Baseball Betting: Atlanta Braves at Philadelphia Phillies

Added on Jul 06, 2012 by Jack Thurman in

MLB

The Atlanta Braves and Philadelphia Phillies begin a weekend series in National League East play and both teams are in an unfamiliar position–well off the pace in the divisional race. The Braves are in better shape–they enter today’s game in third place six games back of the Washington Nationals. Philadelphia is a different story as the team is a complete mess right now. They’re 10 games under .500 in last place and have yet to show any signs that they can turn this around.

Atlanta Braves at Philadelphia Phillies
July 6, 2012 4:05 PM Pacific

Things just aren’t going the Philadelphia Phillies way right now and that’s symptomatic of how their entire season has progressed. Last night, for example, they were in a great position to pick up a much needed victory against divisional foes the New York Mets. Mets’ ace R.A. Dickey didn’t have his best stuff and the Phillies had their consistent lefty Cole Hamels on the mound. Instead the Mets mounted a late inning comeback and won the game on a bloop single in the bottom of the 9th.

The Braves haven’t been in great form either this season, but there’s at least the sense that they can go on a strong run and get back into the divisional race. That’s been the Braves’ style for years–they’re often erratic in the early part of the campaign but as summer gets into the hot, steamy ‘dog days’ they start winning games with regularity. Atlanta’s biggest problem this season has been their performance at home–they’re 20-22 at Turner Field but they’ve got a record over .500 away from home. They’ve also been very profitable on the road this season with a +8.2 unit profit to date.

Atlanta will send veteran Tim Hudson to the mound today and he’s been solid all season and especially so on the road where he checks in with a tidy 2.34 ERA. More importantly, the Braves have won 4 of his 5 starts away from Turner Field. Philadelphia will counter with Kyle Kendrick who has been far less impressive with a 5.01 ERA overall. The Phillies have lost 8 of his 12 starts including 4 of 6 at home.

Frank Sinatra endured a notoriously bad run of personal and professional fortune early in his career that began with his breakup with Ava Gardner and ended with his Oscar winning performance in ‘From Here To Eternity’ . In retrospect, the Chairman of the Board quipped that it was “a year full of Mondays”. That’s a good way to sum up the Phillies 2012 season where they’ve not played well and not caught any breaks. The struggles should continue here as a Braves team poised for a second half run picks up the victory.

Bet Atlanta Braves (Hudson) -125 over Philadelphia Phillies (Kendrick)