Nationals +130 (first 5 innings)

Braves/Nationals UNDER 4.5, -115 (first 5 innings)


Today's game marks the major-league debut of top Nationals pitching prospect Jordan Zimmerman. Last year in the minors (the majority of his time coming in AA after being promoted from A-ball), Zimmerman worked 134 innings while posting a 2.89 era and 1.15 whip. Perhaps even more impressive were his peripheral numbers, as he averaged 9 strikeouts and only 3 walks per 9 innings (good for an excellent 3/1 strikeout-to-walk ratio). According to Wise Guy Baseball, this guy reportedly has 4 good pitches, and of course this will be the first time the Braves have looked at him. I think he can get through the Braves order the first couple of times without too much trouble, as he should have have them very much off-balance considering his good stuff and wide variety of pitches (to go along with the unknown factor). Going further, Atlanta's two best hitters are probably not up-to-snuff right now, as Chipper Jones just returned yesterday after missing several games with a thumb injury, and Brian McCann has been dealing with blurry vision over the last week.

Looks like a heckuva nice spot to play the Nationals, and i'm opting for the first 5 innings play because Zimmerman likely won't go much farther than that in his big-league debut. And also because of the first-couple-of-times-thru-the-order theory. I like the under for the same reasons mentioned above, and of course Lowe is a fine pitcher himself and the Nationals don't have the best of offenses, plus Washington is a bit of a pitcher's park. Correlated parlay here, but i'm just making the two straight bets.

A win and a push, as the score after 5 innings was 2-2.

I should've played the entire game (or both, perhaps) as the Nationals won 3-2. Zimmerman picked up the win after going 6 innings. Nice debut for him.

Nice call DC. I still owe ya one on DPC. do you take a credit card or personal check as i will prob put in this weekend.