The Daily Sweat: NL East race between Braves and Mets only one left to be settled

There's not a ton of intrigue in the Major League Baseball season anymore.

Aaron Judge is still chasing the American League home run record, but there's a question if Judge will play on Wednesday. The New York Yankees clinched the AL East on Tuesday and usually starters sit the next day. The Yankees have Thursday off and then play their next three games at Yankee Stadium. Aaron Boone told reporters he'd talk to Judge on Wednesday about it.

There aren't many pennant races to track. There are six divisions and five of them have been clinched. However, the remaining one is tied.

The New York Mets and Atlanta Braves have identical 97-58 records with seven games to go. They play a three-game series starting in Atlanta on Friday but every win is valuable and they're both in action on Wednesday.

The Mets face the Miami Marlins and are -190 favorites at BetMGM. The Braves are -225 favorites against the Washington Nationals. Neither one wants to get caught looking ahead and go into Friday down a game.

The Mets roll with Taijuan Walker against Miami's Jesus Luzardo, a talented and sometimes inconsistent lefty. The Mets dropped a game against the Marlins on Tuesday, which allowed the Braves to tie the NL East.

The Braves have Jake Odorizzi on the mound and that can't be comforting after he gave up eight runs to the Philadelphia Phillies in his last start. The Nationals go with Josiah Gray, whose ERA this season is an ugly 5.17. He hasn't had a decent start since August. Atlanta has won four in a row.

The Mets are -185 favorites to win the division, a big number considering the teams are tied. But the Mets will clinch the tiebreaker if they win just one game in Atlanta this weekend, which is huge with just seven games to go (there are no more Game 163s to decide ties anymore). They also have Jacob deGrom and Max Scherzer lined up for starts on Saturday and Sunday.

If you really like the Braves to continue their hot streak through the weekend, their +150 odds to win the NL East look pretty good. Then you'd just have to hope they don't trip up against the Nationals on Wednesday.

Here is the first look at the sports betting slate for Wednesday:

Yankees play after clinching

The Yankees are -130 favorites for Wednesday and it might be wise to take the Toronto Blue Jays, even against Yankees starter Gerrit Cole. Teams usually sit starters the day after clinching. The Yankees enjoyed their division title on Tuesday night.

The Yankees do have the Aaron Judge conundrum. They want him to be able to get as high up the single-season home run list as he can, but they also don't want to wear him out before the playoffs. The fact that the Yankees are off tomorrow and are at home Friday seems likely to play in the decision. But we'll see. Judge is +230 odds at BetMGM to hit over 0.5 home runs on Wednesday, but keep an eye on the lineup.

The rest of MLB

The final week of the MLB season would be great if there were multiple division races going on. The AL wild-card race is all but done too unless the Baltimore Orioles, 3.5 games back, can somehow make it interesting.

The NL wild-card race is ongoing. The Phillies are 1.5 games ahead of the Milwaukee Brewers. The Brewers face the St. Louis Cardinals, who clinched the NL Central on Tuesday. They'll likely sit starters on Wednesday. Milwaukee is a -145 favorite. Philadelphia is a -200 favorite at the Chicago Cubs.

What's the best bet?

Fading teams that just clinched can be profitable. Managers want to reward starters and give them a day off. Nothing is a lock, but I'll take the Blue Jays as an underdog against what is likely to be a lineup of Yankees backups. I also could sign off on adding the Brewers to a parlay against the just-clinched Cardinals.