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The Sunday baseball card often looks packed. Each team plays almost every Sunday, so you have many matches to choose from. As a sports bettor, this is a good thing because you have opportunities for the books to make mistakes. However, it also takes longer for you to evaluate each game. Let me do the work for you and give you a risky but fun look at a game between the Braves and Rockies.
The Braves come into the game with a strong record for the year, and a start that everyone hoped they would get off to after a rough last season. It’s amazing what can happen when you don’t have constant injuries on your team. In fairness, there are still some missing pieces, but Atlanta has been able to navigate them better than it did last year. It’s only the beginning of May and the NL East looks like they’re going to lose.
Atlanta Braves pitcher Spencer Strider delivers a pitch in the first inning against the Arizona Diamondbacks in Atlanta on April 5, 2024. (John Bazemore/AP)
To make matters worse for the teams chasing them, they send a great starter out to the mound, Spencer Strider. This will be the season debut for Strider and I have to expect the Braves to be pretty cautious with him. Last season, he made 23 starts and accumulated 125.1 innings over the course of the season. He didn’t have a great year, going 7-14 with a 4.45 ERA and a 1.40 WHIP. The good news for him is that he’ll be back against a soft-hitting Rockies team. However, they are 8-for-32 against him, but have just two RBIs and 14 strikeouts.
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The Colorado Rockies were projected to be the worst team in baseball by most analysts. That hasn’t proven to be the case as it looks like they have some fight in them this year. Before we start printing playoff tickets, the team is still under .500 and won’t sniff the postseason. But for a team that won 43 games last year and didn’t have 15 wins until June 16, they’re at least ahead of that pace.
Colorado Rockies pitcher Kyle Freeland delivers a pitch in the first inning against the Toronto Blue Jays at Coors Field. (Ron Chenoy/Imagn Images)
There are a number of reasons why the team is performing better – pride, better hitting and better pitching, etc. To me, one guy in particular stands out who has had a good start to the season, and that’s today’s starter, Kyle Freeland. For the year, Freeland is 1-2 with a 3.48 ERA and a 1.11 WHIP. I’ve been a Freeland fan for many years and think he’s been buried a bit with the Rockies. He was probably never going to be an ace with a club, but he probably could have been a reliable arm and even a postseason starter. He has only one start at home this year, but it was a very good one, going 6.1 innings and allowing just one run on three hits.
The bad news for the Rockies and Freeland is that the club has feasted on his pitching over the years. Combined, the Braves are 45-for-137 against him, leading to a .328 average. Ozzie Albies is the guy I’m locked on for 3+ total bases and can even go 4+ and 5+ as he goes 11-for-24 with four extra-base hits against Freeland.
Atlanta Braves’ Ozzie Albies and Eli White celebrate after scoring on a double by Matt Olson during the second inning against the Los Angeles Dodgers in Los Angeles on April 2, 2025. (Kevork Djansezian/AP)
Another worth playing is Mauricio Dubon, who is 7-for-19 with four extra-base hits off Freeland. Albies will be an official game, but I’m going to do a Same Game Parlay for some Sunday fun with 2+ total bases from Albies (3+), Dubon, Mike Yastrzemski and Austin Rile. It pays out at 12:1.
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