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The St. Louis Cardinals and Washington Nationals square off on Friday, July 29 with first pitch set for 7:05 p.m. ET. The game takes place at Nationals Park in Washington D.C. and will only be available on local TV or through an MLB.tv subscription. Miles Mikolas (7-8, 2.87 ERA) will take the mound for St. Louis, while Washington will start veteran arm Anibal Sanchez (0-2, 6.30 ERA).
The Cardinals (52-47) got through their series with the Toronto Blue Jays even though they were short-staffed. St. Louis was the beneficiary of deep flies from Nolan Gorman and a big three-run home run from Albert Pujols in Wednesday’s game. Mikolas will be starting his 21st game of the season. He pitched five innings and gave up seven hits and six earned runs to tally his eighth loss of the season.
The Nationals (34-66) are coming off an impressive series win against the Los Angeles Dodgers. They are 3-3 in their six games since the All-Star break and return home for a six-game home stand starting with St. Louis. Sanchez will be making his third start of the year for Washington. The veteran right-hander has lost both of his starts, including his last, where he pitched five innings and gave up six hits, and three earned runs against the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Cardinals vs. Nationals
Pitchers: Miles Mikolas vs. Anibal Sanchez
First pitch: 7:05 p.m. ET
Cardinals local broadcast: Bally Sports Midwest
Nationals local broadcast: MASN
Live stream: MLB.tv (subscription)
Odds, picks & predictions
Run Line: Cardinals -1.5
Run total: 9
Moneyline odds: Cardinals -175, Nationals +150
Moneyline pick: Cardinals -175
Sanchez has been a fill-in starter for the Nationals eating up some innings. Unfortunately, he hasn’t been good in his outings and puts Washington behind the eight-ball when taking the mound. St. Louis will get back its two best bats since this series is back in the U.S. Nolan Arenado and Paul Goldschmidt are rested and should help the Cardinals pick up the win on Friday.
Player prop: Nolan Arenado, over 0.5 hits (-275)
Arenado is mashing the ball this year hitting .296 with 24 doubles, 18 home runs and 59 RBI through 91 games. He wasn’t active for the team’s recent series against the Blue Jays but should be back as this series against the Nationals begins on Friday. Arenado has had success against Nationals veteran pitcher Anibal Sanchez going 4-10 heading into this series. He should pick up a base hit on Friday.
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