Montreal (Vazquez) @ Atlanta (Glavine)
Going to take the hottest pitcher in baseball and one of the hottest teams to get the win here.
Montreal sends Javier Vazquez to the mound who has been one of the brighter spots in the Expos rotation he has a 5-4 record on the year with an ERA of 3.59 and a WHIP of 1.163 he has struggled on the road going 2-3 in 8 starts with an ERA of 4.83, in his last 3 starts he is 1-1 with an ERA of 5.59 and a WHIP of 1.55. He has 11 starts since '97 against the Braves going 4-5 with an ERA of 3.20 and a WHIP of 1.195.
Atlanta counters with Tom Glavine who has been unhittable lately he is 11-3 on the year with an ERA of 1.74 and a very solid WHIP of 1.040, he is 5-2 at Turner Field with an ERA of 2.42. Glavine has been very dominant against the Expos with the Braves going 12-3 since '97 when he gets the start against them he has an ERA of 2.58 and a WHIP of 1.026.
The Montreal offense has really struggled on the road averaging just 3.9 runs a game when they take to the highway and are scoring 3.7 against left-handed starters while batting .240 as a team against them with an on base percentage of .329. They are allowing the opposition to score 5.2 runs a game while batting .286 with an on base percentage of .389, the bullpen has been less than spectacular with an ERA of 4.81 on the road and an inflated WHIP of 1.756.
The Braves offense after a slow start has really picked it up batting .283 as a team against righties in their last 10 games while averaging 4.5 runs a game against them on the year. On the defensive side they have been very solid giving up 3.4 runs a game while holding their opponents to a team batting average of .231 and an on base percentage of .329, the bullpen has been very solid with an ERA of 2.54 and a solid WHIP of 1.195.
Bottom line is we get the much better pitcher and a hot team that is 9-1 in their last 10 games against a pitcher in Vazquez that is coming off of a very bad start where he lasted just 4.2 innings giving up 2 home runs and 7 earned runs and has really been overworked in his two previous starts he had pitch counts of 115 and 127 and the bullpen has been of little help with an ERA of 5.14 in their last 3 games and the Expos are not exactly road warriors with a 15-25 record on the highway.
Playing Atlanta -177