Select folks in the Battery Power community (in our comments and Feed) and the FOX broadcast last night seemed to be of a similar mindset – underestimating the boys from Cobb County. Pitching matchups favoring PHI, the stars in their lineup on the verge of breaking out, and the home turf advantage / house of horrors disadvantage of Citizens Bank… some folks posited it would be understandable and okay if we left Pennsylvania with one win.
Yes, it’s an April series. Yes, we’ll see them again in less
than a week when they come to town. But if we’re to wholeheartedly believe in these 2026 vibes and this league-leading run differential, it felt important to take care of business, particularly when it’s of the NL East variety.
And here we are: one run given up in 18 innings and poised to sweep the Philadelphia Phillies at their own ballpark. Let’s get greedy!
Following last night’s marquee matchup, Grant Holmes and Andrew Painter will face off tonight on Peacock.
It feels like we’re always saying this about our starters, but Holmes (1-1, 3.32 ERA) will really be looking for a bounceback outing after his last one. He was pretty vocal about his incredibly short leash against the Marlins (59 pitches in four innings, 24 for strikes). And to his point, things were looking good after three perfect innings… but a BABIP one from hell would end his day. Weiss, after smoothing things over with his pitcher, attributed some of it to the righty’s workload in his last start in Anaheim, where he threw 99 pitches.
Holmes last started against Philadelphia on April 5, 2025, where he went four, walked four, and fanned six in an eventual Braves loss. No one has more than 4 ABs against him, but the ones with a single hit to date are Adolis García, Bryson Stott, and Brandon Marsh. Harper has walked twice.
Phillies #2 prospect and rookie Andrew Painter (1-1, 3.77 ERA) will toe the rubber for the other side, making his third career start. His last outing was five innings of one run ball, limiting Arizona to three hits, one walk and striking out seven. The kicker? It was all in relief – he did all of that after waking up with a gnarly migraine and throwing up several times before the matinee game. Despite the late scratch, he recovered enough to enter in the third and do his part, even if the Phillies would go on to lose 4-3.
Painter’s fastball can touch 97 mph while he mixes in sliders, sinkers, and curveballs. Don’t be surprised if he sprinkles in the occasional sweeper.
We’re hoping to see the Braves staff pitch out of their minds like they have so far. Should something happen to Holmes early, a well-rested bullpen awaits the call (minus Suarez, with Iggy’s status dependent on how he slept last night).
But a dominant offensive performance like Friday night’s would also be very welcome. Fresh in my mind is the Braves doing very little against a different stellar rookie in Cleveland’s Parker Messick. However, the Braves dinked and doinked three unearned runs on their way into delivering Cristopher Sanchez his first loss of the season, so truly anything feels possible.
Game Info
Game Date/Time: Sunday, April 19, 7:20 p.m. EDT
Location: Citizens Bank Park, Philadelphia, PA
TV: Peacock
Streaming: MLB.tv
Radio: 680 AM / 93.7 FM The Fan
