Cubs minus $1.15 at Nationals
So this is what you have going by laying this short road price with the Cubs:
You get the best team in baseball off only its fifth loss in 19 games. You would have to go back 19 games to find the last time the Cubs dropped two in a row.
You get a team that has won 67 percent of its last 55 road games and has beaten Washington during six of the past seven meetings.
You get the better offense. The Cubs are averaging 5.4 runs per game, third-best in the majors. The Nationals average 4.6 runs a game.
You get the much hotter starter in a pitching matchup of John Lackey versus southpaw Gio Gonzalez.
Lackey is going for his ninth straight quality start. He’s pitched 13 2/3 scoreless innings this month with 17 strikeouts. Lackey beat the Nationals last month at home giving up two runs on six hits in seven inning with 11 strikeouts.
Let’s compare this to Gonzalez, who is in a funk giving up 21 earned runs in his last four starts spanning 22 2/3 innings. The Nationals lost all four of these games. This doesn’t even include Gonzalez’s May start against the Cubs when he allowed five runs and couldn’t get out of the sixth inning.
The Cubs are 13-5 versus lefties, averaging 5.7 runs per game against them. Chicago has won 10 of the past 12 times on the road facing a southpaw.
