MLB Baseball Betting: San Diego Padres at Atlanta Braves

The San Diego Padres and Atlanta Braves finish off a three game set at Turner Field on Thursday as part of a very short (4 games) card in Major League Baseball. Atlanta won the opening game of the series on Tuesday and the outcome of Thursday’s game two is still pending. The Padres and Braves have little left to play for except some measure of ‘self respect’. At this moment, San Diego is tied for last place with the Arizona Diamondbacks. Arizona lost to San Francisco on Wednesday afternoon and doesn’t play on Thursday which gives the Padres a chance to move back into fourth place. They’ll face a tough challenge over the next week as they take on the NL West leading Los Angeles Dodgers at Chavez Ravine before heading East to take on the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park.

Atlanta has their own goal–to avoid finishing with the worst record in baseball. That looked like a fait accomplit a week or two ago but the worst team in the American League–the Minnesota Twins–have gone completely into the toilet. The Twins and Braves are now 49-83 pending the outcome of Wednesday’s action. There’s one big difference–the Braves are ‘treading water’ with a 5-5 record in their last 10 games. The Twins have lost 12 straight and on on the verge of dropping their 13th straight as they trail 8-3 heading into the 9th inning in Cleveland.

The Diamondbacks will start right hander Jarred Cosart who has looked very sharp in his recent work. He’s got a 1.62 ERA and a 1.320 WHIP in his last three assignments. The Padres haven’t been hitting, however, and have managed to lose 2 of those 3 games. It’s been a combination of poor run support in some cases (a 3-2 loss against the NY Mets on 8/13) and horrible bullpen work (a 7-6 loss at Miami when Cosart left after 5 innings allowing just 1 earned run).

Mike Foltynewicz hasn’t had much of a year and particularly at Turner Field where the Braves have lost 5 of his 7 starts. But his team is in better form now and we expect them to take advantage of the opening that Minnesota has given them to avoid finishing with the worst record in baseball.

BET ATLANTA BRAVES -130 OVER SAN DIEGO PADRES