The boys are finally coming home. The Atlanta Braves are set to host a four game series against another NL powerhouse starting on Thursday evening at Truist Park and I think all major league baseball fans will be tuning in to a couple of these games. This should be a fun one. Lets take a look at how the weekend lines up for these two National League behemoths.
Thursday, April 6th
The 2023 Braves home opener will feature Padres southpaw Blake Snell facing off against Spencer Strider. The Padres come into town with a 3-3 record and Atlanta will be looking to hand Snell his second loss of the season. He will toe the rubber with a 6.23 ERA after a short outing last week against Colorado where he gave up 3 runs on 6 hits in 4.1 IP. He did strikeout 9 batters though, so hopefully the Braves can stifle those numbers and dish out some of that early inning damage that we’ve become accustomed to this past week. Strider will look to stay locked in and pick up his second win of the year. He will come into the game boasting a 0.00 ERA with 9 K’s under his belt. This series opener will kick off at 7:20 pm ET and can be seen on Bally Sports Southeast as well as MLB Network.
Friday, April 7th
TBD is who MLB.com has projected to take on San Diego right hander Nick Martinez on Friday night. This one is shaping up to look like a bullpen game to me. There isn’t really another option unless some roster movement takes place and even then I’m not exactly sure what the plan could be. I’d maybe look at Jesse Chavez taking Thursday off after pitching in the final two games in Saint Louis and serving as an opener for the Friday night showdown. How they will navigate it from there remains to be seen but I trust just about anyone Atlanta has stashed down in the State Farm lounge. Martinez also comes into Atlanta with an 0-1 record thanks to the Rockies and currently carries a 5.14 ERA through 7 innings pitched. This game starts at 7:20 pm as well but can only be seen on Apple TV+. This one is up to you. I have the service, and while the broadcast teams can be absolutely brutal, the camera work is phenomenal. Apple TV+ does offer a 7 day free trial so that may be worth checking out should you feel so inclined. The game can also be heard on the 680 The FAN app or your local Braves radio station with Ben Ingram and Joe Simpson.
*April 6, 2023 (1:15 pm CDT) Jared Shuster has been recalled to Atlanta and Colin McHugh has been placed on the 15 day IL with right shoulder inflammation. Anytime shoulder inflammation” is announced, it’s scary. Collin McHugh‘s a key cog in the bullpen who hasn’t looked quite like himself thus far, and this explains a lot. Jared Shuster gets what is likely the “emergency innings eater reliever” but will likely make his regular start if he’s not called upon.
Saturday, April 8th
Michael Wacha and Charlie Morton are the scheduled starters for Saturdays matchup and they’re both coming in with undefeated records in 2023. Both pitchers are looking to improve their numbers going into the third game of the series. Charlie Morton will take the mound with a 5.06 ERA and try to rack up a few more strikeouts as he was only able to record one K in his season debut against the Cardinals. Wacha only recorded two strikeouts in his first outing so if you’re a betting man, maybe take the over on this one. I have faith in Uncle Chuck to keep us in the game but with these two high octane lineups starting to settle in, I’m expecting this to be a fun, high scoring affair. In favor of the Braves of course. Again, first pitch for this one will be at 7:20 pm ET and can also be seen on BSSE and MLBN.
Sunday, April 9th
This marquee NL series will wrap up on Sunday evening with Seth Lugo and Dylan Dodd going head to head. These two had great debuts this season and will look to build on those outings. Dodd will look to earn his second major league win behind a fiery Braves lineup and but he’ll have to get through arguably the best team on the west coast to get it done. Dodd impressed after his MLB debut in STL and this should be another good test for the young lefty. He sports a 1.80 ERA and can hopefully build on the 3 strikeouts he recorded on Tuesday. Lugo will also try to stay on track as he will come in to Truist rocking a 1.29 ERA, 0.57 WHIP and 7 K’s of his own. The Braves are familiar with Lugo after his time he spent with the Mets so maybe they can dial in and put on a show for the fans in what should be a Sunday night sellout in Atlanta, Georgia. This game will start ten minutes earlier at 7:10 PM ET and will be the featured Sunday Night Baseball matchup on ESPN. You can also tune into to the ESPN Kay-Rod telecast featuring Michael Kay and Alex Rodriguez if you’re into that sort of thing. I’m not. Go Braves!
Braves Lineup
.@SpencerSTRIDer takes the mound tonight at @TruistPark! #ForTheA pic.twitter.com/sJ8FbWuXWV
— Atlanta Braves (@Braves) April 6, 2023
Marcell Ozuna sits for the 2nd time in 3 games and dammit, he deserves all of it. I hope that we get to see Sam Hilliard at some point this series.
Tatis is still suspended, but the Friars are not to be taken lightly. They’ve spent eleventy billion dollars on famous people who are famous for a reason. Snell hasn’t done much in the NL yet, but he was nails in Tampa. Let’s smash them in the mouth and keep our feet on the gas.
Word on the street is Ian Anderson’s injury is the opposite of good.
TJ?
I wouldn’t wish UCL damage and Tommy John surgery on anyone. But Ian has pitched so poorly over the last year that this diagnosis is not the worst possibility. Elbow problems might explain his ineffectiveness, and TJ surgery has a success rate that’s is quite high.
Really sober and accurate take, Tfloyd.
Ozuna sitting against a lefty…I’d like to think this is the beginning of the end, but I’m not that naive.
Re: the new site, I appreciate Ryan and everyone’s work to keep this place going and to try to maintain what makes it special. I think that after an adjustment period, it’ll all work out.
I’ll echo James from the last thread – the nesting replies do get quite narrow on a mobile device. And could I request that when a new post/thread is up, that it be announced on the previous thread? I typically just stay on the current comment thread and refresh until there’s a new one. So unless it’s mentioned in the comments, I’m not sure how to know that there’s a new post (unless I just happen to randomly check the main page).
