Washington Nationals at Chicago Cubs 5/17/21 - MLB Picks & Predictions

In Monday night MLB action, the Washington Nationals will invade Wrigley Field to take on the Chicago Cubs. The Nationals (16-20) have won three of their last four games and trail New York by three full games for the NL East Division lead. On Sunday, Washington SP Erick Fedde (3-4) tossed seven scoreless innings during a 3-0 home victory versus Arizona.

Thirty-seven year old southpaw Jon Lester (0-1 2.25 ERA) will make his fourth start of the season for the Nationals. Last time out, Lester allowed one run in six innings during a 5-2 home loss versus Philadelphia.

The Chicago Cubs have dropped four of their previous six games and are a game below .500 overall. On Sunday, Chicago SP Kyle Hendricks (3-4) took a shutout into the ninth inning during a 5-1 home victory versus Detroit. OF Ian Happ went deep as part of a three-hit afternoon for the Cubs (19-20), who are 3.5 games out of first place.

Chicago manager David Ross will give the nod to hard-throwing righty Adbert Alzolay (1-3 4.50 ERA) on Monday. Through 32 innings, Alzolay has fanned 36 batters and owns a sparkling 0.88 WHIP.