After opening the season on the road, the Atlanta Braves return home to SunTrust Park in Cobb County for their home opener on Monday night against a fellow 2018 playoff team in the Chicago Cubs. Both the Braves and Cubs both find themselves in stacked divisions here in 2019 as the two get set to meet for the first game in a three-game weekday series.
First pitch for this MLB game between the Cubs and Braves is scheduled for Monday, April 1, 2019, at 7:10 p.m. ET at SunTrust Park. The matchup will be shown on ESPN.
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Odds Analysis
Atlanta came up short in their season opener, losing to the Phillies. The Braves’ pitching staff struggled. The offense was okay, but could have been better, too. They scored four runs, but two came on a pinch hit blast. The regular starting lineup was only good for two.
Nevertheless, a year ago, the Braves were one of the better offensive teams in the NL and they should be again in 2019. Atlanta will have a full season of Ronald Acuna Jr. He was the Rookie of the Year last year and could easily get MVP consideration if he does what he did last year a complete 162-game season.
In just 111 games, Acuna was good for 26 home runs, 64 RBIs and a .917 OPS. Those numbers extrapolated over a full season would be huge.
Between Acuna, Josh Donaldson and Freddie Freeman, the Braves have three legitimate MVP candidates which puts their lineup at least on par with anyone else in the league. Donaldson will try and re-establish himself after losing much of the 2018 season. He looked good for Cleveland in the final month. Freeman is coming off a 140 OPS+ year after back-to-back 157 in the two preceding seasons.
Ender Inciarte is a key at the top of the order and will be asked to set the table for the mashers after him. He had a bit of a down year last year and his production is crucial as it sets the table for success.
On the other side of this matchup, the Cubs have a deep lineup. This offense could be better than last year and it outscored the Braves in 2018.
Kris Bryant is back and healthy after hitting only 13 dingers last year. He’s a former MVP and, if he can stay healthy, should be good for at least 30 bombs. Anthony Rizzo will try and get off to a better start. Albert Almora Jr. won the centerfield job outright, leading to Ian Happ’s demotion. Almora will set the table while Kyle Schwarber, Javier Baez and Willson Contraeras forms a deep lineup.
Joe Maddon, as always, has a plentora of options and moving parts to build his roster.
Probable Pitchers
The game features an interesting pitching matchup with the Braves looking to southpaw Sean Newcomb while the Cubs will counter with Kyle Hendricks.
The young southpaw for the Braves had a good year last year, but eventually lost his rotation spot as he fell off a cliff in September, he struggled a bit this spring, but came on late to retain his rotation spot.
In 2018, he ended the year 12-9 with a 3.90 ERA though his WHIP was inflated due to a high walk rate. The Cubs have a patient lineup to take advantage of his inability to find the strike zone at times.
The 25-year old pitched to a pretty stark home and away splits, finding much more success on the road with an 8-3 record and 2.80 ERA. He had a 5.12 ERA at home. He’ll be making this start at home.
Going against Newcomb, Hendricks will make his first regular season start since news of his extension with the Cubs broke. He’s a smart pitcher that wins on location and movement rather than speed.
While power isn’t a big part of his game, that doesn’t mean he hasn’t been able to find outstanding consistency in his relatively short big league career.
The young right-hander led the team in innings pitched last year with 199 and really helped stabilize a rotation that was constantly unstable with the injury to Yu Darvish and lack of command from Tyler Chatwood.
In 2018, Hendricks was 14-11 with a 3.44 ERA and 1.146 WHIP with a 3.78 FIP. He’s not a big strikeout machine, but limits walks and home runs. Last year was his fifth on the big league roster and so far he’s yet to see his ERA go over four in any of those seasons. In fact, he was the ERA leader in 2016 with 2.13.
Hendricks didn’t face the Braves at all last year, but he’s gone up against them on four occasions in his career—including three starts—and pitched to a 2.33 in 19.1 innings.
Live Betting
Both the Cubs and the Braves have some questions in the bullpen which could ultimately leads to a winner of this game.
The Cubs have Brandon Morrow, Xavier Cedeno and Tony Barnette on the injured list, but despite that, they still have some quality arms in the pen. Pedro Strop will step into closer’s spot with Carl Edwards Jr., Steve Cishek, Brad Brach and Brandon Kintzler all possessing closer experience.
Last year, Cishek, Strop and Edwards all had sub-3 ERAs. Even with the injuries the Cubs pen has the potential to be lights out after six frames.
For the Braves, the bullpen’s issues are less health and more experience. Arodys Vizcaino is back in the closer’s role, though he’d fit better as a set-up man with a more experienced ninth inning option. The ninth inning has some questions for the Cubs and Braves alike though both look to have enough options leading up to the ninth.
MLB Pick
Newcomb’s a good pitcher when things are right, but his ending to 2018 and his spring production leave plenty of room for doubt. Look for the southpaw to struggle finding the zone out of the gate and count on a right-handed heavy lineup to build a bit of an early lead against him.
Meanwhile, look for Hendricks to pitch well under the comfort of his new deal he struck with the Cubs.
The Braves will scratch across a few runs. The offense is going to be good, but don’t trust Newcomb or the Braves pen in this one.
MLB Score Prediction: Cubs 6, Braves 3
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