MLB: Nationals vs Orioles Preview

MLB inter-league play is underway and one of the games that are on a lot of people’s mind today is the on going battle between the Washington Nationals and the Baltimore Orioles.

The Orioles currently lead this four game series by one game as the Nationals will be looking to split this series.

The key to the Nationals success in splitting this series is Adam LaRoche.  LaRoche got the season started off slow that left a lot of people wondering what was wrong with him.  However, he has since hit his stride.  He was instrumental in the Nationals win against Baltimore on Tuesday, hitting two homers, and had a good game yesterday despite a 9-6 loss .

“I’m way more comfortable than I was early on,” LaRoche said. “But similar to last year, I feel like last year I was able to piece it together and stay away from those two or three huge, long ruts. So I got one out of the way this year, and I’ll just try to ride this out.”

The Orioles will be looking to slow LaRoche’s luck with starter Freddy Garcia.

The right-hander had a good outing last game, though it was his first win of the season.  He threw for five innings against the Blue Jays.  He did not walk a single batter in said game.

The Nationals will be using Dan Haren in an attempt to slow the O’s roll.  Haren struck out 10 batter in his last outing against the Phillies.  He only allowed three runs and four hits in that game.

Both pitchers will be challenged, however, as all the games in this series thus far have been barn burners.  The lowest scoring game of this series had a combined eight runs, the highest had 15.  Neither teams pitching staff is happy about those types of number will be attempting to buckle down in order to hold down runs on both sides.

According to the betting lines at Bovada, the Orioles are favorites to win this game and take the series with a -129 money line.  The Nationals money line is at +119.  You can check out the odds at other sites right here.  The game starts at 7:05 p.m.  ET.