Burnes Will Blank Nationals

Brewers vs. Nationals, 7:05 ET

Baseball this year hasn't been as dominant for me as it was last season. I get the occasional person on Twitter asking me what is different or if it was a fluke - it wasn't, baseball has always been a good source of income for me. I can't pinpoint what the difference is, and this year hasn't been bad, just not really getting much separation from the .500 mark. The Brewers are finally separating themselves from average and the Nationals are well-below average.

The focus today is going to be trades. Will the Brewers make any moves as they try and fight for the division? They have to battle a young Reds team that is likely to fall off, but the Cubs look like real contenders over the past couple of weeks. Still, the Brewers are in control right now and a couple of moves, small, large, or otherwise, could go a long way in assisting them to get to the top of the division. Corbin Burnes is set to start for them and the Brewers success has aligned a bit with Burnes's season. He never has been that bad this year, and neither were the Brewers. But, they've gotten hot in July and he has been phenomenal this month with just six earned runs allowed in five games and 33 innings pitched. That's more like the former Cy Young that we've become accustomed to.

May 5, 2023; San Francisco, California, USA; Milwaukee Brewers starting pitcher Corbin Burnes (39) walks off the field after pitching against the San Francisco Giants during the fourth inning at Oracle Park. Mandatory Credit: John Hefti-USA TODAY Sports

The weak-hitting Nationals are likely to not start the morning with the same team they start tomorrow's game with. Maybe that is a funky way to say that they are going to make some trades, but it is a very likely scenario. I find it hard to believe that the Nationals even care about this game as an organization. Most of the team is probably going to sit there and wonder if they will need to get a flight right away to some other squad. To try and focus on tonight's game, it will have to start with starter Jake Irvin. Irvin has had a decent enough season with a 4.96 ERA over 74.1 innings. He hasn't really excelled or been terrible in any one location over another. This month has been a bit of a mixed bag with two quality starts and two where he allowed four earned runs (one of which was just three innings of work). No Brewers hitters have ever faced him before so he might be able to work through the first few innings without allowing too much damage.

I'm taking the under in this game. The Brewers aren't offensive juggernauts and we know the Nationals struggle on offense. The pitchers are going to have the edge in this game. Burnes is pitching too well to stray away from him right now. I'll take the under and I'll take the under 3.5 or 2.5 on the Nationals team total depending on the juice.

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