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The Sunday baseball card often seems crowded. Each team plays almost every Sunday, so you have a large number of games to choose from. As a sports bettor, this is a good thing because the books have room to make mistakes. However, you also need more time to evaluate each play. Let me do the work for you and give you a risky, but fun, preview of a game between the Braves and Rockies.
The Braves come into the game with a strong record for the year and a start that everyone was hoping for after last season’s tough season. It’s amazing what can happen when your team isn’t constantly injured. In fairness, there are still a few missing pieces, but Atlanta has been able to handle them better than last year. It’s only the beginning of May and the NL East appears to be theirs to lose.
Atlanta Braves pitcher Spencer Strider throws a pitch during the first inning against the Arizona Diamondbacks in Atlanta on April 5, 2024. (John Bazemore/AP)
To make matters worse for the teams chasing them, they send a great starter to the mound, Spencer Strider. This will be the start of the season for Strider, and I have to expect the Braves to be pretty careful with him. Last season, he made 23 starts and accumulated 125.1 innings during the season. He didn’t have a great year, going 7-14 with a 4.45 ERA and 1.40 WHIP. The good news for him is that he can come back against a slow-hitting Rockies team. However, they are 8 of 32 overall against him, but have only two RBIs and 14 strikeouts.
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Most analysts expected the Colorado Rockies to be the worst team in baseball. That didn’t turn out to be the case, as it seems like they’re struggling to contend this year. Before we start printing playoff tickets, the team is still below .500 and won’t sniff the playoffs. However, for a team that won 43 games last year and didn’t record 15 wins until June 16, they’re at least ahead of that pace.
Colorado Rockies pitcher Kyle Freeland delivers a pitch during the first inning against the Toronto Blue Jays at Coors Field. (Ron Chenoy/Imagn Images)
There are a number of reasons the team is performing better: pride, better hitters and pitching, etc. For me, one guy in particular stands out who has had a good start to the season, and that’s today’s starter, Kyle Freeland. For the year, Freeland is 1-2 with a 3.48 ERA and 1.11 WHIP. I’ve been a Freeland fan for many years and I think he’s been kind of buried with the Rockies. He was probably never an ace with one club, but he probably could have been a reliable arm and even a starter in the playoffs. He only has one home start this year, but it was a very good one, going 6.1 innings and allowing just one run on three hits.
The bad news for the Rockies and Freeland is that the club has feasted on his pitching over the years. Collectively, the Braves are 45-for-137 against him, resulting in a .328 average. Ozzie Albies is the guy I’m locked into for 3+ bases overall and may even go 4+ and 5+ as he goes 11 for 24 with four extra base hits against Freeland.
Ozzie Albies and Eli White of the Atlanta Braves celebrate after scoring a double off Matt Olson during the second inning against the Los Angeles Dodgers in Los Angeles on April 2, 2025. (Kvork Djansezian/AP)
Another player worth playing is Mauricio Dubon, who is 7-for-19 with four extra-base hits against Freeland. Albies will be an official game, but I’m going to do a Same Game Parlay for a little fun on Sunday with 2+ total goals from Albies (3+), Dubon, Mike Yastrzemski and Austin Rile. This yields 12:1.
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