The Washington Nationals and the Atlanta Braves meet in game one of their three-game AL East division set from Truist Park on Friday night.

Nationals Playing Out The String

The Washington Nationals are just playing out the last series of their season, trying to put a damper on the Braves’ regular season, sitting at 69-90 on the year after a 5-1 loss to Baltimore last time out, pushing their losing streak to three games. Joey Meneses leads the Nationals with 165 hits and 87 RBIs with a .277 batting average while Lane Thomas has a team-high 27 home runs with 85 RBIs and 163 hits with both Thomas and Meneses posting a team-high 35 doubles as well. CJ Abrams also has 6 triples as well this season. Trevor Williams will start here and is 6-10 with a 5.55 ERA and 107 strikeouts this season.

Braves Looking To Lock Up MLB’s Best Record

The Atlanta Braves will be hunting to secure the best record in baseball in 2023, currently sitting at 103-56 on the year after a sweep of the Chicago Cubs thanks to a 5-3 win in Thursday’s series finale, pushing their win streak to 4 games. Ronald Acuna Jr. leads the Braves with 214 hits and a .336 batting average along with 70 stolen bases to lead MLB in that category. Acuna Jr. also has 41 homers and 105 RBIs while Matt Olson leads the Braves with 54 home runs and 136 RBIs this season. Austin Riley’s chipped in 37 homers, while Ozzie Albies and Marcell Ozuna make up the other pair of Braves bats with 30+ HR so far this season. Allan Winans will get the start for the Braves here and is 1-2 with a 4.33 ERA and 32 strikeouts this season.

Chris’ Pick

I’m on the Braves here. I just see no path to success with Trevor Williams as my starting pitcher, and while Winans hasn’t been great, he still has a Braves lineup behind him that’s been absolutely demolishing righties all season long. Williams has also had documented issues against Atlanta and I think those issues rear their ugly head again. Give me the Braves -1.5.