![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/Brandon-Beachy-braves.jpg\")
<\/a>Washington will attempt to pick up its first sweep in Atlanta since the 2009 campaign on ESPN\u2019s Sunday Night Baseball, winning the first two games of the series by a combined 15-8 margin.\u00a0 \u201cThe offense scoring seven runs two days in a row, I feel like I\u2019m on vacation or something,\u201d stated Nationals manager Davey Johnson.\u00a0 Offensively, the team is averaging 4.2 runs during the month of May, which is much better than the 3.4 runs it managed to score in the previous month.\u00a0 Washington is 14-10 in May and the \u201cover\u201d is 16-7-1 in those contests.<\/p>\n
Nationals starting pitcher Gio Gonzalez (6-1, 1.98 ERA) has won his last four starts, including a 2-1 road win over the Philadelphia Phillies last time out. He tossed six shutout innings and allowed just three hits in that effort.\u00a0 The left-hander has compiled a solid 3-1 record and 2.70 ERA in five road outings, while not allowing a home run in 26.2 combined innings.\u00a0 Gonzalez will be facing the Braves for the first time due to starting his career in the American League with the Oakland Athletics.<\/p>\n
Atlanta will need to find a way to cope without having third baseman Chipper Jones in the lineup, going 7-17 this season when he doesn\u2019t start. The future Hall of Fame player just landed on the 15-day disabled list with a bruised left leg.\u00a0 The Braves have lost four straight games against the Nationals dating back to last September.\u00a0 Second baseman Dan Uggla will need to up his production, collecting just four hits over his last 30 at-bats,\u00a0 with the club scoring four or fewer runs in the last eight games.\u00a0 Atlanta is 4-9 against divisional foes this year, with the \u201cover\u201d going 7-6 in that situation.<\/p>\n
Braves starting pitcher Brandon Beachy (5-2, 1.77 ERA) had his three-game win streak snapped in dropping a 4-3 road decision to the Cincinnati Reds last time out, giving up a season-high four earned runs and six hits over seven frames.\u00a0 The right-hander has tallied a dominating 2-0 record and 0.78 ERA in three home starts, as opposing hitters are batting just .160 against him.\u00a0 In three career games versus the Nationals, Beachy is 1-1 with a 5.63 ERA, which includes a 4-1 road loss to end the 2011 campaign.<\/p>\n
Bettors will likely back the Nationals due to their 17-8 record as an underdog, while the Braves are 0-4 in their last four home games against left-handed starters.<\/p>\n
Make sure to check out our Major League Baseball picks<\/a> all season long and get the most up-to-date betting odds at Bookmaker<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Washington Nationals (28-18) and Atlanta Braves (26-22) will close out a three-game National League East series on Sunday night at Turner Field, with the first pitch scheduled for 8:05 ET on ESPN Washington Nationals at Atlanta Braves\u00a0 Washington will attempt to pick up its first sweep in Atlanta since the 2009 campaign on ESPN\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":15579,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444],"tags":[243,4930,203,1953,1492,6743,1652,850],"class_list":["post-23196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","tag-atlanta-braves","tag-brandon-beachy","tag-chipper-jones","tag-dan-uggla","tag-espn","tag-gio-gonzalez","tag-turner-field","tag-washington-nationals"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23196","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=23196"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23196\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23198,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23196\/revisions\/23198"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}