{"id":24407,"date":"2012-08-20T08:01:29","date_gmt":"2012-08-20T13:01:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=24407"},"modified":"2012-08-20T08:01:29","modified_gmt":"2012-08-20T13:01:29","slug":"mlb-picks-2012-atlanta-braves-vs-washington-nationals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/mlb-picks-2012-atlanta-braves-vs-washington-nationals-24407\/","title":{"rendered":"MLB Picks 2012: Atlanta Braves vs. Washington Nationals"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Atlanta Braves (70-51) and Washington Nationals (74-46) will open up an important National League East series on Monday night at Nationals Park, with the first pitch scheduled for 7:05 ET<\/p>\n

Atlanta Braves at Washington Nationals<\/strong><\/p>\n

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The Atlanta Braves begin a huge series against the Washington Nationals on Monday night<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Atlanta scored just two runs in losing the final two games of a series against the Los Angeles Dodgers, including a 2-0 shutout loss at Turner Field on Sunday afternoon.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019re not swinging the bats real well right now,\u201d commented Braves third baseman Chipper Jones.\u00a0 The Braves have been known to go into some dry spells, with this one being caused by going hitless in 12 at-bats with runners in scoring position in the last two contests.\u00a0 Atlanta is 8-6 as a road underdog of +100 to +125 this season, but are just 2-13 on Mondays.<\/p>\n

Braves starting pitcher Tim Hudson (12-4, 3.59 ERA) has led the club to eight consecutive wins, including a 6-0 home victory over the San Diego Padres in his last effort, allowing just two hits in 6.1 shutout innings.\u00a0 The right-hander is 5-1 with a 3.06 ERA in eight road starts, surrendering just four home runs in 53 combined frames.\u00a0 In 25\u00a0 career games versus the Nationals, Hudson has compiled an impressive 14-5 record and 2.53 ERA, but suffered an 8-4 setback at home on July 1.<\/p>\n

Washington pushed its lead to five games in the NL East division over tonight\u2019s opponent with a 5-2 home win over the New York Mets on Sunday, as the club was able to stay in the moment.\u00a0 \u201cSure, we pay attention to Atlanta, but we are concentrating on what we have at hand,\u201d commented Nationals manager Davey Johnson.\u00a0 Nationals rookie outfielder Bryce Harper is starting to produce at the plate again, going 4 for 8 over the weekend, which directly followed a 3-for-32 slump.\u00a0 Washington is 31-18 against divisional foes this year.<\/p>\n

Nationals starting pitcher Jordan Zimmerman (9-7, 2.38 ERA) is coming off a 6-1 road loss to the San Francisco Giants, allowing two runs and eight hits over 5.2 innings.\u00a0 The right-hander is 2-3 with a 2.90 ERA in 11 home outings, surrendering six home runs in 68.1 combined frames.\u00a0 In four career starts versus the Braves, Zimmerman has registered a winning 2-1 record and 3.09 ERA, with opposing hitters batting .212 against him.<\/p>\n

Sports bettors will likely back the Braves due to their 5-0 mark versus division foes with Hudson on the mound, while the Nationals are 0-4 as a home favorite of -110 to -150.<\/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 Atlanta Braves (70-51) and Washington Nationals (74-46) will open up an important National League East series on Monday night at Nationals Park, with the first pitch scheduled for 7:05 ET Atlanta Braves at Washington Nationals Atlanta scored just two runs in losing the final two games of a series against the Los Angeles Dodgers, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":4479,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444],"tags":[243,6722,2646,2104,1651,850],"class_list":["post-24407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","tag-atlanta-braves","tag-jordan-zimmerman","tag-national-league-east","tag-nationals-park","tag-tim-hudson","tag-washington-nationals"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24407","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=24407"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24407\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24408,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24407\/revisions\/24408"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}