Friday night, the Washington Nationalsand Cardinals start their best-of-seven 2019 National League Championship Series with Game 1 at Busch Stadium in St. Louis. Both clubs went the distance in their respective League Division Series. The Cardinalsscored 10 runs in the first inningagainst theBravesin theirGame 5 win in Atlanta. The Nationals, meanwhile, defeated the Dodgersafterback-to-back, game-tying home runsoffClayton Kershawin the eighth inning, and a go-ahead fromHowie Kendrickgrand slam in the 10th.
The NLCS matchup is an unexpected one, especially considering that the Cardinals were 44-45 on July 12, and the Nationals were 19-31 on May 23. St. Louis completed asecond-half push to win the NL Centralwhile the Nationals won theNL Wild Card Gameagainst theBrewers. While the Nationals are playing in their first League Championship Series ever, the Cardinals are playing their 10th NLCS in the last 20 seasons, and 14th overall.
Now let’s set the scene with some essentials.
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How to watch
Date: Friday, Oct. 11 |Time: 8: 08 p.m. ET
Location: Busch Stadium (St. Louis, Missouri)
TV: TBS |Stream:fuboTV(Try for free)
Odds: STL: -121 | WAS: 106 | O/U: 8
Pitchers: Miles Mikolas(STL) vs.Anibal Sanchez(WAS)
Follow: CBS Sports App
Preview
The Cardinals won the regular season series against the Nationals, 5-2. The two teams only postseason matchup came in 2012 when the Cardinals ousted the Nationals in a comeback win in Game 5 of the NLDS.
The Nationals will turn to right-hander Anibal Sanchez tonight. He had one start in the NLDS against the Dodgers, in which he struck out nine batters in five innings of one-run ball. Sanchez, 35, finished his first season with the Nationals with an 11-8 record and his 30 starts were his most in a season since 2012. Washington hasn’t announced its rotation after Sanchez, but the team will lean on its three aces inMax Scherzer,Stephen StrasburgandPatrick Corbin. The trio has worked 36 of the team’s 54 innings this postseason. All three have also appeared in relief.
Miles Mikolas will take the mound for the Cards. The right-hander startedGame 1of the NLDS and he threw a scoreless 10th inning inGame 4. Mikolas has a 2.81 ERA with 37 strikeouts and nine walks over his past seven starts, plus the one inning out of the bullpen. The Cardinals pitching plan for the NLCS is to startAdam Wainwrightin Game 2, followed by aceJack Flahertyin Game 3 andDakota Hudsonin Game 4.
Prediction
We’ll say that the Cards offense, led by Paul Goldschmidt and Marcell Ozuna, gets to Sanchez early. St. Louis’ bullpen will be lights-out and the Cards will hang on to come away with the Game 1 victory.
Pick: Cardinals 6, Nationals 4
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