Washington Nationals vs. Colorado Rockies July 21 Free Pick

By MLB

A nice Sunday win gets us back on track heading into the last full week of July as the dog days just keep plodding by. The Washington Nationals are set to travel out to Coors Field and take on the Colorado Rockies. The Nats are coming off a home series win versus the free-falling Milwaukee Brewers. Speaking of free-falling, the Rockies have had all sorts of troubles themselves after what seemed like a promising start to the season. Washington looks to take advantage and continue gaining position in the NL East. The Nats are anywhere from a -130 to a -140 favorite on Monday night, depending where you shop and how hard you look.

Free Pick

The Rockies are not a bad club when everyone in healthy and playing well. But unfortunately, that is almost never the case and Colorado has seen another season come and go with that feeling that it never got the chance it deserved. The Rox are 18-44 since May 7, which is the worst in baseball over that stretch of games. With Carlos Gonzalez just getting healthy and rejoining the lineup, Troy Tulowitzki went down with some cramping over the weekend. Tulo’s status is uncertain as of now, and if you are going to make a late play on this game, it might be worth waiting to get a firmer report. But I am going to go ahead and assume Tulowitzki will be out with the Rockies rarely willing to push the ever-so fragile shortstop when he feels discomfort (who would blame them?). fister

Meanwhile, Doug Fister gets the start for Washington. And that’s a good thing for the road team. Fister has been Washington’s best starter this season and has been flying under the radar in the National League after starting the season late following an injury. The righty has posted a 1.07 WHIP and 2.90 ERA in his first season in the NL. And he’s been doing it with his relentless consistency mastery of the strike zone. Fister isn’t the type of guy a struggling team wants to face. And that’s just what the doctor has prescribed for Colorado on Monday.

The Rockies rebuttal with Franklin Morales, who just isn’t very good. I’ve done write-ups of games involving Morales in the past. A WHIP over 1.50 and an ERA over 5.00. Morales is usually only effective in short stretches and the Rockies’ bullpen won’t be good enough to hold the Nationals down for four, five innings. Not enough to beat Fister, at least. If you can find -130, or something close to it, grab it quick.

Free Pick: Washington (-130)

YTD: 25-20-2 +1.88


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