A pair of teams trending in opposite directions will square off for the first of three games on Friday night, when the Washington Nationals host the visiting St. Louis Cardinals.
Winners of five straight games, St. Louis can match its longest winning streak since July 2023 with a victory over the struggling Nationals. The Cardinals are fresh off a three-game home sweep of the Pittsburgh Pirates, when the club allowed just four total runs.
After a lackluster start to the season, St. Louis’ recent success has manager Oliver Marmol’s team improved from a 10-15 record into a three-way tie for second place in the National League Central.
“I think our consistency is paying off,” Marmol said. “I think we’ve played the same style of baseball. Our rotation has done a really nice job, some of the pieces we’ve added to the bullpen have allowed for a little more success there as well. We have to be the best at getting better every day.
“We have to be better in May than we were in April and then into June. … We have to hold all of ourselves accountable to that standard and I feel really good about the process that’s in place.”
Looking to prolong the team’s winning ways, right-hander Erick Fedde (2-3, 4.78 ERA) gets the series-opening start Friday. Fedde, 32, is coming off a victory over the New York Mets on Sunday, when he allowed three runs across five innings.
Fedde, who appeared in 102 games with the Nationals from 2017-22, has made one start against his former club — throwing seven scoreless innings against Washington as a member of the Chicago White Sox last May.
The Nationals enter after losing two of three games during a high-scoring series with the Cleveland Guardians. Washington surrendered 26 runs over the three games — including an 8-6 setback on Wednesday afternoon. Cleveland scored 17 of the runs against the Nationals’ bullpen.
“Our bullpen is struggling right now,” Nationals manager Dave Martinez said. “(Cleveland) tacked on a lot of runs against us, and we just couldn’t finish. … Offensively we’ve had chances to put a team away, we’ve just got to keep working to get good at bats and keep scoring runs.”
Washington’s 5.37 ERA from its staff was 27th in the majors, while the 141 walks surrendered, heading into play Thursday, were the third most in the National League, only behind Miami’s 159 and Milwaukee’s 145.
Left-hander Mitchell Parker (3-2, 3.48) will receive his eighth start of the season for the Nationals, aiming to turn the page on a pair of subpar outings. Parker has allowed 12 runs (11 earned) over his last two starts — including five runs surrendered over four innings in a 6-1 defeat against the Cincinnati Reds on Friday.
Parker faced the Cardinals once in his rookie season in 2024, allowing just one earned run in his seven-inning stint, before the Nationals fell 6-0.
