With Max Scherzer making his Mets debut in Washington, what can we expect from the New York Mets and Washington Nationals game? Let’s see what the MLB odds for this matchup tell us!
New York Mets vs. Washington Nationals
Friday, April 08, 2022 – 07:05 PM EDT at Nationals Park
Once the Mets signed Max Scherzer, this game was circled. Max Scherzer will be making his Mets debut against his former team, the Washington Nationals.
Scherzer had six all-star appearances in seven seasons with the Nationals and helped the Nationals win a World Series in 2019.
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He’s still beloved in Washington but Washington is now going to root against him. The Mets already won the first game of the series yesterday and will look to pile on wins against the Nationals throughout the season.
That could be essentially what every team does this season. Last season, Max Scherzer pitched for the Nationals and then was traded to the Dodgers at the trade deadline.
He accumulated a 3.25 xFIP with a 34.1% strikeout rate and a 5.4% walk rate. Scherzer is still one of the best pitchers in the world and hasn’t shown any signs of slowing down due to his age.
He limited ISO power numbers from both sides last year and kept wOBA to .245 or lower on both sides too.
Scherzer gets more ground balls from righties and limits line drives from righties more times than against lefties.
The Nationals should, again, have six righties in the lineup against Scherzer. That likely won’t help the Nationals’ case.
Obviously, Juan Soto is the big power bat in the lineup and can do plenty of damage, but he also hit 55.4% ground balls against righties last season.
On the other hand, Josiah Gray will take the hill for the Nationals. Gray was traded to the Nationals for Scherzer and he didn’t have the best of seasons last year.
The potential is there but he had a 5.77 xFIP with 11.4% walks last season. He also allowed 32.8% ground balls and gave up 42.8% hard contact.
Lefties hit a .351 wOBA with an ISO of .296 while righties hit a .351 wOBA and an ISO of .273. These numbers were extremely bad because of his poor command and walk numbers.
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The Mets figure to have Brandon Nimmo back in the lineup tonight. That would be crucial with him leading off, knowing he walked 13.9% of the time against righties last season.
The Mets weren’t great offensively last year but with almost an entirely new coaching staff, the approach already looks different than last season.
Prediction
For our MLB picks, The expectation is that Max Scherzer does what he does. Meanwhile, Josiah Gray is supposed to be one of the top pitching prospects in the MLB.
He hasn’t shown it so far but ultimately, things could change as the season progresses this year now that Gray has a little bit of experience on an MLB mound.
Either way, the Nationals’ bullpen has been absolutely horrific dating back to last season and that should help the Mets at least win by two runs in tonight’s game.
Score Prediction: Mets 6, Nationals 2
MLB Pick: Mets -1.5 (-105) with BetOnline (visit our BetOnline Review)
*The line and/or odds on picks in this article might have moved since the content was commissioned. For updated line movements, visit BMR’s free betting odds product.
