The Atlanta Braves and New York Mets will play the second game of their Saturday doubleheader this evening with the first pitch set for 7:15 p.m. ET at Citi Field in Queens, New York. Righty ace Spencer Strider (12-4, 3.94 ERA) will step on the hill for the Braves and go up against Mets starter Jose Quintana (0-3, 3.42 ERA).
Atlanta dominated its division rival in the series opener on Friday, blanking N.Y. in a 7-0 shutout. Austin Riley continued to do damage with his bat, going 3-4 with a homer and two RBI in the win.
The Braves enter the game as -218 favorites on the moneyline over at DraftKings Sportsbook, while the Mets are +180 underdogs. The run total is set at 8.5.
Braves-Mets picks: Saturday, August 12th
Injury report
Braves
Out: SP Kyle Wright (shoulder), SP Kolby Allard (shoulder), RP Nick Anderson (shoulder), RP Jesse Chavez (shin), RP Dylan Lee (shoulder), OF Sam Hilliard (heel), RP Daysbel Hernandez (forearm), SS Ehire Adrianza (elbow)
Mets
Day-To-Day: SS Francisco Lindor (side), OF DJ Stewart (wrist)
Out: OF Starling Marte (groin), 2B Luis Guillorme (calf)
Starting pitchers
Strider has been hit or miss in his outings over the last month and got rocked against the Pirates this past Monday. He lasted just 2.2 innings in the eventual loss, yielding six earned runs off five hits and three walks. The NL Cy Young candidate is still a threat to hit 10 K’s in any given start and needs to avoid snowballing innings to have a dominant start.
Quintana has been solid since making his debut for the team a few weeks ago, but has been a hard-luck loser in each of his outings. That was the case in last Sunday’s 2-0 shutout loss to the Orioles, where he struck out six and yielded just two earned runs in 6.0 innings. This current Braves lineup is batting .267 against him for his career, so he’ll try to keep them off-balance for tonight.
Over/Under pick
It’s tricky to predict the over/under in the back half of a doubleheader, but I’ll lean toward pitching to get the upper hand in this matchup. Strider and Quintana are both capable of giving their respective teams six solid innings or more and I think runs will be hard to come by in this one.
Pick: Under 8.5
Moneyline pick
The Mets have struggled at the plate as of late and as mentioned before, they’ve failed to provide Quintana with adequate run support in his recent starts. Three or four runs should be enough for the Braves to come out on top and end the doubleheader with a win tonight.
Pick: Braves