Atlanta is at 20-1 to win the World Series while the Giants are at 15-1 in MLB Odds.

Both teams have gotten off to a similar start here in the beginning of the 2011 season with the Braves sporting an -10 record and the Giants sitting at 10-8. When Atlanta makes the trip out west to San Francisco, baseball fans will be treated by some fantastic pitching match ups full of familiar faces from last year’s playoff action.

On Friday, Tommy Hanson will take the mound against Madison Bumgarner, who has gotten off to a shaky start here in 2011. Bumgarner is sporting a 7.36 ERA to go with a 1.98 WHIP and 0-2 record. He will have to pitch much better in this game against the Braves if San Francisco is to stand a chance. Saturday is probably the best match up of the series as Tim Hudson will face Tim Lincecum, who almost threw a no hitter the other day against Colorado. In the series finale on Sunday, Brandon Beachy will do battle against Jonathan Sanchez.

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In the NLDS series against the Braves the Giants used spectacular pitching and timely hitting to get past the NL Wildcard team in 4 games, while the Phillies wasted no time in defeating the Cincinnati Reds in a 3 game sweep behind the no-hitter of Roy Halladay and complete game shutout of Cole Hamels in game 3.

The championship series is set to be one of the better National League Championship Series in recent years. Philadelphia is hoping to win their 3rd straight NL pennant behind their outstanding pitching staff that features Halladay, Roy Oswalt, and Hamels. The Giants are no slouch in the pitching department either riding their ace Tim Lincecum in recent weeks. Add in pitchers Matt Cain, Jonathan Sanchez, and Maddison Bumgarner and the Giants have the arms to compete in this 7 game series.

The season series between these two teams was dead even at 3-3, with both home teams winning 2 games and losing only 1. The closely contested regular season games are leading baseball analysts to believe that this will be a close series and come down to a 7th game.

With the extra time off between series both managers will be able to set their starting rotations the way they want them. Chances are the pitching order for both teams in first three games will look like this:

Game 1 – Lincecum vs Halladay
Game 2 – Cain vs Oswalt
Game 3 – Sanchez vs Hamels

Once it gets to game 4 all pitching rotations have the chance to get thrown out the window as one or both teams may feel that the next game is a must win for their club.

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Both teams could be accused, and forgiven, for just being happy to be in the MLB Playoffs. Both the Giants and Braves needed the final day of a 162-game schedule to secure their postseason positions.

San Francisco was in a wild, three-team race for top spot on the NL West division with the San Diego Padres and the Colorado Rockies over the final few weeks of the regular season. In the last week, it came down to the Giants and Padres, with the Giants winning a pivotal series with the Padres on the last weekend of the regular season.

This is the Giants’ seventh division title in franchise history and first postseason berth since 2003.

The Braves are in the MLB Playoffs for the first time since 2005, and battled through the entire schedule to get there, exchanging NL East leads with the division-champion Philadelphia Phillies throughout the season.

Atlanta won four of seven matchups with San Francisco this season. The Giants took two of three at home from the Braves in April.

Atlanta will start righthander Derek Lowe, who is 16-12 with a 4.00 ERA. San Francisco wilol counter with righthander Tim Lincecum, who is 16-10 with a 3.43 ERA.

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Beginning this Friday the Braves will start a nine-game road trip in New York where they will take on the Mets. The road as not been very kind to the Braves as they have a 31-41 road record and will be facing a good home team in the Mets who have a 42-27 record and their home ballpark.

It is also important for the Braves to not look ahead past the New York Mets to their upcoming 3 game series with Phillies next week. While it has been a disappointing season once again in New York, there is ample motivation to finish above the .500 mark and take a few games against the Braves, reducing their playoff chances.

The pitching match ups look to be in Atlanta’s favor this weekend as they will send their two best starters to the mound in Hudson and Lowe. The match ups for all three games are as follows:

Friday – Hanson vs Niese
Saturday – Hudson vs Gee
Sunday – Lowe vs Dickey

It should be an exciting couple of weeks for the Atlanta Braves and their fans as they see if their team can make a playoff run.

