Mets Open Series at Home Versus Braves
On Friday night, the Big Apple will be the scene of a National League East showdown when the New York Mets host the Atlanta Braves. The current line has New York favored at -235, with Atlanta on +215 and the over/under run total sitting on 7.5.
Entering this game, Atlanta has an overall record on the season of 20-46 and 11-19 on the road. The Braves are 4-6 over their past 10 games played. New York on the season has a record of 36-29 overall and 17-13 at home. The Mets are 5-5 over their past 10 games played.
Curtis Granderson is hitting very well of late for New York and the rest of his teammates have started to follow his lead. Granderson is riding a hitting streak of seven games entering this three-game series with Atlanta. The Mets have won five of the six head-to-head games this season against Atlanta.
The veteran Granderson hit a home run on Thursday to help the Mets win 6-4 over Pittsburgh. During the series versus the Pirates, the Mets scored 17 runs and belted 5 home runs winning two of the three games. The Mets scored 30 runs versus the Pirates after scoring just 22 in the previous 9 games.
This season, the Mets have outscored the Braves 29-11. Asdrubal Cabrera has led the Mets versus the Braves with 9 hits in 23 at bats including two home runs, four runs batted in and 4 runs scored.
Atlanta is coming into this game off a four-game series versus Cincinnati in which they split with the Reds 2-2. Freddie Freeman led Atlanta in that series with 10 hits in 18 at bats including 3 home runs and 6 RBIs.
Starting on the mound for Atlanta will be John Gant. The Braves right-hander is 0-1 with an ERA of 5.63. New York will counter with Matt Harvey. The Mets right-hander is 4-8 with an ERA of 4.66.
This will be Gant’s second outing of this season. He was originally drafted in 2011 by the Mets and will be facing them for the first time.
Harvey has had three straight strong pitching performances for the Mets after struggling for most of the first two months.
Juan Lagares an outfielder for the Mets was put on the disabled list for an injured thumb.
David Wright the Mets third baseman had neck surgery Thursday for a herniated disk.
Prediction: The Mets are good, the Braves are not, lean on the Mets.
