{"id":23362,"date":"2012-06-13T08:21:57","date_gmt":"2012-06-13T13:21:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=23362"},"modified":"2012-06-13T08:21:57","modified_gmt":"2012-06-13T13:21:57","slug":"mlb-predictions-2012-washington-nationals-vs-toronto-blue-jays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/mlb-predictions-2012-washington-nationals-vs-toronto-blue-jays-23362\/","title":{"rendered":"MLB Predictions 2012: Washington Nationals vs. Toronto Blue Jays"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Washington Nationals (37-23) and Toronto Blue Jays (31-31) will close out a three-game interleague series on Wednesday afternoon at the Rogers Centre, with the first pitch scheduled for 12:37 ET<\/p>\n

Washington\u00a0Nationals at Toronto Blue Jays<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The Washington Nationals are 9-1 in SP Stephen Strasburg's last 10 starts as a road favorite<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Washington extended its win streak to five games with a 4-2 win over the Toronto Blue Jays on Tuesday night, as the club is now focused on completing its first 6-0 trip since moving to the nation\u2019s capitol.\u00a0 \u201cIt was a great win, the bullpen did a good job, and the kid keeps hitting the ball,\u201d commented Nationals manager Davey Johnson after the game.\u00a0 Outfielder Bryce Harper went 3-for-4 in the contest, entering today\u2019s game with a .307 average.\u00a0 Washington is 13-8 in day games, with the \u201cunder\u201d going 12-9 in that situation.<\/p>\n

Nationals starting pitcher Stephen Strasburg (7-1, 2.41 ERA) has won his last four starts, including a 7-4 road win over the Boston Red Sox last time out, giving up two runs and four hits over six frames.\u00a0 The right-hander has compiled a perfect 4-0 record and 2.19 ERA in six road outings, issuing 13 walks and striking out 55 batters in 37 combined innings.\u00a0 Strasburg will be facing the Blue Jays for the first time in his career.<\/p>\n

Toronto is in danger of falling below .500 for the first time during the 2012 MLB season, as the club has lost five of its last six games.\u00a0 It\u2019s been a surprising run due to outfielder Jose Bautista hitting six of his 18 home runs over the last 10 games.\u00a0 Offensively, the team came into last night\u2019s game ranking second in the majors with 49 home runs, while sitting third with 151 runs scored.\u00a0 Toronto is 12-10 in day games, and the \u201cover\u201d is 12-9 in those contests.<\/p>\n

Blue Jays starting pitcher Kyle Drabek (4-6, 4.43 ERA) has watched the club drop his last three outings, including a 4-3 road defeat to the Atlanta Braves last time out, giving up three runs and six hits over five innings.\u00a0 He has struggled with his control all season long, issuing 45 walks and striking out 46 batters in 67 frames.\u00a0 In five home starts this year, Drabek has registered a 3-2 record and 1.95 ERA, with opposing hitters batting .190 against him.\u00a0 The 24-year-old will be facing the Nationals for the first time.<\/p>\n

Bettors will likely back the Nationals due to their 9-1 record in Strasburg\u2019s last 10 starts as a road favorite, while the Blue Jays are 1-9 in their last 10 games as an underdog.<\/p>\n

Make sure to check out our Major League Baseball picks<\/a> all season long and get the most up-to-date betting odds at Bookmaker<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Washington Nationals (37-23) and Toronto Blue Jays (31-31) will close out a three-game interleague series on Wednesday afternoon at the Rogers Centre, with the first pitch scheduled for 12:37 ET Washington\u00a0Nationals at Toronto Blue Jays Washington extended its win streak to five games with a 4-2 win over the Toronto Blue Jays on Tuesday […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":4542,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444],"tags":[2401,1603,1748,925,223,850],"class_list":["post-23362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","tag-jose-bautista","tag-kyle-drabek","tag-rogers-centre","tag-stephen-strasburg","tag-toronto-blue-jays","tag-washington-nationals"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23362","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/181"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23362"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23362\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23363,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23362\/revisions\/23363"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}