Bryan Power

10* Over Nationals/Cardinals (7:45 ET): Still reeling from a COVID-19 outbreak, the short-handed Nationals have dropped five in a row while being shutout in three of the last four losses. It should be mentioned that two of those shutouts were against the Dodgers, who have tremendous pitching staff. In the three games where they were NOT blanked this season, the Nats put up at least five runs. So there have been some games where the offense has done just fine, despite the missing players. 

St. Louis just gave up nine runs both Saturday and Sunday. That was after allowing just four runs total the previous four games. But the first series of the year saw them hit hard as they allowed 27 runs in three games to the Reds. So, outside of Miami, everyone is getting to the Cards’ pitching thus far. Through nine games, the bullpen has actually worked more innings than the starting rotation, which is not a good sign. 

Starting today for the Cards will be John Gant, who allowed only an unearned run when he faced the Marlins last Tuesday. That was his 1st start since 2018. While he allowed only the one run, he did walk three batters and needed 82 pitches to record 12 outs. My view is that the Washington hitters will break out of their slump today against Gant. But starting Erick Fedde is a problem for the Nationals as he allowed six runs in 1 ⅔ innings his first time out. 10* Over Nationals/Cardinals

8* Under Nuggets/Warriors (10:05 ET): Thanks to a disastrous fourth quarter (in which they scored only EIGHT points), the Nuggets saw their eight-game win streak come to an end Sunday at the hands of the Boston Celtics. Denver actually led by eight going into the 4th, but then things completely fell apart as Boston scored 40 of the game’s final 48 points. The Nuggets finished with a 36.4 FG% including 8 of 34 from three-point range as they played for the fourth straight time w/o PG Jamal Murray (who is listed as questionable for tonight). 

We know Golden State is going to be short-handed coming into this game as they are without Kelly Oubre Jr and James Wiseman, their third and fourth leading scorers. This puts even more pressure on Steph Curry, who has scored 32+ in each of the L6 games, but the Warriors are just 3-3 SU in that stretch. The Dubs are only 21st in offensive efficiency, a far cry from their “heyday,” so if they are to “get it done” here, it’ll have to be via the defensive end (they are 8th in efficiency there). 

Two short-handed teams, one playing in the second night of a back to back, seems like a recipe for an Under to me. Denver’s offensive efficiency drops noticeably without Murray in the lineup. They won’t have a quarter as bad as the fourth yesterday, but the Under is 6-1 in the Nuggets’ last seven road games. Golden State has little offensive firepower beyond Curry and probably won’t match the 53.8% shooting we saw from them when they defeated the inept Rockets on Saturday. 8* Under Nuggets/Warriors