The Nashville Predators are right where they are supposed to be.

The pick by many to win the Stanley Cup in June Anthony Walker Jersey , the President’s Trophy winners are up 2-0 on Colorado in the first-round series and heading to Denver to finish off the pesky Avalanche.

While the series looks lopsided, it’s a lot closer than the 2-0 advantage. Colorado has led in both games and nearly rallied to force overtime in Saturday’s 5-4 Nashville win. Despite mounting injuries, the Avalanche are confident heading home, where they have won 28 games this season.

Still, the sting of losing both games in Nashville lingers for eighth-seeded Colorado ahead of Monday’s Game 3.

“We played hard, but we lost, so it doesn’t really matter. It’s tough,” center Nathan MacKinnon, who had a goal and an assist to give him three points in the series, told reporters after Saturday’s loss. “I thought we played two pretty good games here in Nashville, and we couldn’t get a win.”

MacKinnon has been productive despite his line — which includes Mikko Rantanen and captain Gabriel Landeskog — being the focus of the Predators’ defense. He had 97 points in the regular season and is a serious Hart Trophy candidate as the NHL MVP Darius Leonard Jersey , and he hasn’t slowed down in the postseason.

“Oh man, he’s special,” Predators forward Austin Watson told The Tennessean. “I mean, you don’t have the year he had this year without being a pretty incredible player. And just his line as a whole, they play the game with so much speed, you can’t get caught standing still.

“I mean, if you are, they’ll blow right around you. Even if you think you’re doing a good job on them, you can’t really take your foot off the gas at all or they’ll turn it back on you and get chances.”

The Predators have some special players, too, including Filip Forsberg Mike Ditka Jersey , who scored a highlight-reel goal in Game 1. Nashville won’t take Colorado lightly because it knows how dangerous a No. 8 seed can be. The Predators reached the Cup finals last year as the eighth seed in the West.

But Nashville has a healthy squad that has won 12 straight against Colorado dating back to the end of the 2015-16 season. The Avalanche, on the other hand, are playing without No. 1 defenseman Erik Johnson, top goaltender Semyon Varlamov and may not have rookie defenseman Samuel Girard for Game 3.

Girard was scratched from Game 2 with an upper-body injury and his status for Monday’s Game 3 is not known.

Both teams are hoping for a cleaner game in Denver. Game 2 was cluttered with 14 penalties — seven for each team — which might have been a result of Nashville center Ryan Johansen’s hit on Colorado defenseman Tyson Barrie in Game 1.

The Avalanche felt Johansen should have been suspended but the league didn’t agree. One thing that came out of it was a rivalry was born.

Nashville’s goal is to get the series over quickly. A win in Game 3 will make it nearly impossible for Colorado to win the series, and the young team knows it.

“There’s definitely no quit on their side,” Johansen Saturday. “That’s with every team in the playoffs, but they play desperate, they play fast, they’ve got a lot of young skill over there. We’ve got to make sure we close out games better.”

Atlanta Braves pitcher Mike Foltynewicz was beginning to emerge as a top-of-the-rotation type starter when he experienced some tightness in his right tricep.

After spending 10 days on the disabled list, he will try to regain that form in the series opener against the streaking Cincinnati Reds.

Foltynewicz (5-4, 2.16 ERA) will be opposed by Cincinnati’s Tyler Mahle (6-6 Eddie Jackson Jersey , 3.89) in the first game of a three-game set at SunTrust Park.

It won’t be an easy assignment for Foltynewicz. The Reds have won seven straight — 10 of their last 11 — and are coming off a sweep of the Chicago Cubs. On Sunday, the Reds scored seven runs in the seventh inning and swept the Cubs in a four-game series for the first time since 1983.

Since Jim Riggleman became the team’s manager, Cincinnati is 29-30 and the Reds have won 24 of their last 42.

The Braves and Reds split a four-game series in April in Cincinnati.

Foltynewicz has only pitched five innings in the two starts after his complete-game shutout against the Washington Nationals on June 1. He threw five scoreless innings against the New York Mets before leaving with the arm issues on June 12.

The former first-round draft choice, who was acquired from the Houston Astros in 2015, has made 14 starts this season and allowed two or fewer earned runs in 13 of them. He has had four scoreless starts. He ranks fourth in the National League in ERA.

Foltynewicz received no decision in his April 23 start against the Reds. He left after 4 2/3 innings, having allowed two runs on three hits and four walks, with seven strikeouts. In four career starts against the Reds, he is 1-0 with a 2.31 ERA.

Mahle has been hot, going 3-0 with a 1.61 ERA over his last four starts. The Reds have won all four of his starts in June, in which he has allowed four runs in 22 1/3 innings. He beat the Detroit Tigers in his most recent start, giving up two runs and fanning eight in six innings.

“Tyler did a great job Jerry Hughes Jersey ,” Riggleman said after Mahle’s last start. “It seems like we’ve got six and eight innings from a lot of our starters. You’ve got a chance to win the ballgame. When you do that, you get a chance to use your bullpen the way it should be used and a lot of times good things are going to happen.”

Mahle started against the Braves on April 24 and gave up three runs in six innings with a career-high 11 strikeouts. Mahle took a no-hitter into the seventh before losing it on a leadoff homer by Atlanta’s Freddie Freeman. The Reds eventually lost that game in 12 innings.

The Braves’ bullpen took a jolt on Sunday when closer Arodys Vizcaino was placed on the 10-day disabled list with right shoulder soreness. Vizcaino, who had not pitched since June 17, had a cortisone shot earlier in the week and still wasn’t feeling well enough to pitch by the weekend.

“His shoulder is not responding like we wanted it to,” Atlanta manager Brian Snitker said. “It was one of those situations where if he wasn’t ready to pitch (Sunday), we had to back off it and get it right, because it wasn’t working.”

Atlanta activated right-hander Evan Phillips to take Vizcaino’s spot on the roster. Phillips had 50 strikeouts in 35 innings and a 2.33 ERA for Triple-A Gwinnett.

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