Alright, moving on. The Braves are 6-4. That’s good. The Braves sit atop of the NL East. Also good. Atlanta kicks off a three game series with the Cincinnati Reds on Monday night. That’s great. It was a tough weekend at Truist but I think a week of play against the Reds and the Royals will be a good pallet cleanser for Braves Country. Let’s take a look at the matchups.

Monday, April 10th

Bryce Elder will try to build on a rock solid outing in St. Louis last week where he earned his first win of the season and hopefully keep his 0.00 ERA in tact. He’ll face off against right hander Graham Ashcraft who debuted for Cincinnati in 2022. He also comes in with a 1-0 record after recording six strikeouts in seven innings against the Pirates in week one. He’ll be offering mainly Cutters that sit around 96 MPH and Sliders about ten miles per hour slower. He’s only allowed one hit each off of these two offerings and the wiff% sits right around 23 percent for both pitches. It will be interesting to see how the Braves approach Ashcraft as they try to revitalize this offense. First pitch is at 7:20 ET and can be seen on Bally Sports Southeast.

Tuesday, April 11th

Luis Cessa‘s opponent has yet to be announced for Tuesday night, but April 11th is the day that Kyle Wright is eligible to come off of the 15-day injured list. After the rough outings this weekend against a stout Padres lineup, I imagine we will see a roster move in the next twenty four hours to get Kyle back to Atlanta for his season debut on Tuesday. He had a mediocre outing for Gwinnett last week but hopefully he comes back to town with some fire and gets his season rolling. Cessa will bring a four pitch mix to Atlanta with the fastball topping out around 92 MPH. This is the bluest baseball savant page I have ever seen. Look at this. He owns a career 4.12 ERA and struck out two batters in his first start of the season. Same time, same place. 7:20 ET, BSSE.

Wednesday, April 12th

Bust out your radar guns because this will be a fun one: Spencer Strider vs. Hunter Greene. Velocity is the story here. Strider is averaging 97.2 MPH with his four-seamer (down exactly one tick from 2022) and Greene is averaging 99.9 MPH on the 115 fastballs he’s thrown this season. Green has yet to earn a win and will have a 5.63 ERA and a 2.000 WHIP when he takes the mound on Wednesday. Strider will try to get his second victory of 2023 and build on the 18 K’s he has racked up over 11 innings. These two pitchers have incredibly similar profiles so it will be interesting to see which offense can get to the bullpen first. This will wrap up the series and roll into the Braves first day off since March 31st, then it’s off to Kansas City. You know the drill. 7:20 ET, BSSE.

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