The Atlanta Braves won their last series, but it sure didn’t feel like it. 

Atlanta’s struggles in game threes continued last night, as they lost out on a sweep of the New York Mets thanks to a walk-off homer by outfielder Brandon Nimmo, spoiling a good start from rebounding Bryce Elder.  

But Atlanta’s moving on, focusing on the incoming 2nd-place Chicago Cubs, who are arriving at Truist Park for a three-game set. Game one features the two teams’ respective ERA leaders in Chicago’s Shota Imanaga and Atlanta’s Reynaldo López. 

Here’s how Atlanta will line up for the contest:

RF Ronald Acuña Jr
2B Ozzie Albies
DH Marcell Ozuna
1B Matt Olson
LF Adam Duvall
SS Orlando Arcia
CF Michael Harris II
C Travis d’Arnaud
3B Zack Short

Third baseman Austin Riley, who was removed from last night’s game with “left side tightness”, is sitting out of the lineup today as a precautionary move. After waking up with lingering soreness, the team sent him for an MRI, the results of which are not yet available. 

López has been Atlanta’s best starter from a statistical perspective this season – in six starts, he’s 2-1 with a 1.53 ERA and has allowed a total of six earned runs in his 35.1 innings. He doesn’t have a particularly long track record against Chicago hitters – Catcher Yan Gomes is 1-5 and Christopher Morel is 1-1, but no one else has a hit off of López.

Here’s the Cubs lineup:

LF Mike Tauchman
RF Seiya Suzuki
CF Cody Bellinger
3B Christopher Morel
DH Ian Happ
SS Nico Hoerner
1B Michael Busch
2B Miles Mastrobuoni
C Jacob Amaya 

Imanaga’s transitioned to Major League Baseball just fine after eight seasons in Japan’s NPB – he’s 5-0 with a 1.08 ERA, having struck out 43 batters in his 41.2 innings with only five walks and three homers allowed. 

His fastball, despite sitting only 92mph, allows only a .140 batting average against thanks to its exemplary carry up in the zone, getting over 19 inches of induced vertical break. He pairs that with a splitter, coming in the low 80s, combined with a sweeper and a curveball. On the whole, opposing hitters are batting just .187 with a .258 slugging off of the lefty.    

This evening’s series opener is slated for a 7:20 PM ET first pitch. Atlanta’s broadcast is on Bally Sports South, while the Cubs are on Marquee Sports Network. For those out of market, both are available on MLB.tv and there’s a national broadcast on FS1. 

If you’d rather just listen, the Cubs radio broadcast is available on 670 The Score while the Atlanta Braves Radio Network has the standard broadcast on 680 AM/93.7 FM The Fan and affiliates across Braves Country.

The Atlanta Hawks came in facing slim odds. They walked away with their biggest victory in years.

The Hawks won the NBA draft lottery on Sunday, landing the No. 1 pick and a potential cornerstone player in a year where there’s no clear-cut choice.

“At least I can go home and tell my wife on Mother’s Day, ‘Hey, at least we won the lottery,’” general manager Landry Fields said. “That’s her present. Yeah, there we go.”

The Hawks hit the jackpot despite just 3% odds after finishing 10th in the Eastern Conference at 36-46. They dropped their final six regular-season games and lost to the Chicago Bulls in the first round of the play-in tournament.

“It was a shock,” said Fields, who grinned ear to ear when deputy commissioner Mark Tatum announced the Hawks as the winners. “When I first saw that it wasn’t us between 10 and 12, that launched us into the top four. I was like, all right, we’ve got a real shot at this thing. A bit of surprise, but a lot of excitement.”

The Hawks haven’t won a postseason series since a surprising run to the Eastern Conference finals in 2021. They got knocked out in the first round in 2022 and 2023.

Atlanta has some big decisions to make this offseason, including whether to break up its backcourt of Trae Young and Dejounte Murray. Fields can build with the No. 1 pick — assuming he keeps it — though it’s not clear who will be taken first after Victor Wembanyama was the obvious choice for San Antonio last year.

“Our group has been fantastic,” Fields said. “There’s a whole lot of trust. They’ve put in the work. We’ll kind of lean into our process and take it from there.”

Washington, Houston, San Antonio and Detroit rounded out the top five. The draft is June 26-27 in Brooklyn.

Houston coach Ime Udoka was thrilled to get the third pick after the Rockets went 41-41 and missed the playoffs for the fourth straight year.

