St. Louis @ Washington preview

Last Meeting ( Oct 12, 2019 ) Washington 3, St. Louis 1

The Washington Nationals' offense hasn't been lighting up the scoreboard so far in the National League Championship Series, but any meager production it can manage has been plenty to support the starting pitching. The Nationals will try to get another dominant effort out of a starting pitcher and take a commanding 3-0 lead in the series when they host the St. Louis Cardinals in Game 3 on Monday.

Anibal Sanchez took a no-hitter into the eighth inning of Game 1 and Max Scherzer followed by taking a no-hitter into the seventh in Saturday's 3-1 Game 2 triumph, putting some added pressure on Monday starter Stephen Strasburg to match the efforts of his teammates. "I've always said that teams can create what is essentially a domino effect - if one guy's going well, the other guy can come in and do well simply because he's motivated to do the same thing," Sanchez said in Spanish, translated by ESPN. "It's a competitive thing." The Cardinals managed a total of four hits in the first two games while being outscored 5-1 and will counter with Jack Flaherty as they try to climb back into the series on Monday. "As far as adjustments go, you have guys that have been getting some pretty good pitches to hit, not a lot of them, there's not been a lot of pitches to feast on," St. Louis manager Mike Shildt told reporters. "Feel like the competition's there, the approach is there, we just got to be able to continue to - when guys are pitching at that level, and again I don't want to minimize that we're not competing or we're not focusing right, but we got to figure out a way to be that much better, and that's a challenge right now for us. We got the guys in the clubhouse that will figure out what that looks like."

TV: 7:38 p.m. ET, TBS

PITCHING MATCHUP: Cardinals RH Jack Flaherty (1-1, 2.77 ERA) vs. Nationals RH Stephen Strasburg (2-0, 2.40)

Flaherty quickly became the team's ace over a dominate second half of the regular season and earned the win in Game 5 of the NLDS when he held the Atlanta Braves to one run and four hits over six innings. The 23-year-old faced Washington one other time during his career - a five-inning stint on Sept. 3, 2018 - and owns 16 strikeouts over 13 innings during the postseason. "If there's one guy on our staff that we know gives us a good chance to get back in the series, it's him," St. Louis third baseman Matt Carpenter told reporters of Flaherty.

Strasburg came out of the bullpen with three scoreless innings to turn the tide in the Nationals' favor in the Wild Card Game and followed up with a pair of quality starts in the NLDS, limiting the Los Angeles Dodgers to a total of four runs across 12 innings. The former No. 1 overall pick owns 21 strikeouts in 15 total innings this postseason and is aware of what his rotation mates have accomplished. "I think they controlled the tempo of the game very well," Strasburg told reporters. "They had a lot of poise out there. Just seems like they were just playing catch out there. It's easier said than done, but they had everything working and they made it look really easy."

WALK-OFFS

1. The Cardinals are attempting to become the fourth team in MLB history to win a best-of-seven series after dropping the first two games at home.

2. Washington CF Victor Robles (hamstring) sat out the last five games and remains day-to-day.

3. St. Louis OF Jose Martinez is 2-for-2 with the team's lone RBI in the series and could get his first start of the postseason on Monday.

PREDICTION: Nationals 2, Cardinals 1