Mets vs Braves Odds: Massive Pitching Matchup Highlights Thursday MLB Slate

• Justin Verlander to start for Mets
• Spencer Strider to start for Braves
• Braves lead Mets by 7.5 games in NL East standings

Mets vs Braves Odds

Odds taken from DraftKings Sportsbook. If you're interested in other sportsbooks, check out our favorite MLB betting sites, here!

Mets vs Braves Picks

• Braves -1.5 (+120)

Mets vs Braves Predictions

The Major League Baseball schedule on Thursday will be highlighted by a massive NL East matchup between the New York Mets and Atlanta Braves. New York has dropped the first two games of this series and has really been struggling of late. They will need a brilliant performance from one of their major offseason acquisitions if they are going to salvage a game in this series from a Braves team that is looking like a World Series contender.

New York Mets Predictions

Coming into Thursday night, the New York Mets have lost five games in a row, which has moved them into a distant third place in the NL East standings. Now, they are in danger of dropping further down their division standings, as they are just barely ahead of the fourth-place Philadelphia Phillies. To avoid falling further, the Mets will look for a big-time performance from one of their big-time offseason pitching additions in Justin Verlander.

Verlander missed time at the beginning of this season due to injury, and he has not lived up to the hype surrounding his acquisition in the time since then. Verlander is 2-3 with a 4.25 ERA on the season and has been a microcosm for the team’s struggles overall this year. He will need to be at or near his best in this game, as he is matched up with the leader in the NL Cy Young race in Spencer Strider.

In order for the Mets to win this game, they will need to find a way to conjure up some runs against Strider offensively. Those runs may need to come from the power bats of the Mets, whose lineup contains the league leader in home runs in Pete Alonso. Given how stingy Strider has been with allowing hits this year, piling up the solo shots may be the Mets’ only path to victory here.

Atlanta Braves Predictions

The Atlanta Braves have won four games in a row heading into Thursday night, including two in a row against the Mets in this series. Atlanta has a three-game lead over the second place Miami Marlins going into this game, and an even larger lead over a Mets team that was expected to compete with Atlanta for the NL East crown. Tonight, the Braves look to their ace to try to further separate themselves from their NL East rivals.

Spencer Strider has been incredible this season, going 6-2 with an ERA of 2.97 in his 69.2 innings of work. He leads the majors in strikeouts this season, sitting down 113 batters on strikes, averaging nearly two strikeouts per inning on the year so far. If he can continue to miss bats in this game, the Braves could cruise over a Mets team that has been overmatched against the Braves throughout this year.

So far in this series, the Braves have averaged 6.5 runs per game, getting their offense from a variety of sources. Last night, Michael Harris II had two extra-base hits that drove in runs, for example. This team is way more than just the top-end star power it possesses, which could be bad news for the Mets for a third straight night down in Georgia.

How to Watch Mets vs Braves

• What: New York Mets vs Atlanta Braves
• When: Thursday, June 8, 2023, at 7:20 PM ET
• Where: Trust Park, Atlanta, GA
• How to Watch: MLB.tv