MLB Saturday – Nationals’ Strasburg and Mets’ Dickey Battle

A stage is set for a great pitching duel when the New York Mets take on the Washington Nationals on Saturday.

For the Mets, R.A. Dickey, the 35-year-old 7-year veteran takes the mound. For Washington, the brilliant rookie Stephen Strasburg takes the mound.

Because of Washington’s other issues, Dickey and the Mets figure to be the favorites in the MLB sportsbook once the betting line is set early in the morning.

Dickey has done very well this season. He’s 6 and 1 with a 1.29 WHIP and a 2.98 ERA.

After winning his first 2 starts, Strasburg has lost 2 starts in a row. He’s coming off of his worst outing of the year when yielding 4 runs off of 6 hits in 6.1 innings pitched.

What’s really awful is that Strasburg’s numbers are amazingly good. Even with a 2 and 2 record, his ERA is 2.27 and his WHIP is 1.01.

Who will win when Dickey and the Mets take on Strasburg and the Nationals on Saturday?

New York Mets at Washington Nationals

• Where: Nationals Park, Washington, District of Columbia
• When: July 3rd, 2010 at 4:10 pm EST
• TV: Mets – SNY
  Nationals – MASN 2 HD
• Radio: Mets – WFAN 660, WQBU 92.7
  Nationals – WFED 1500, SBN 730

The baseball betting trends point to the Mets winning this game.

• The New York Mets are 8 and 3 in their last 11 games versus a team from the National League East.
• The New York Mets are 6 and 0 in R.A. Dickey’s last 6 starts on grass.
• The New York Mets are 6 and 1 in R.A. Dickey’s last 7 starts.
• The Washington Nationals are 6 and 1 in their last 7 games at home versus a team with a losing road record.
• The Washington Nationals are 6 and 20 in their last 26 games versus a right-handed starter.
• The Washington Nationals are 1 and 4 in their last 5 games at home versus a right-handed starter.

The trends point to the Mets winning this game. It’s going to be difficult for me to go against the trends in this game. R.A. Dickey pitching well and the Mets had been scoring runs up until their 1 to 2 loss to Washington on Thursday night.

Against Florida, in a 3-game series where the Mets lost 2 of the games, New York put up 15 runs. They won’t need that many, they averaged 5 per game against Florida, in order to beat Strasburg on Saturday.

As well as Strasburg has been pitching, it just hasn’t been enough for victories in his last 3 starts.

The main problem for Washington is their inability to score runs with Strasburg on the mound. They’ve scored 1 run in his last 3 starts. Another issue is the fact that Strasburg can only go for 7 innings. He doesn’t have the arm that can take the Nationals for a full 9 innings.

At least, it doesn’t appear he does or else the Nationals would keep him in the game longer than 7 innings.

Once Washington’s relievers enter the game, teams have found a way to exploit them for runs. Finally, Strasburg is coming off of his worst outing as a pitcher in Major League Baseball. How that will affect him mentally is anybody’s guess.

R.A. Dickey has done very well this season for the New York Mets. He should do well enough again for the Mets to win this game on Saturday. The New York Mets to beat the Washington Nationals is the baseball bet to make on Saturday.

MLB Sportsbook Pick: New York Mets to win