Jim Feist – Sports Handicapper

The Braves and Nationals begin their last set against each other this season with Thursday's contest at Washington. The Braves lost on Wednesday at home to Philadelphia in 10 innings, 5-6. The Braves have now lost five of their last six games. The only thing the Braves have left to play for is home field advantage and they lead the Dodgers by four games. Thing is, do you want home field? The winner likely plays a very dangerous Philadelphia team if they win their Wild Card series. The Nats are playing out the season and would like nothing more than to beat the best of the N.L. Washington has won three of their last four games. They will start Jake Irvin today who his 3-6 in his 23 starts with a 4.41 ERA. The Braves counter with Max Fried who is 7-1 in his 13 starts with a 2.64 ERA. That number has been a bit higher in his last seven starts with a 3.40 ERA. Even though Fried is a very good pitcher, his games have gone over in four straight and six of the last seven. I'll take OVER here on Thursday. The Nationals won at home over the White Sox on Wednesday, 13-3.

The Ny Giants made a big comeback last week to pull out the win at Arizona, 31-28. The Giants did fail to cover the 5-point line and easily went over the 40-point total. The Giants had 438 total yards after that poor week one performance against Dallas where they got just 171 total yards. Daniel Jones rebounded from his 104 yards and two INT's vs the Cowboys with 321 yards and 2 TD's against Arizona. Now the Giants have to face another good defensive team in the 49ers. The 49ers are 2-0 S/U and 1-0-1 ATS. They have had a very balanced offense with 173.5 rushing yards per game and 204.5 passing. They won both their road games thus far with a win at Pitt in week one, 30-7, and then last week at the Rams, 30-23, pushing last week's line. The defense has allowed just 41 yards on the ground and 198 through the air thus far. Could be another rough outing for the Giants defense here tonight. The Giants are last in the league in scoring defense as they have allowed 34 ppg. San Francisco is 3rd in the NFL in rushing and should have another field day on Thursday. The Giants can ill afford to fall behind 0-20 at half like they did last week. I expect Daniel Jones to have to throw a lot in this game and the 49ers to get plenty of points. I'll take OVER.