Tampa Bay Rays vs Washington Nationals Prediction & Picks - MLB

Prediction published on 6/20/26, 12:38 PM  by Bill Christy | Modified on 6/23/26 at 9:43 AM in MLB Picks

The Tampa Bay Rays (42-30) took game one of their weekend series against the Washington Nationals (39-37) on Friday evening. The Nationals used a bullpen start in game one with PJ Poulin going just the 1st two innings. He fared well and did not allow a run, but Mile Mikolas was rocked when he came in and allowed 5 runs on 9 hits in his 6 innings of work. Jonathan Aranda and Jonny Deluca each homered off Mikolas en route to the 5-2 victory. Griffin Jax picked up the win by going 5 innings and holding Washington to just 2 runs. The bullpen cleaned up the rest of the way by pitching 4 innings of scoreless work.

The Nationals will look to Cade Cavalli in game two to get them back on track. He was slated to go in Friday’s game but came down with an illness that caused him to be scratched. He is coming off a win over the Mariners in his last start. He allowed 3 runs over 5 innings in that win and struck out 5 while walking none. He will be countered by Ian Seymour of the Rays, who is likely to do the same work that Poulin did for the Nationals yesterday. He did go 4 innings against Boston earlier this month, but the majority of his work has been in relief. He is coming off 3.1 innings of work against the Angels, where he was a bit erratic. He walked 3 batters and allowed 2 runs in the game, but the Rays were able to pull out an 8-3 win in the end.

Tampa Bay is 2nd in their division and is 3rd in the league on combined batting average. An uncertain spot for Cavalli here could prove to be a rough afternoon for him and the Nationals.