With all due respect to the mediocre New York Mets and disappointing Washington Nationals, it’s starting to look more and more like the NL East Division is going to be a two-team race this season between the Philadelphia Phillies and Atlanta Braves. Thus, every game the two play against one another is important and they have a three-game set in Atlanta this weekend. The Braves will be series line betting favorites and opened as -127 chalk for Friday.

Odds courtesy of OddsShark.com

The Phillies got worse last week and the Braves better. That’s because Philadelphia lost center fielder and leadoff man Andrew McCutchen to a season-ending torn ACL suffered on a rundown play – McCutchen wouldn’t have been hurt if teammate Jean Segura had run out a batted ball. McCutchen was the 2013 NL MVP with the Pittsburgh Pirates. He’s not that player any longer but was hitting a solid .256 with 10 homers, 29 RBI and a National-League leading 43 walks when he went down.

The good news is the Phillies had recently traded for outfielder Jay Bruce from Seattle, but they still might be in the market for one because of the uncertain status of Odubel Herrera. He’s on administrative leave by MLB because of an alleged domestic violence incident so it’s not clear if he will play again this year or if the Phillies even want him back. The Phillies have money to spend to go trade for whomever they want.