“Pleasant surprise when you move up the way that we did,” he said. “I feel like there’s a lot of qualified candidates out there.”

Washington and Detroit had the best chances to land the top pick at 14%. Only four teams have won the lottery with slimmer odds than Atlanta, with the biggest longshot being Orlando at 1.52% in 1993. The Magic orchestrated a blockbuster draft night trade with Golden State, sending the rights to Chris Webber to the Warriors for the rights to Penny Hardaway along with three future first-round picks.

San Antonio landed a generational player last year in Wembanyama. The franchise that previously took David Robinson and Tim Duncan with the No. 1 overall pick got its next great big man, and all the Frenchman did was turn in one of the best rookie seasons in NBA history.

Fields disputed the idea that this year’s class is a weak one, saying there are future All-Stars.

“Every draft class has great players in it,” he said.

The No. 1 pick could once again come from France, whether it’s center Alex Sarr or sharp-shooting forward Zaccharie Risacher, but that’s far from a certainty. UConn guard Stephon Castle and Kentucky’s Reed Sheppard and Rob Dillingham are both expected to be off the board within the first few selections.

The 7-foot-1, 224-pound Sarr has the size and mobility that teams crave and can defend the perimeter when he’s not blocking shots down low. The 19-year-old from Toulouse is known for his explosiveness around the rim, though he could use some more muscle. It would help, too, if he developed into a more reliable 3-point shooter.

Sarr, whose brother Olivier plays for the Oklahoma City, spent this past season in Australia’s National Basketball League.

Risacher, who was born in Spain and grew up in France, is known as a dynamic, albeit streaky shooter for JL Bourg, whether he’s popping off screens or pulling up for 3-pointers. He often guards the other team’s best player.

Castle joined Andre Drummond in 2012 as UConn’s only one-and-done players when he declared for the draft in April after the Huskies’ latest NCAA championship run. The 6-foot-6 guard averaged 11.1 points, 4.7 rebounds and 2.9 assists while often drawing the defensive assignment to shut down the opposition’s top perimeter player.

Sheppard and Dillingham both came off the bench in their lone college seasons.

Sheppard, who was voted the Southeastern Conference’s top freshman by coaches, was one of the league’s best playmakers and perimeter shooters. He was Kentucky’s No. 3 scorer at 12.5 points per contest and averaged an SEC-best 2.5 steals that ranked eighth nationally, despite starting just five of 33 games.

Dillingham was voted the SEC’s top sixth man after averaging 15.2 and 3.9 assists. Kentucky tied for second in the conference and earned a No. 3 seed in the NCAA Tournament, only to get knocked out by Oakland in the round of 64. Coach John Calipari then left after 15 years for Arkansas.

AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba

Outfielder Brandon Nimmo, who didn’t start the game due to a side injury, hit a walk-off two-run homer in the ninth inning to lift the host New York Mets over the Atlanta Braves, 4-3.

The Mets averted being swept in the three-game series and won for just the seventh time in 19 games. The Braves’ four-game winning streak ended.

Nimmo, who left after four innings in Saturday’s 4-1 loss due to a tight right intercostal muscle, entered Sunday as a pinch runner for DJ Stewart in the seventh inning.

The Braves snapped a 2-2 tie in the eighth, when Marcell Ozuna delivered his second RBI single of the night, and the Mets went down in order in the bottom of the inning before coming back in the ninth against A.J. Minter (5-3).

Jeff McNeil legged out a bunt single and went to second on a sacrifice by Tomas Nido. Nimmo then hit a 3-2 pitch beyond the fence in right-center field for his second career walk-off homer.

Edwin Diaz (1-1) threw a perfect ninth inning.

Pete Alonso had an RBI single in the third and a run-scoring double in the sixth for the Mets. Stewart and Francisco Lindor also had two hits apiece.

New York starter Luis Severino allowed two runs on four hits and three walks while striking out four over five innings.

Ozuna’s run-scoring hits increased his major-league-leading RBI total to 40 in 37 games. He is the fastest Braves player to reach 40 RBIs since Hall of Famer Henry Aaron had 40 in his first 35 games in 1970.

Jarred Kelenic homered in the second inning for the Braves. Kelenic was selected by the Mets in the first round of the 2018 draft before being traded to the Seattle Mariners in the Diaz blockbuster following that season.

Braves starter Bryce Elder gave up two runs on seven hits and no walks while striking out six over 5 1/3 innings.