington’s added ‘reps’ against Dickey could pay dividends here.

New York is a pure ‘go against’ team at this point and have been downright awful in the month of July. Since the first of the month they’re a miserable 4-13 and have all but dropped out of the NL East race. Making matters worse in this situation is that they’re facing a Washington team that has been very strong–and profitable–on the road all year long. The Nationals have played well against their NL East rivals going 23-14 against divisional foes.

Washington will start lefthander Gio Gonzalez who is coming off his worst start of the season, but there’s no reason to think that was anything other than a ‘bad night at the office. The Mets have been a poor investment against lefthanded pitching this season (13-22) and combined with their terrible recent form makes the Nats the play here.

Bet Washington Nationals (Gonzalez) +100 over NY Mets (Dickey)