Philadelphia at Washington

The Washington Nationals are going to be in an ornery mood today. They seldom have pitching meltdowns, but they did yesterday in a humiliating 10-4 loss to the Phillies. The good news is that they have smoking hot Doug Fister on the mound tonight to turn the tide. Fister is 10-2 on the season and sports a nifty 2.69 ERA. He has been even better of late where he carries a perfect 5-0 record in his last six starts with an even better 2.21 ERA. The Nationals are 11-3 overall in his 14 starts on the season, and opponents are being outscored 4.6 to 2.8 in the 14 games. Those numbers expand to a whopping 5.4 to 1.9 in the 11 wins, or by 3.5 runs per game. The Phillies are an ugly 4-28 in their last 32 games as a dog of +201 or higher, and are not ready for prime time. Motivation plus hot pitcher equals Washington on the runline.