Chicago Cubs vs. Washington Nationals Preview, Prediction & Odds | June 4, 2025

**Odds courtesy of DraftKings**

Apex Tale of The Tape

Projected Starting Pitchers H2H

Key Stats

Chicago Cubs

The Chicago Cubs are looking to build off Monday’s series-opening 8-3 road win over the Washington Nationals. The Cubbies were 9-for-34 with five walks and nine strikeouts on the day. Kyle Busch hit his ninth home run of the year while Pete Crow-Armstrong (twice) and Nico Hoerner each stole bases. Chicago was 4-for-8 with runners in scoring position throughout the game to keep the pressure on. Cade Horton secured the win to improve to 3-0 on the season as he pitched 5.1 innings and allowed three runs.

Veteran left-hander Matthew Boyd is going to be taking the mound for the Chicago Cubs for Wednesday’s game and is pitching well thus far as he is 5-2 with a 3.08 ERA and a 1.26 WHIP in 61.1 innings of work. He is limiting the amount of home runs allowed as he has given up seven heading into this start. This is the first time since 2023 that Boyd will be facing the Nationals so it will be a bit of a different lineup than he last saw.

Washington Nationals

The Washington Nationals struggled as they lost Monday’s game against the Chicago Cubs 8-3. The team finished hitting 8-for-32 with one walk and four strikeouts as CJ Abrams stole his 11th base while Luis Garcia Jr was caught stealing. Washington was held to just 2-for-10 with runners in scoring position while stranding four men on base. Trevor Williams struggled as he gave up five runs in 4.1 innings to lose his sixth game of the season.

The Nationals are sending young lefty MacKenzie Gore to the hill and pitched well thus far as in his first 12 starts, he is 3-5 with a 3.16 ERA and a 1.20 WHIP in 68.1 innings of work. He has figured out how to avoid giving up too many hits with a .241 batting average against, which is the best in his young career. Gore faced the Cubs once last season and recorded the win as in 7.0 innings he gave up one run on one hits with one hit by pitch, three walks, and nine strikeouts.

Chicago Cubs vs. Washington Nationals Betting Trends

Prediction

The old addage is that you are only as good as the starting pitcher and in the month of May, there was a massive difference. Matthew Boyd was 2-1 with a 5.16 ERA and a .264 opposing batting average in 22.2 innings (five starts) while MacKenzie Gore was 2-1 with a 1.26 ERA and a 0.80 WHIP in 28.2 innings (five starts) in that span. As a pitching staff, these teams are on different levels in giving up the long fly as the Cubs are tied with the Atlanta Braves for 19th with 67 home runs allowed while the Nats are tied with the Houston Astros for 10th with 59. Take Washington on the money line as a home underdog.

Final Pick

Washington Nationals ML (+114)