MLB Games Of The Day For Thursday, August 18

The best matchups of the day, all in one place

The Mets now lead the Braves by just a few games, and this series continues to be critical as we move down the home stretch of the season. Jacob deGrom is scheduled to start in this one for New York, and as we all know, he has been one of the most dominant pitchers of this generation. He has missed most of this season with an injury, and that has been the biggest knock on him in his career. The guy has a problem with staying on the field, but when he is on it, it is usually game over for the opposing offense.

That opposing offense in this one is a Braves squad that has been scoring at a great pace as of late. They have an extremely talented lineup that features Ronald Acuna Jr., Austin Riley and Dansby Swanson. As of this writing, the Braves haven't listed a starting pitcher, so it is hard to tell who they might have out on the hill. This is the best game of the night in my opinion that has playoff and division implications in August. Take it when you can get it.

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The Brewers are trying to keep up with the Cardinals in the NL Central, and they need every win they can get to secure the division and beat the Cards to the division crown.

Andrew Heaney has been great for Los Angeles, and he seems to have really found himself since putting on a Dodgers uniform. The lefty has a 1.16 ERA and 1.00 WHIP in 31.0 innings this season since coming back from an injury. He should be able to hold the Brew Crew to a modest amount of runs scored, but he may need to deal in order to get the win in this one. Corbin Burnes opposes him on the other side of the mound, and the reigning NL Cy Young winner has been phenomenal once again this season. In 143.0 innings of work, Burnes has a 2.39 ERA and an incredible 0.92 WHIP. His 181 K's rank second in all of baseball, and his nasty stuff may even give the Dodger's potent lineup a scare. I would expect a low-scoring affair here.

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Pain. That is what the Yankees have been going through lately. It has been the worst stretch of their season by far. There is no better way to encompass how it has been going for New York than Anthony Rizzo destroying stuff in the dugout and going on a tirade after a bad call by an umpire. Perhaps they can break out of this losing streak by facing the Toronto Blue Jays, who have been wildly disappointing in 2022.

Toronto came into the season with the expectation of competing with the Yankees for the AL East division, and that has just not been the case. It was so bad at one point, they fired their manager in season in hopes of turning things around. Now, they aren't a bad team and are still competing for a playoff spot, but it really has been a letdown. The offense has been anemic far too much for a team that has Vladimir Guerrero Jr., George Springer, Bo Bichette and Lourdes Gurriel Jr., among others. The cold stretch has to end for the Yankees at some point, and they will get back to their winning ways. It could come against this overrated Toronto team in this series.

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