Rays at Nationals 6/5/18 - MLB Picks & Predictions

Interleague play will be on display in the nation’s capital on Tuesday night, when the Tampa Bay Rays take on the Washington Nationals. The Rays were swept in the Seattle over the weekend and scored just five runs total in the three games. Tampa Bay is two games below .500 overall and trails New York by 12 games in the AL East Division standings.

Hard-throwing righty Nathan Eovaldi (1-0 0.00 ERA) will make his second start of the season for the Rays. Eovaldi, who was coming back from an elbow injury, tossed six no-hit innings during a 6-0 victory at Oakland last time out. The Washington Nationals got off to a slow start, but are showing why most people believe that they are the best team in the NL East. The Nationals lost three out of four in Atlanta over the weekend and scored just nine runs total. Washington is eight games above .500 overall and trails the Braves by 1.5 games for the division lead.

The Nationals will counter with dominant righty Max Scherzer (9-1 1.92 ERA) on Tuesday. In his last start, Scherzer struck out 12 batters over eight scoreless frames during a 2-0 victory at Baltimore.