Chris Boline
Can the NL East champions surprise folks once again this postseason and win it all? That’s what countless people have on their minds, as Atlanta is entering the playoffs with tons of confidence. The team’s journey will get going this week against Philadelphia. In this piece, we have MLB picks for the Braves vs. Phillies NL Division Series. These two division rivals can’t wait to try and take the other down.
The Braves are favored to take down the Phillies in the NLDS
As you might have been able to guess, the Braves are favored to take down the Phillies in the NLDS when they face off. Atlanta won the NL East, stunning the New York Mets late in the season. Not only that, but the Mets, who had one of the best campaigns in recent history, are already out of the playoffs. The club from Queens suffered a Wild Card series loss to the San Diego Padres over the weekend.
Now, Atlanta is hoping to make things even worse for the Mets supporters by making serious noise in the postseason. The Braves are loaded with young talent and while the loss of Freddie Freeman, now with the Dodgers, hurt this team, Matt Olson has looked great and people love seeing him make plays both at the plate and in the field from his first base spot, which used to be manned by Freeman.
| MLB NLDS odds |  |  |  |  |
| Braves to win | -186 | -186 | -186 | -186 |
| Phillies to win | +160 | +160 | +160 | +160 |
| Over 4 games | -110 | -110 | -110 | -110 |
| Under 4 games | -110 | -110 | -110 | -110 |
With the Phillies, things have been completely flipped for this team after they fired former manager Joe Girardi. New skipper Rob Thomson has completely turned this around and it has been great to see. Thomson has done such a great job, he’s already earned an extension from the team to keep leading the Phillies. Fans are only going to love him even more if he can power Philadelphia to an upset over Atlanta.
According to the best-rated sportsbooks, the Braves are slight favorites over the Phillies in this case with their -186 MLB betting odds. Meanwhile for the Phillies, they’ve been placed at +160. This series could be back-and-forth and we can’t wait for things to get underway. While this will be a fun set of games, we’re going with the Atlanta Braves as our pick to win this series and move on.
The Atlanta Braves hold promising Fall Classic odds
One thing that will surely have people excited is that the Atlanta Braves hold promising Fall Classic odds right now and things will surely increase if they make their way back to the NLCS. With a healthy Ronald Acuna Jr., back from his torn ACL last season, this is going to be major for this team at the plate. Not only that, but Olson is also hoping to make a ton of noise in his first postseason with his new club.
We are READY…
…to go #Back2Battle pic.twitter.com/C2iBIuvcgP
— Atlanta Braves (@Braves) October 6, 2022
Coming over from the Oakland Athletics, Olson is surely thrilled to now be with Atlanta and playing some postseason ball. The pressure will be on him to come up big for this club against the Phillies, but we think he’ll turn plenty of heads for manager Brian Snitker. It will be on other guys to make some plays as well for the Braves, which will be fun to see them come out on top against the Phillies.
Per the oddsmakers, the Braves hold the No. 2 NL MLB Playoffs betting odds at +550. Again, this will only improve if they take care of business vs. Philadelphia and move on to the NLCS, where they’ll presumably take on the Dodgers if Los Angeles handles San Diego. We’ll have to wait and see what happens with the Braves moving forward.
Atlanta is ready to surprise even more people in the playoffs
One thing to keep in mind is that Atlanta is ready to surprise even more people in the playoffs this time around. Remember last year when basically no one gave them a chance of going on a strong run? Even more people laughed at the thought of them taking down the Houston Astros in the World Series. Well, now the Braves are fired up to not only shock the fans doubting them, but also repeat as champs.
This won’t be easy, as both the AL and NL have serious roadblocks ready to put in front of them. In the AL, the Astros are the favorites to move on to the World Series from that side of the bracket. In the NL, the Dodgers hold the top World Series odds and they’ve been the pick by experts for a while now.
Again, the Dodgers are expected to take care of business vs. the Padres in the NLDS, and then they’ll face either the Braves or Phillies. We’d love to see Atlanta meet LA in the NLCS. There, the Braves would be major underdogs for that series. Hey, Atlanta pulled off some big upsets last season and they’ll be ready to try and do more of the same against whoever they play. Don’t rule the Braves out vs. the Dodgers if they end up facing off.
On the mound for Game 1: @MaxFried32 #Back2Battle pic.twitter.com/DoJy1f3pA6
— Atlanta Braves (@Braves) October 10, 2022
