Atlanta Braves vs. San Diego Padres Game 2: Picks, Predictions, Odds and Player Props

Game 2 between the Braves and Padres concludes a very busy day of postseason baseball.

It was all Padres in Game 1 as they won 4-0 behind a stellar outing from Michael King.

Now, they will turn to Joe Musgrove with the opportunity to advance to the Divisional Series.

Atlanta is countering him with Max Fried, so this game is shaping up to be a good one.

Will the bats wake up? Or will this be another pitcher’s duel? Let’s preview this Wild Card matchup with our expert’s two best bets for the game.

Atlanta Braves vs. San Diego Padres Game 2 betting picks and predictions

Padres ML (-118)

San Diego jumped on the Braves early and didn’t look back last night. Fernando Tatis Jr. launched a 2-run home run in the first inning en route to the Padres winning easily by a score of 4-0.

The lineup got to AJ Smith-Shawver pretty quickly and forced him out of the game after less than 2 innings which created a lot of innings for the Atlanta bullpen to cover.

The Padres lineup didn’t do much after Smith-Shawver left the game, but they didn’t need to.

Michael King pitched a gem as he went 7 scoreless innings, allowed just 5 hits, and struck out 12.

His performance left very little work for the bullpen which closed the door without a problem. For tonight, the Padres are turning to Joe Musgrove in hopes of clinching a spot in the NLDS.

Musgrove missed several months in the middle of the season due to an elbow injury but finally returned in August to be the missing piece in the rotation.

In 9 starts since coming off the injured list, Musgrove posted a 2.15 ERA with a 0.87 WHIP and limited hitters to a .195 batting average and .212 xBA.

The Braves suffered a huge loss by leaving Chris Sale off the Wild Card roster. The NL Triple Crown winner and soon to be NL Cy Young winner is dealing with back pain and won’t be able to pitch in this series.

It came at a terrible time since the Braves were forced to throw Smith-Shawver in Game 1 since Max Fried wasn’t rested enough.

Tonight is now a must-win game for Atlanta with Fried on the mound. With that said, I haven’t seen enough consistency to back Fried in this spot. #

The lefty is coming off his best start of the season as he went 8.2 scoreless innings against a slumping Royals lineup, but before that, he had allowed 3 or more runs in 7 of his last 10 starts.

The Braves look exhausted after their doubleheader on Monday, so it’s worth the value to take the Padres to close out the series.

 Under 6.5 (+100)

The story of this series will be good pitching. It’s two aces on the mound tonight, and if it gets to tomorrow, the Padres have Dylan Cease rested and ready to go.

Oddsmakers are expecting another low-scoring game tonight with the total set below 7, and while they’re on the right track, they may not have gone low enough.

Last night, the Padres jumped on Smith-Shawver early in the game as he made just his 2nd MLB start of the year.

It was good to see the San Diego lineup jump on the Triple-A pitcher, but it’s what came after that raised some concerns.

The Padres totalled just 1 hit in the next 6.2 innings against the Braves bullpen, which must be a concern, especially since the lefty Aaron Bummer came in for Smith-Shawver and he threw 2.2 scoreless innings and didn’t allow a hit.

And tonight, they need to face Fried - another lefty. Atlanta has played 6 games in their last 5 games and the lineup’s fatigue is starting to show.

Their lineup was completely shut down by Michael King last night and the bottom 4 hitters in the order combined to go 1-for-14.

That’s been an issue for several weeks now considering the bottom half of the order now contains Ramón Laureano, Travis D’Arnaud, Gio Urshela, and Orlando Arcia.

Without Ronald Acuna Jr. and Sean Murphy, the Braves lineup looks a lot weaker and unfortunately for them, they have to face Joe Musgrove tonight.

The right-hander has been lights out since rejoining the rotation and he held hitters to a .209 batting average, .201 xBA, and 33% strikeout rate in his final 5 starts of the regular season.

Combine Musgrove with Tanner Scott, Adrian Morejon, and Robert Suarez and the Braves won’t have a fun time at the plate.

Back the under once again in San Diego.

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Atlanta Braves vs San Diego Padres Game 2 odds

Atlanta Braves	+100 ML
San Diego Padres	-118 ML
Run Line	Braves -1.5 (+172)
Total	O/U 6.5

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This article was written by a partner sports writer via Spotlight Sports Group. All odds displayed on this page were correct at the time of writing and are subject to withdrawal or change at any time.