{"id":15400,"date":"2011-05-13T09:09:20","date_gmt":"2011-05-13T14:09:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=15400"},"modified":"2011-05-13T09:09:20","modified_gmt":"2011-05-13T14:09:20","slug":"philadelphia-phillies-at-atlanta-braves-mlb-handicapping-picks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/philadelphia-phillies-at-atlanta-braves-mlb-handicapping-picks-15400\/","title":{"rendered":"Philadelphia Phillies at Atlanta Braves MLB Handicapping Picks"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Philadelphia Phillies and Atlanta Braves get set to play the series opener of a three-game set on Friday night between divisional foes at Turner Field<\/p>\n

Philadelphia Phillies at Atlanta Braves<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The Atlanta Braves and Philadelphia Phillies have split the first six games against each other this year<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Philadelphia travels to Atlanta this weekend for the third meeting of the season with Atlanta and second of the week.\u00a0 The Phillies currently hold a three-game lead in the National League East division and the season series is leveled at 3-3 heading into tonight\u2019s series opener.\u00a0 \u201cWe have the utmost respect for them and we\u2019ll treat them like the NL East champs they\u2019ve been for the past four years,\u201d said Braves third baseman Chipper Jones.\u00a0 Outfielder Raul Ibanez figures to play a prominent role in this series, as he\u2019s hitting .500 and has recorded six multi-hit games since May 2.\u00a0 Philadelphia is 15-8 versus division opponents this year.<\/p>\n

Phillies starting pitcher Cole Hamels is 4-2 with a 2.83 ERA in seven starts this season and is coming off a 5-2 home loss versus the Braves last time out.\u00a0 The left-hander allowed three earned runs and five hits over seven innings in that particular outing, surrendering a season-high two home runs in the process.\u00a0 Hamels will be making his fourth road start of the year, bringing in a perfect 3-0 mark and 1.23 ERA, as opponents are hitting just .158 against him.\u00a0 In 22 career starts versus the Braves, he has garnered a solid 10-6 record and 3.72 ERA.<\/p>\n

Atlanta erased a four-run deficit in earning a 6-5 win over Washington on Thursday night\u00a0 and will look to put its recent play behind them.\u00a0 \u201cWe pretty much got our tails kicked for the better part of three games,\u201d Jones stated.\u00a0 \u201cWe stole one tonight.\u00a0 They stole one last night and we just gave one away the first night.\u201d\u00a0 Catcher Brian McCann supplied the walk-off single that continues his red-hot hitting with runners in scoring position.\u00a0 He currently leads the NL with a .519 average with runners in scoring position.\u00a0 Atlanta\u2019s early season success has been directly related to a starting staff that paces the NL with a 2.92 ERA.\u00a0 The staff ranks second in the league with 24 quality starts and has given up the second fewest home runs.<\/p>\n

Braves starting pitcher Brandon Beachy is enjoying a solid rookie campaign, posting an even 1-1 record and 2.98 ERA in seven starts.\u00a0 The right-hander will be throwing in front of the home crowd for the fifth time tonight, coming in with a 0-1 mark and 4.07 ERA, with the team producing a 1-3 record in those games.\u00a0 Beachy will be making his second career start versus the Phillies, as he picked up a 10-2 home loss on April 9, giving up four earned runs and seven hits over six innings.<\/p>\n

Bettors will likely back the Phillies due to their 44-17 record versus divisional foes, while the Braves are 1-4 in Beachy\u2019s last five home starts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Philadelphia Phillies and Atlanta Braves get set to play the series opener of a three-game set on Friday night between divisional foes at Turner Field Philadelphia Phillies at Atlanta Braves Philadelphia travels to Atlanta this weekend for the third meeting of the season with Atlanta and second of the week.\u00a0 The Phillies currently hold […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":4982,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444],"tags":[243,4930,2675,203,762,98,1652],"class_list":["post-15400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","tag-atlanta-braves","tag-brandon-beachy","tag-brian-mccann","tag-chipper-jones","tag-cole-hamels","tag-philadelphia-phillies","tag-turner-field"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/181"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15400"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15400\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15401,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15400\/revisions\/15401"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}