Anemic offenses slowing Nationals, Cardinals

The St. Louis Cardinals and Washington Nationals are both looking to jump-start their offenses after suffering lulls this week.

Washington scored just three runs while getting swept by the San Diego Padres in three games at home. St. Louis scored just three times while losing two of three games to the Pirates in Pittsburgh.

The Nationals and Cardinals will try to revive their attack when they meet Friday night to open their three-game series in St. Louis.

Washington will come into this matchup after being no-hit by San Diego's Dylan Cease on Thursday afternoon.

"He kept our hitters off-balance all game," Nationals manager Dave Martinez said. "I watched him all game. He never really gave us much to hit. When you have an elite curveball like he does, it makes it tough when he is around the plate with it. He threw his fastball when he needed to. At the end, he threw the last one at 100 (mph)."

The Nationals will open this series with left-hander MacKenzie Gore (6-8, 4.20 ERA), who has allowed 12 runs on 11 hits and 12 walks in 10 innings over his last three starts.

After posting a 3.19 ERA in the first month of the season and a 2.60 mark in May, Gore has seen his ERA soar to 5.13 in June and 7.47 in July as his bases on balls piled up.

"We know what the problem is," Gore said after retiring just six batters in his last start against the Cincinnati Reds. "I'm going to stop talking about it, and I'm going to figure out a way -- whenever I pitch again -- figure out a way to be better."

The last time Gore faced the Cardinals, on July 6, he walked five batters and allowed six hits and five runs in 3 1/3 innings in a game the Nationals eventually won 14-6. Masyn Winn, Willson Contreras, Nolan Arenado and Brendan Donovan all had RBI singles against him.

Gore is 0-1 with a 9.64 ERA in two career starts against the Cardinals.

Overall, though, the Cardinals have struggled against left-handed pitching this season -- hitting just .223 with a .623 OPS.

"We just haven't produced against lefties, plain and simple," St. Louis manager Oliver Marmol said. "Our righties have been about average, and our left-on-left production is fairly low. It's been all year. We're battling through it. There have been some games that are better than others."

The Cardinals hope to get right-hander Sonny Gray (10-4, 3.54) back on track Friday. He has struggled in his last four starts while allowing 19 runs (16 earned) on 32 hits in 23 1/3 innings.

Gray struck out 10 batters in his last start, a 9-5 victory at Atlanta, but the Braves hit four homers against him.

"I've always said that solo homers won't beat you," Gray said. "Fortunately, you give up four solo homers and you're cutting it close."

The Nationals scored five runs against Gray on eight hits in five innings in a game St. Louis won 7-6 in 11 innings on July 5. Luis Garcia Jr. had a homer and an RBI single in that game and CJ Abrams had a two-run double.

Gray is 2-1 with a 4.70 ERA in eight career starts against the Nationals.

--Field Level Media