Atlanta Braves vs. Washington Nationals Prediction, Pick, Odds: Can Paolo Espino Mow Down the Braves?

Atlanta Braves vs. Washington Nationals Prediction, Pick, Odds: Can Paolo Espino Mow Down the Braves?

We've got one more day before we're watching football again and I know the perfect way to pass the time. Gambling. It just makes sense. You know it, I know it, the books know it. Generally what I like to do on a day like this is look for the earliest game possible, and find something to bet. Then look for the next game, and do the same. By doing this, we can pretty much gamble all day. It turns a normal Wednesday into an actual event. It's like magic only real. Lucky for us, we've got a game at 12:20 pm ET today. It puts the whole "gambling all day" plan into play if we can just find something to bet. I think we have something.

Braves vs. Nationals Start Time and Where to Watch

• Date: September 21, 2022
• Game Time: 12:20 pm ET
• Where to Watch: MLB.TV

Braves vs. Nationals Odds

• Run Line: Braves -1.5 (-120), Nationals +1 (+105)
• Total: Over 8.5 (-118), Under 8.5 (+105)
• Moneyline: Braves (-250), Nationals (+225)

Click Here for Braves vs. Nationals Odds

Atlanta Braves vs. Washington Nationals Pick

Paolo Espino Over 3.5 Strikeouts (+140) (Bet $100 to win $140)

*Odds available at FanDuel at time of publishing*

We're at FanDuel here because they have the best price. DraftKings is showing 3.5 (+115) which isn't bad but a +140 move is much better. You're better off going to Barstool if you can because they have 3.5 (+130). The one book I'd avoid if possible is BetMGM as they've got 3.5 (+110) which is pretty bad. I will say that if that's your only shop, then you have to do what you have to do. Nobody is going to judge.

Atlanta Braves vs. Washington Nationals Prediction

This could be a real butt squeezer. We all know Paolo by now as he's probably my favorite Paolo in MLB at the moment. He's definitely not a strikeout guy. He's only got 85 Ks in 104 innings of work this season. That's not great but is it 3.5 for +140 (in a lunch hour game on a Wednesday) bad? I don't really know about that. I get that he's been pitching out of the bullpen so he's probably not fully stretched out. That's an issue but we're still only talking about four strikeouts here.

People forget that Espino struck out three guys in his last appearance. He only pitched an inning. The time before that he only went one frame and sat down two. Want to only talk about starts? I'm fine with that. In his last four starts, Espino fanned at least four in all of them. One of those starts was against the St. Louis Cardinals who don't strike out much. In another he whiffed six Oakland Athletics while only throwing 66 pitches. We might be on to something here.

Opponent always matters and Espino has a good one here in the Atlanta Braves. Only two teams in MLB have struck out more than they have this season. Now they have definitely cut down on the Ks over the last 15 days but they still have whiffed 101 times in their last 431 at-bats. Guys like Matt Olson, William Contreras, Austin Riley, Ronald Acuna, Michael Harris and Marcell Ozuna could easily help with the Ks today as they are all above 20% in K-rate over the last couple weeks. We don't need this guy to set a record today. Just get us four strikeouts. Doesn't seem that hard to me.

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