{"id":659127,"date":"2026-04-02T16:39:31","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T16:39:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/659127\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T16:39:31","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T16:39:31","slug":"braves-vs-diamondbacks-predictions-odds-and-picks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/659127\/","title":{"rendered":"Braves vs Diamondbacks Predictions, Odds, and Picks"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I find Thursday\u2019s matchup between the Atlanta Braves and the Arizona Diamondbacks to be a very intriguing game. Atlanta closed out their series with the Athletics yesterday, winning by a 5-1 final score to take the 3-game series. Meanwhile, Arizona finished off their sweep of the Detroit Tigers and will remain in their home park for their series with the Braves. From a travel perspective Arizona has the upper hand, and I will be looking to take advantage of that through the first 5 innings of play. I also like limiting this bet to 5 innings because the Arizona bullpen is a unit I will be trying to avoid backing this season.<\/p>\n

Ryne Nelson is the scheduled starter for Arizona this season, and I expect a strong bounce back effort from the right-hander today. Nelson\u2019s season debut was not as intended, allowing 2 home runs and 4 earned runs in 4.2 innings against the Dodgers. Los Angeles is the best lineup in the sport, to be fair to Nelson, and he draws a step down in competition this evening. Atlanta is still a capable offense with firepower atop their order, but Nelson was very effective across his 154 innings last season. He posted a 3.39 ERA with similarly strong underlying metrics, and his performance was strongest at home.<\/p>\n

Reynaldo Lopez is set to make his 2nd start of the season for the Braves in this game. Prior to his season debut, I wrote about decreased velocity during his final spring tuneup, but his velocity returned in his season opener. Lopez was able to register 6 innings of 1-run ball against the Royals in his first outing, but that is a Royals unit that has been cold at the plate to start the season. The converted reliever showed signs of regression in 2024 before missing nearly all of 2025 with injury. I am hesitant to buy into his first outing, and at current pricing, I side with Arizona through 5 innings of play.<\/p>\n

Braves vs Diamondbacks prediction: Arizona Diamondbacks F5 ML (-110) available at time of publishing. Playable to -115 odds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I find Thursday\u2019s matchup between the Atlanta Braves and the Arizona Diamondbacks to be a very intriguing game.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1400,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2404],"tags":[146,22,4314,5,38,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-659127","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arizona-diamondbacks","8":"tag-arizona","9":"tag-arizona-diamondbacks","10":"tag-arizonadiamondbacks","11":"tag-baseball","12":"tag-diamondbacks","13":"tag-mlb"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116336103697530435","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=659127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659127\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=659127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=659127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=659127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}