Atlanta at San Francisco

The Giants will send Tim Lincecum to the mound for game one. Lincecum hit a late season slump that saw the Giants lose five straight games where he took the mound, but those problems are behind him. Over his last six starts, Lincecum has pitched the Giants to five wins, while posting a 1.94 ERA in the process. Lincecum has mowed down the Braves’ lineup with relative ease. The young right hander has a perfect 3-0 mark against the Braves in San Francisco for his career, striking out 23 in just 21 innings while owning a 1.71 ERA against them. The Braves went through a stretch of posting a 2-10 mark with Derek Lowe on the mound, but he caught fire late to earn the game one start. The Braves won their final six games with Lowe on the hill. The edge is the home field here. The Braves, while posting the best home record in baseball at 56-25, failed on the road posting a 35-46 mark for the season. What is worse is their overall road mark vs. winning teams, where the Braves were just 13-27 on the season. Braves have dropped five straight Lowe starts as a dog of +110 to +150, while the Giants have delivered a 19-7 mark in games where the total is posted at 6.5 or less. I like San Francisco in this one.