Today's picks: Why Braves will win vs. Nationals, plus more MLB, NBA and PFL picks for Thursday, May 6

The Coach is joined by featured betting experts Mike McClure and Larry Hartstein on the Early Edge podcast, powered by SportsLine. Get your prime plays for MLB, the NBA and PFL for Thursday, May 6.

Mike takes the mound first to tell you why he will continue to go with listed pitchers when issuing his MLB plays. He then dives into the NBA injury report, with updates on Nikola Vucevic, Zach LaVine, Kyle Lowry, Rui Hachimura, Malcolm Brogdon, Luguentz Dort, Anthony Davis and many more. Larry adds insights on the the growing faith in the Atlanta Hawks, and how their recent play has impacted the team's odds for the postseason. 

The Coach issues the SportsLine Plays of the Day, highlighting PFL 3 selections from Ian Parker, who is coming off a marvelous week. He is taking Kaitlin Young at -160 and Genah Fabian at -170. The Coach also shares Parker's parlay of Fabricio Werdum, Mohammed Usman and Larissa Pacheco at +116. The SportsLine Play of the Day in MLB is the Yankees -1.5 over the Astros at 1:05 p.m. ET. 

Mike is on the Cardinals +110 over the Mets at 1:15 p.m. ET. He says Taijuan Walker's advanced numbers have been very deceiving so far. Mike is also recommending the Braves -105 over the Nationals at 4:05 p.m. ET. "Drew Smyly has not been good so far this season. However, the Braves have the best offense in Major League Baseball in terms of xWOBA and xSLG," he says. "Jon Lester, in my opinion, lacks strikeout upside at this point of his career. The Braves have struggled so far on paper against left-handed pitching, however, when you look at their lineup individually, they hit left-handed pitching at an above-average clip in their careers."

Larry reminds us to roll with the Hawks, taking Atlanta -5 over the melting Pacers at 8:00 p.m. ET. 

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