White Sox vs. Braves prediction and odds for Sunday, July 16 (Back Atlanta's power)
By Josh Yourish
The Atlanta Braves are the best team in baseball, but yesterday the Chicago White Sox evened this three-game series at a game apiece with a 6-5 win on the road.
Jake Burger won it with his go-ahead homer to get the White Sox to 39-55 and drop the Braves to 61-30 just one win more than the Tampa Bay Rays, though in four less games.
Today, Atlanta will go for the split with Kolby Allard on the mound. The Braves are hoping he can fare better than Spencer Strider did yesterday.
Allard has made two starts and one bullpen appearance this year working to a 4.22 ERA. He will be opposed by Dylan Cease who has struggled this year. Cease has a 3-3 record and a 4.33 ERA in 19 starts.
The Braves are the favorites to win the rubber match this afternoon, so let’s get into those odds.
White Sox vs. Braves odds, run line and total
White Sox vs. Braves prediction and pick
Yesterday we saw a dominant strikeout pitcher struggle in this series with Spencer Strider allowing five runs on eight hits in six innings of work. That has Strider’s ERA up to 3.66.
Cease has had those same problems this year and last time out gave up five runs on 11 hits in six innings.
Despite Cease’s struggles he still has a promising 3.78 FIP. Cease is still missing bats at a good rate, the issue is that when he allows contact, it’s been hard contact 46% of the time which puts him in the 12th percentile.
The Braves are the worst possible team for Cease to face because they have a league best hard hit percentage of 46%. The Cardinals are second in that stat at 43.6% and were the team that racked up 11 hits and five runs off Cease back on July 7.
Atlanta will take advantage of any pitch left over the heart of the plate and punish Cease. He’ll need to be nearly perfect to navigate that lineup today and he’s been far from that this year.
Kolby Allard may be used as an opener or go deeper into the start. Either way Atlanta will be okay on the mound because Allard has a 3.09 FIP over his 10.2 innings this year and the Braves are third in bullpen ERA.
It’s tempting to take Chicago because I do think Cease will have a better second half, but I have to take Atlanta.
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Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change