Chicago Cubs at Washington Nationals 7/31/21 - MLB Picks & Predictions

The Chicago Cubs will begin a new era when they travel on the road to Nationals Park to take on the Washington Nationals. After a rough couple of months, the Cubs made a major splash at the deadline trading away their core and will begin their rebuilding process. Washington still has a chance to make the playoffs in a weak NL East, but were also sellers at the deadline trading away Max Scherzer and Trae Turner.

Even before trading away their three best players, the Cubs were really struggling on the offensive end hitting just .227 ranking 28th in the MLB, and are scoring 4.20 runs per game which ranks 20th in the MLB. It’s a completely new look infield with Kris Bryant, Javier Baez, and Anthony Rizzo on the outs - none were having excellent seasons but it is safe to assume the Cubs minor league players will struggle.

The right-hander Kyle Hendricks will get the start for the Cubs and hope to continue his excellent season where he’s 12-4 with a 3.85 ERA. Hendricks struggled in his last outing allowing five runs on nine hits in 4 ⅓ innings of work, the Cubs were able to battle back and win 6-5. Hendricks has also been a better starter at home, but he’s having a solid season on the road as well.

Washington has been a loaded offense this season that is hitting .248 on the year which ranks third in the MLB this season and are 17th in scoring offense. With the trade of shortstop Trea Turner to the Dodgers who was hitting .322 with 18 homeruns and 49 RBIs, those numbers will likely be affected but they still have young outfielder Juan Soto in the lineup who leads the team with 58 RBIs and is hitting .302.

The Nationals have not announced a starter yet for this contest and the depth of the rotation was no doubt weakened with the trade of Scherzer. Washington has a team ERA of 4.39 on the season which ranks 17th in the league and whoever gets the start will get the benefit of facing one of the worst offenses in the MLB.