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In the NL East, over the past two weeks, the Atlanta Braves have vaulted from worst to first. For the first time in a decade, the surging Braves look to win nine straight games. On Wednesday, Atlanta finished a three-game sweep of the defending NL champion Phillies with a 2-1 win. If Atlanta can continue its winning ways over this next stretch, it would certainly be a surprise.

Los Angeles Dodgers team is seeking its fifth consecutive victory on Thursday night. In Wednesday’s 1-0 win over Arizona, Garret Anderson came up with the big hit, driving in Matt Kemp with a two-out single in the 14th inning. Despite Andre Ethier’s struggles at the plate, Los Angeles has won four straight matches. Since coming off the disabled list, Ethier is 1 for 14 in three games after missing the previous 15 because of a broken right pinky finger.

For Los Angeles, Hiroki Kuroda (5-3, 3.55 ERA) takes the ball looking to bounce back from his worst outing of the season. In his first five May starts, Kuroda was tagged for seven runs, five earned and 10 hits in a season-low four innings of Saturday’s 11-3 loss at Colorado, after going 3-1 with a 3.58 ERA in his first five starts in May. Against the Braves, Kuroda is 1-1 with a 1.20 ERA in two starts.

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In 13 tries against Central opponents, The Braves seek their 12th win on Saturday night.

Against the Central, Atlanta (26-22) was 2-5, after suffering a four-game sweep in St. Louis in late April but it seems they have moved on well.

This month before Pirates catcher Ryan Doumit’s walk-off homer snapped that streak on Sunday, They had won all nine meetings with Central opponents. They went back to work Friday against Pittsburgh (20-29), after winning two of three in Florida. For an injured Brian McCann, David Ros has replaced and had hit a two-run double to highlight a four-run first inning before Atlanta had to sit through two rain delays to earn a 7-3 win. In a division where all five teams are within four games of the top, the Braves remained 1 1/2 games behind first-place Philadelphia.

After improving to 9-0 in nine career starts against the Pirates, starter Derek Lowe said, “We’re starting to play like we feel we should have all year.”

The star rookie, Jason Heyward, is hitting .367 (22 for 60) with 5 homers and 19 RBIs in 17 games against the Central and he has enjoyed facing the Central the most of all. He too has six hits and four walks in 15 plate appearances versus Pittsburgh.

Brian Burres (2-2, 5.40 ERA), in his last three outings after walking four and allowing five runs over 3 2/3 innings of a 7-5 loss at Cincinnati has a 7.90 ERA.

For the second straight start, Atlanta right-hander Kris Medlen (1-1, 2.57) will oppose Pittsburgh. On Sunday, he gave seven hits over 5 2/3 innings and gave up two runs.

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New York recently got All-Star shortstop Jose Reyes back from injury, but after missing over 120 games last year, Reyes has yet to return to the player he used to be. Just give him time though. Reyes also missed all of Spring Training and his slow start is to be expected.

After a slow start, the Braves have won four out of their last five games and have one of the best young hitters (Jason Heyward) and best young pitcher (Tommy Hanson) in baseball.

The Braves are expected to throw Kenshin Kawakami in Game 1, Jarr Jurrjens in Game 2 (both pitchers have been struggling this year and each looking for their first win), and the aforementioned Tommy Hanson (who is only 1-1, but has a noteworthy 2.38 ERA) in Game 3. While the Mets counter with John Maine (who has an ERA over 10.00 and is fighting to stay in the rotation), Jonathon Niese (with a 4.32 ERA) and Mike Pelfrey (2-0 with a 1.29 ERA). The pitching matchups are subject to change.

Except plenty of offense the first two games since both teams are starting pitchers who have struggled, while Sunday’s game should be a low scoring pitching duel.

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