Braves Will Bully Mets Tonight

Braves vs. Mets, 7:10 ET

Division rival games are always interesting to me. Think about it, in most sports you play the teams two to four times. In baseball, you play these teams something like 12-16 times each year. That's a lot of opportunities to get to know the strengths and weaknesses of your opponent. This is the first time these two opponents face each other - let's see how we should play it.

The Braves are rolling to start the year with a very solid 17-9 record and have been awesome on the road to start the year. Atlanta doesn't seem to have many weaknesses right now. One of my favorite things about them is that they have at least three stars: Matt Olson, Ronald Acuna Jr., and Ozzie Albies. All three of them are leading the team in something (Olson homers, Acuna average, and Albies RBIs). That doesn't mention how awesome their pitching is. One of those studs is Max Fried. He foes today and since coming back from injury, he hasn't allowed a run. He has a pretty solid track record against the Mets, Pete Alonso and Jeff McNeil have seen success, but not much else.

Mets take on the Braves tonight at Citi Field. (Photo by Kelly Gavin/MLB Photos via Getty Images)

Peterson Not Pitching Consistently

The Mets have also played pretty solid baseball to start the year. Like the Braves, they have played better on the road than they have at home to start the year, but they are above .500 in both spots at least. The Mets lost four games in a row before finally getting a win against the Nationals yesterday. With the loaded talent in the NL East, and the start of the Braves, the Mets can't afford to fall behind far in the standings. David Peterson is taking the ball for the Mets tonight. He's had a rough go of it in three of his past four starts. He has allowed at least five earned runs in all three of those games. His best start of the season was probably the only home start he had. Peterson went 5.2 innings and allowed just two earned runs in that game. Braves hitters have had some success against Peterson, but it isn't anything too alarming.

Maybe it is the matchup, maybe it is home field advantage, whatever the maybe is, I think the price is too low on Max Fried here. I'm backing the Braves to win this game at -135. They are very talented, have looked great on the road, and have a guy that is capable of winning a Cy Young against a very inconsistent pitcher. I'd even be willing to sprinkle the run line at +125.

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