Braves look to Hurston Waldrep to win series against White Sox

The Braves’ pitching has been terrible since the break. Not because of Hurston Waldrep, who will be pitching tonight.

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What is the story about?

The Atlanta Braves will be facing the Chicago White Sox in the finale of an unexpectedly crazy fun series where both offenses have exploded.

In the first game of the series the Braves were down 0-7 but made a game out of it by scrapping together nine runs to fall short 9-13. In that game the Braves had fifteen hits, and the White Sox had nineteen. In the game yesterday it was similar except the Braves were able to complete the comeback. After being down six runs in the fifth innings the Braves scored

seven unanswered runs and capped off an 11-10 win. The White Sox had eleven hits, and the Braves had thirteen.

Both the White Sox and the Braves have been some of the hottest position player groups in MLB. The White Sox have the sixth most fWAR among position players since the All-Star break with 5.6 and the Braves are fourth with 6.0.

If we look at wRC+ the White Sox are fourth and the Braves are sixth in MLB. If we look at total runs scored the Braves are third with only the Brewers and Blue Jays scoring more, and the White Sox are fourth. If we look at total hits the Braves are seventh and the White Sox are fifth.

No matter how you want to spin it, these two teams have been scorching hot with the bats, which would have seemed inconceivable two months ago.

The pitching on the other hand has been terrible for the Braves. Only two teams in MLB have lower pitching fWAR than the Braves since the break, and those two teams are the Angels and Rockies. This is not exactly good company. If we look at ERA, it is the same story. The Braves have the third worst in MLB with a 5.73. This is largely due to a 6.36 ERA from their SP.

Speaking of which, one player who not to blame for this high ERA is Hurston Waldrep who will be pitching today. Since being called up he has pitched 17.2 innings and has seventeen strikeouts to only five walks. He is currently carrying an ERA of 1.02 and a WHIP of 0.792. Clearly, he won’t be able to sustain such elite numbers, but it has been a joy to watch. That being said, his underlying metrics are good. His expected ERA (xERA) has been a solid 2.90 and his expected batting average against (xBA) has been an exceptional .218. He has been able to do this with a six-pitch mix that he spreads pretty evenly. None of his six pitches has been pitched more than 28.4 percent of the time so far this season.

His split finger has been lethal. This is his most used pitch, and hitters are struggling to a batting average of 0.048 and xBA of 0.095 while their slugging has been 0.048. Hitters are swinging and missing at this pitch 54.3 percent of the time.

This goes without saying, but no White Sox player has faced Waldrep before, which could be to his advantage. The White Sox have been extremely hot with their bats so let’s see if Waldrep and his elite split finger can hold them down.

Martín Pérez will be taking the mound for the White Sox. He has only pitched 23.1 innings this season but is having his best season in his fourteen-year career outside of his lone All-Star season in Texas in 2022. He has a 3.09 ERA and 3.59 FIP while carrying a 1.286 WHIP. This is largely due to him being able to limit the HR. for his career he averages 1.0 HR per nine innings,but this season has cut that down to 0.4. His sample size is extremely small, so these numbers could change, but he is still pitching well.

No Braves player has more than thirteen at-bats against him. Matt Olson leads the team with thirteen at-bats but has struggled to a .385 OPS. Ozzie Albies has crushed him, which is not shocking since he is a LHP. Albies has a .778 average and 2.445 OPS in his nine at-bats.

Will both team’s bats stay hot? Will Waldrep be able to continue his hot streak since being called up? First pitch is at 7:15 EDT.