The Braves face the Astros in Houston! Our MLB odds series has our Braves Astros prediction, odds, and pick for Tuesday.
The Atlanta Braves have come out very strong to open the season. They are 9-5 and are 3-2 in their last five games. They have picked up where they left off last season with an insanely strong batting lineup that is statistically the best in the MLB. Marcell Ozuna has dominated at the plate early on for Atlanta and has started out the hottest at the beginning of the season. Their pitching has also been great thanks to a strong rotation that added Chris Sale this past offseason to make it even better. The Braves will be in the mix once again in the NL after finishing last season with a 104-58 record and atop the NL and their early play so far has shown they should be there once again.
The Astros have opened this season struggling. They have a 6-11 record and are 2-3 in their last five games, where they won two games in a row after losing four straight. Despite their early struggles, their offense has played their part with a top-three batting average as a team in the MLB. The issue facing Houston is that so far they are getting shelled on the mound. Justin Verlander and Framber Valdez are both put due to injury and JP France has not played well in the starting rotation at all after last season where he had a decent year. The Astros have talent still, but they need to figure out their issues before it becomes too late.
Here are the MLB Odds, courtesy of FanDuel.
MLB Odds: Braves-Astros Odds
Atlanta Braves: -1.5 (+126)
Moneyline: -118
Houston Astros: +1.5 (-152)
Moneyline: +100
Over: 9.5 (-120)
Under: 9.5 (-102)
How to Watch Braves vs. Astros
Time: 8:10 pm ET/ 5:10 pm PT
TV: TBS
Stream: fuboTV (Click for free trial)
Why The Braves Will Cover The Spread/Win
The Braves are going with Reynaldo Lopez to start on the mound. He has a 1-0 record, a 0.75 ERA, and a 1.00 WHIP. Through 12 innings, he has an 11:5 K:BB ratio. He has appeared in two total games so far this season and the Braves are 1-1 in those games. Last season, Lopez was decent when he was on the Guardians and had a season-long K/BB of 3.0. Lopez gets the start and after two starts so far, expect him to get even better in a matchup against the Astros.
The Braves offense has felt like they picked up immediately where they left off just last season. They are currently the top-ranked team in the MLB in batting average at .301 just one year after finishing atop the league with a .276 batting average. Marcell Ozuna has opened the season on a tear for the Braves leading the team in batting average at .373, home runs at seven, RBI at 21, OBP at .413, and 22 hits. Four other Braves have hit at least two home runs and five total Braves have a batting average over .300.
Why The Astros Will Cover The Spread/Win
The Astros are putting Hunter Brown on the mound where he has an 0-2 record, a 16.43 ERA, and a 3.91 WHIP. Through 7.2 innings, Brown has a 8:7 K:BB ratio this season so far. He got shelled in his last time out against the Royals and was pulled after two-thirds of an inning. Last season, Brown was not good with an 11-13 record and a 5.09 ERA, and then he had a K/BB across the whole season of 3.2. Brown needs to start pitching better this season. He has struggled, allowing 23 hits in three appearances so far for the Astros.
The offense for the Astros has been the bright spot so far this season. The Astros are third in the MLB in team batting average at .277 after having a team batting average of .259 last season where they finished fifth in the MLB. Jose Altuve leads the Astros in almost every important batting category. He leads in batting average at .382, in home runs at five, in OBP at .462, and in hits at 26. Kyle Tucker then leads the team in RBI at 13. At least four Astros have hit three or more home runs and then five different Astros have it over .300 in batting average.
Final Braves-Astros Prediction & Pick
This is a bad matchup for the Astros. There is no team that is hitting the ball better to start the season than the Braves and the one thing the Astros have struggled with is their pitching. They are not healthy and the players that are healthy have struggled outside of Cristian Javier. Brown has not only struggled in his three appearances this season, but it has not been even close to a good outing. Marcell Ozuna and the rest of the Braves have to be licking their chops in this matchup. Expect the Braves to win this easily behind their offense and steady play thanks to Lopez on the mound.
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Final Braves-Astros Prediction & Pick: Braves -1.5 (+126)
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