CHICAGO – It hasn’t been an especially uplifting road trip for the Nationals. They’ve lost all five games they’ve played so far against the Mets and Cubs. They lost Luis Garcia Jr. and Jacob Young to injuries. They’ve scored a grand total of nine runs, and six of those came in Thursday night’s loss here.
But it’s a new day, so maybe today is the day things click again for the boys and they combine good pitching, hitting and defense and emerge victorious. They’ll look for a good start out of MacKenzie Gore, who has been excellent. Over his last five starts, the left-hander sports a 1.95 ERA and 1.048 WHIP with 27 strikeouts in 28 2/3 innings. (There was one dud in there against the Braves, but despite giving up seven runs he was only charged with two earned runs in that one, so the ERA wasn’t destroyed.)
More than anything, the Nats need to hit and they need to score runs. They’re facing a wily veteran today in Kyle Hendricks, who is 4-11 with a 6.25 ERA over 118 innings this season. But it should be noted the right-hander has been much better recently, with a 2.93 ERA over his last three starts.
WASHINGTON NATIONALS at CHICAGO CUBS
Where: Wrigley Field
Gametime: 2:20 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN2, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 88.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Sunny, 84 degrees, wind 9 mph right field to left field
NATIONALS
Lineup TBA
LHP MacKenzie Gore
CUBS
Lineup TBA
RHP Kyle Hendricks