The baseball schedule is unyielding. When you are blessed (as we have been, for so long) with a good season, that’s a positive thing. In 2025, it’s kind of a nightmare. The Braves are out of pieces to pick up at this point, especially on the heels (pun sorta-intended) of Ronald Acuña Jr.’s latest injury, but they have to play this game anyway. Maybe they can make the Royals feel slightly worse about buying Randal Grichuk ahead of the Trade Deadline. Maybe not.
In today’s matinee, the Braves will give
another start to Joey Wentz. He’s had two starts and a relief appearance for Atlanta, and he’s been truly excellent: a 14/3 K/BB ratio and a single homer allowed in 11 1⁄3 innings of work (58/65/68 ERA-/FIP-/xFIP-). The Braves have only won one of those appearances, but not for Wentz’ lack of effort. Before the Braves acquired him, he had a 28/20 K/BB ratio on the season, so dropping a 14/3 on us, and opposing batters, is pretty crazy. I don’t have that much belief that Wentz has found something new and exciting that will make him a relevant swingman type that the Braves now control for years, but it’s at least somewhat possible, and that makes him more interesting than whatever Josh Collmenter equivalent they have and will continue to add to the roster to get through the season.
The Royals will be going with a pseudo-bullpen game. Angel Zerpa (99/93/79, got smacked around by the Braves yesterday) will open, and then give way to Thomas Hatch, who was recalled yesterday. Hatch last appeared in the majors in 2023 and has six starts and 33 relief appearances to his name with a 115/112/113 line, most of it with the Blue Jays. He actually had a very nice bulk appearance against the Braves while a Pirate back in 2023, but at this point I bet no one really remembers that given what we’ve endured this season already. Hatch was doing a mediocre job in Triple-A as a 30-year-old, and is basically your generic Quad-A yo-yo guy, so you could potentially expect this to be another high-scoring affair like the other two games in the series.
Game Info
Game Date/Time: Wednesday, July 30, 2:10 p.m. EDT
Location: Kauffman Stadium, Kansas City, MO
TV: FanDuel Sports Network South / Southeast
Radio: 680 AM / 93.7 FM The Fan
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