Hey Big D! Game threads and Game recaps will have comments turned on, but all other categories will be redirected to the bar. Hopefully this information helps.
Aragorn looking great. Ronald is clearly Ronald again. So far so good.
RAJ is mortally mashing the ball right now.
Well it has been quite a while since I’ve cruised by. I hope y’all are doing well. Site looks great!!
Thanks for stopping in! Keep coming back!
I didn’t hate Chip Caray as much as most. I loved his energy. But Gaudin is doing a great job. I’m so easy to please when it comes to announcers, and so it’s gravy he’s a Braves fan.
Allow me a victory lap here, albeit a premature one. The backers of Chip Caray made arguments like yours, to which my response always was: “Sure, but so could competent play-by-play guys at the nationally qualified level.” I am, as you know, much harder to please than you, and I am thus far pleased. And I had to endure 12 years of being displeased.
I’ve been fairly impressed with Gaudin so far. I do note, however, that he just said “Arcia is silencing his doubters.”
Arcia is the best deal in town with his extension. If you let him get 600 PAs for a couple years, he’d turn in 2.5 fWAR with average offense and slightly above average defense and he’d go make $10M per on the open market.
Well, there’s Hilliard.
Uh what happened to Michael Harris?? I am on Gameday…
TV announcers said Harris has lower back discomfort and he was taken out as a precaution.
It looked like Harris came up a bit gimpy after stealing second. He appeared in discomfort. Hope it is not serious.
Me and Chip both thought Murphy’s ball was gone.
just a heads up for anyone who’s going to watch the game on apple tv tomorrow, you can you can change the audio feed to the braves radio broadcast instead of the apple tv announcers.
@krussell, I also thought it was headed for the seats.
Strider going 5 laborious innings is pretty normal and pretty frustrating sometimes. If he threw more strikes he might actually end up being less effective…? I’ll take it, but I worry about his longevity.
High K guys throwing a lot of pitches is just kind of the nature of it. He doesn’t rely on a lot of contact to get his outs and these big league hitters are going to try and foul stuff off to stay alive. While I agree that it can be a little aggravating, I’ll take the strikeouts all day long. It’s just who he his. I think that Spencer takes good care of himself and can have a good, lengthy career.
After all these years of me telling Chip to just watch the outfielders, the dang outfielder thought it was gone.
I don’t see it with Luetge. We sure have a lot of lollipop tossers in our bullpen between McHugh, Luetge, Chavez and Yates
I don’t like the shape of his pitches. It seems like he’s trying to live on the corners and either misses badly or it backs up over the plate. If he leaves that low velocity stuff up in the zone he’s going to get hammered.
I agree…just nothing special about his stuff and if he misses his spots it could be ugly. Feels like a mop up guy to me
Great 5 pitch inning. Hibernation mode in a tie game isn’t ideal
Did Luetge throw a single fastball? It looked like all breaking balls. Wasn’t real impressive.
I generally like Frenchy in the booth, but for the last few minutes he was criticizing Soto for not swinging at enough pitches. That level of ignorance is awfully frustrating.
Agreed. The flaw in his argument is “when you’re that good a hitter, you can afford to expand your strike zone.” Unless you’re Vlad Sr., you can’t. And there’s no evidence that Soto can. The gaping flaw is that if Soto allows pitchers to take an extra inch, they can then take two inches… then three, then four, then you’re Jeff Francoeur and announcing for a living. Was there ever a more disciplined hitter than Ted Williams? And he’s in the HoF because he never went outside the strike zone to swing at a ball, which forced pitchers to throw him strikes, at which point he becomes Ted Williams, strictly because of what he could do with balls in the strike zone.
This certainly isn’t the Night Shift anymore
Our pen will look nothing like it does right now when Fall rolls around. I hope.
I hope you are right. I wasn’t sure why Yates made the team but he certainly shouldn’t be in the 8th inning of a tie game
Kirby Yates ain’t it.
Of course a wild pitch to a guy that can’t hit then compound it with that throw. This needs to be the end of his tenure
He ain’t better than his brother.
It’s amazing but you are 100% correct
We scan score three more. Can we give up zero though?
Narrator: yes…yes they can.
Boy, this lineup is tough.
This feels like playoff baseball and it’s April.
Great AB’s by Olson and TDA
Our vaunted bullpen sure can’t throw strikes
And you can criticize Frenchy about his comments about Soto, but there’s very little better than “I expect Travis to go to right field” one pitch before he goes to right field.
Truth
Damn, Soto just snowconed that.
I have to admit that I’m enjoying Gaudin much more than expected. I didn’t hate Chip but got sick of him at times. Gaudio adds a lot of excitement.
the Bullpen has been really good.
I am struggling more with the site, it needs to be cleaned up before it becomes a cemetery
Great job by AJ
The shift is still saving runs. Much ado about nothing.
I just want to point out that Nabil Crismatt is an anagram of Tits Calm Brain.
“That’s your starting shortstop!”
YES!
That is our shortstop!
Dansby who?
I can live with 161-1. WOOHOO!!!
161-1 is still on the table! This team is a ton of fun to watch
I forgot what we traded for Arcia. Wasn’t much.
Patrick Weigel and Chad Sobotka. Weigel is recovering from TJS and Sobotka might be done with baseball.
Great win. Love the fight of the offense to rally with two outs twice. Now fingers crossed that Harris doesn’t miss too much time.
You know, after watching the replay of that throw, I wasn’t even mad at Yates. I just said, “bless his heart” and went to bed.
We have a recap, ladies and gents. Hat tip to Christian R and Cade H for carrying the load lately. 2 great additions to the Braves Journal team.