Pittsburgh Pirates vs Washington Nationals Prediction & Picks - MLB

Prediction published on 9/7/24, 10:13 AM  by Bill Christy in MLB Picks

The Pittsburgh Pirates (66-74) are hosting the Washington Nationals (62-78) Friday for game two of a 4-game series. The Pirates took game one 9-4 on the back of Nick Gonzalez who knocked in 3 runs. Andres Chaparro belted a homer and picked up 3 RBIs of his own in the loss for the Nats. The loss was the 3rd in 4 games for the Nats to start the month of September. Neither of these teams will be playing in the postseason but each will want to finish on high notes and play above their abilities going forward. The Nationals will start DJ Herz (2-7, 4.09) who only went 4.2 innings in his last start. He allowed 4 runs on 3 hits against the Cubs and took his 7th loss of the season. This was directly after he pitched 5 innings of scoreless ball against the Atlanta Braves while striking out 8 batters. For the Pirates, they will lean on Luis Ortiz (6-4, 3.19) to get them to 2-0 in this series. Over his last 2 starts, Ortiz has pitched 12 total innings and allowed a total of 0 runs. He has struck 5 in each start and picked up a win in each.