<\/p>\n
Cooper Albers previews Friday\u2019s MLB Opening Day matchup between the Kansas City Royals and the Atlanta Braves.<\/p>\n
After an atypically long winter, baseball has finally returned to The Battery.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Atlanta Braves, coming off their first missed postseason since 2017, begin their push back to October Friday night when they host the Kansas City Royals for Opening Day at Truist Park.<\/p>\n
The perennial NL East powerhouse has a new manager in former bench coach Walt Weiss, eager to recapture the magic of a once-budding dynasty after Brian Snitker\u2019s retirement. Meanwhile, the Royals finished in third in the AL Central last season, missing the playoffs for the ninth time in the decade since winning the 2015 World Series.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s a look at Friday\u2019s lineup cards:<\/p>\n
LHP Cole Ragans<\/strong><\/p>\n LHP Chris Sale<\/strong><\/p>\n First pitch is set for 7:15 p.m. ET. Atlanta enters as a 1.5-run home favorite on DraftKings Sportsbook<\/strong><\/a>, while Kansas City sits as a +123 underdog. The game total is set at O\/U 7.5 runs.<\/p>\n Kansas City inked burgeoning ace Cole Ragans<\/strong> to a three-year contract extension, following a dazzling campaign in 2024. But the crafty left-hander struggled to stay healthy in 2025, missing significant time due to a pair of stints on the injured list.\u00a0While his 4.67 ERA in 13 starts didn\u2019t evoke shades of Cy Young, the raw stuff was there; he ranked in MLB\u2019s 95th percentile or higher in xERA (2.67), xBA (.187), whiff rate (34.8%), and strikeout rate (38.1%). Still just 28, Ragans remains one of the AL\u2019s most formidable southpaws, especially if he can get back to skirting loud contact as he did in \u201824.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Royals will roll out a revamped bullpen this season, featuring several new additions \u2014 including former Phillies All-Star Matt Strahm, who returns to the franchise that drafted him. The new faces will join returning southpaw Daniel Lynch IV and rising flamethrower Steven Cruz.\u00a0<\/p>\n Perennial Cy Young candidate Chris Sale<\/strong> finally got the nod in 2024. He could\u2019ve gone back-to-back if not for the fractured rib that kept him sidelined for a chunk of the 2025 campaign.\u00a0Even so, Sale earned his ninth career All-Star nomination with a 2.58 ERA and 11.8 K\/9 across 21 outings. Armed with arguably the most dastardly slider in baseball history \u2014 he\u2019s ranked in MLB\u2019s 100th percentile for Breaking Run Value in back-to-back seasons \u2014 Sale often sends batters back to the dugout without so much as a smudge on their bats.\u00a0<\/p>\n Atlanta bolstered its bullpen this offseason by signing two-time All-Star reliever Robert Suarez, who will serve as the setup man for veteran closer Raisel Iglesias. Meanwhile, the Braves added 20-year-old fireballer Didier Fuentes to the Opening Day roster after a scorching spring.<\/p>\n Kansas City\u2019s lineup is largely the same from last season, when it ranked 22nd leaguewide in wRC+ and 26th in both home runs and runs scored. Despite posting strong strikeout numbers, the Royals generated the fewest walks in the American League. Still, superstar shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. remains a menace in the batter\u2019s box and on the basepaths, and first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino is coming off an electric WBC run with Team Italy. The franchise also added veteran outfielder Starling Marte for bench depth and a platoon bat against lefties.\u00a0<\/p>\n Atlanta flashed signs of regression across the board in 2025, its lineup full of All-Stars combining for a middling 101 wRC+. But even in the wake of Marcell Ozuna\u2019s departure, a roster featuring a healthy Ronald Acu\u00f1a Jr. and an ageless Matt Olson remains a formidable threat. Plus, a lost season for the Braves in 2025 still managed to provide one glaring silver lining: surging catcher Drake Baldwin mashed 19 home runs en route to capturing the NL Rookie of the Year award.<\/p>\n In a marquee showdown between two of the game\u2019s top southpaws, the scale seemingly tips in favor of the former Cy Young. A healthy Chris Sale is as dangerous as they come, and he should carve up a Royals lineup with plenty of question marks. Count on the Braves\u2019 bats to come alive early, as if making up for lost time from the uncharacteristically long offseason.\u00a0<\/p>\n Braves fans haven\u2019t had a reason to cheer in quite some time. Expect that to change Friday night.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source dknetwork.draftkings.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Cooper Albers previews Friday\u2019s MLB Opening Day matchup between the Kansas City Royals and the Atlanta Braves. After an atypically long winter, baseball has finally returned to The Battery.\u00a0 The Atlanta Braves, coming off their first missed postseason since 2017, begin their push back to October Friday night when they host the Kansas City Royals […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2348669,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2348668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-royalty"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Kansas-City-Royals-vs-Atlanta-Braves-prediction-pick-for-MLB.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2348668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2348668"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2348668\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2348670,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2348668\/revisions\/2348670"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2348669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2348668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2348668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2348668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Atlanta Braves<\/h3>\n
\n
Royals vs. Braves Preview<\/h2>\n
Pitching Matchup<\/h3>\n
Lineup Breakdown<\/h3>\n
Royals vs. Braves Pick, Best Bet<\/h2>\n
Best Bet: Atlanta Braves -1.5 Runs (+153)<\/a><\/h3>\n