MLB Baseball
2012-04-19 - Atlanta Braves at Arizona D-Backs
A Sports Betting Pick by Auls
United States: Major League Baseball
Thursday 19 April 2012 - First Pitch 9:40pm ET
2:40am (British Standard Time)
Preview
The Atlanta Braves (7-5) head west to face the Arizona Diamondbacks (7-5) and they should be full of confidence having taken their last series against the New York Mets. The Diamondbacks come off a surprising series loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates culminating with a 1-2 loss yesterday.
Atlanta will be coming to this side of the United States to take on the Diamondbacks and the LA Dodgers in two series, but they have found a hot streak with their bats having scored at least 7 runs in 4 of their last 6 games and they have now won 7 of their last 8 having lost 4 in a row to open the new season.
Mike Minor goes to the mound for the Braves and he has a 1-1 record so far this season with a 4.38 ERA. He pitched well in his last start against Milwaukee by allowing 1 UNearned run from just over 7 innings pitched, although he has never faced the Diamondbacks before.
Minor will look to keep that kind of run going as he faces a batting line up that will be missing Chris Young (0.410 batting average in 2012) and Justin Upton who has a thumb injury and may be reduced to pinch hitting again.
Arizona had scored 27 runs in their previous 5 games before being held to just 1 last night in the loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates. They might need to start scoring again in this one as they send Josh Collmenter to the mound.
Collmenter is off to a rough start this season after he finished 10-10 last season from 31 starts as a rookie. The pitcher is 0-0 from his two starts this season, but has a 12.86 ERA and he was stung for 5 runs, while walking 3, in just 4 innings against the Colorado Rockies.
He did perform well against the Braves last season, going 1-1 in two starts and with a 0.69 ERA and he gave up just 6 hits from 13 innings pitched.
Head to Head
Atlanta won the last 3 games these teams played in the 2011 season, all coming at home.
However, Arizona are 4-2 in their last 6 home games against the Braves.
Prediction
I am going to try and ride the hot Atlanta bats in this first game between themselves and the Diamondbacks tonight.
I feel Josh Collmenter is having a tougher second season as a lot of his opponents would have seen the kind of stuff he has in his locker and I think the edge on the mound will go to Mike Minor, especially as Arizona are missing a couple of their top bats.
With the way the Braves have been striking the bats from the plate in their recent run of good form, I think there could be something in backing the Braves to win this on the run line and that is what I will be taking.
The Pick :
Arizona D-Backs 3-6 Atlanta Braves
FIXED ODDS BETTING TIP :
I'll back the Atlanta Braves -1.5 Runs @ 2.40
