Reynaldo López returns to the mound as Braves look to sting Rays and avoid losing streak

ATLANTA, GA - JULY 21: Reynaldo López #40 of the Atlanta Braves pitches in the first inning during the game against the San Diego Padres at Truist Park on July 21, 2026 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Matthew Grimes Jr./Atlanta Braves/Getty Images) | Getty Images There’s no ideal time for a three-gam

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There’s no ideal time for a three-game losing streak but at the same time, you especially don’t want to go on a three-game skid when you only have a handful of gams to play with at the top of the standings. That’s currently the scenario for the Atlanta Braves, who are holding onto a four-game lead on top of the NL East and are looking to avoid both a series loss to the Tampa Bay Rays and a three-game losing streak, to boot.

If that’s going to happen, one of the things that’ll need to occur is that Reynaldo

López will have to hit the ground running upon returning to action after recovering from a knee ailment that wiped out the entire month of August for him. In what turned out to be López’s final start before the injury, he turned in a very solid perforrmance where he nearly went six innings and struck out six batters while deftly avoiding giving up any runs despite dealing with five hits and a walk against the Orioles back on July 26.

Despite a wobble for López in mid-July that saw him have back-to-back starts where he got tagged for a few runs, Reynaldo had actually been very solid in his return to the rotation after spending most of the early portion of the season in the bullpen. It appeared that whatever mechanical issues that he’d been dealing with to start the season had been fixed via behind the scenes work and his efforts coming out of the bullpen so hopefully whatever he figured out back then will carry over as he makes his return from injury.

For what it’s worth, he tossed five scoreless innings in his rehab start and only gave up two hits but with that being said, it’s a pretty big leap from Triple-A to facing the best team in the American League. Hopefully López will be able to rise up to the moment and keep the Braves competitive in this one while he’s on the mound.

Speaking of the lineup, perhaps the only positive thing that they could take away from Tuesday night’s loss to Tampa Bay is that they won the xBA battle. Sure, it’s a very small and hollow consolation prize considering that the name of the game is “runs” and not “expected batting average” but if Atlanta can keep that up against Griffin Jax, then maybe some of the bullets from Atlanta that found leather on Tuesday night could find green or even some seats if they can do some work against Jax here on Wednesday.

Jax will be coming into this game with an ERA of 3.82 (91 ERA-) and a FIP of 3.96 (95 ERA-), so he’s been very solid for the Rays here in 2026. He’s had a very interesting go of it since the All-Star break, however. His first start after the break saw him give up seven runs in five innings against the Red Sox but then he bounced back five days later with six innings and just one run allowed against the Blue Jays.

Then things got weird, as he’s given up eleven runs across his past three starts (13.1 innings) but only five of those runs have been earned. He still did pretty well against the Rangers and White Sox in his final two starts before he went down for elbow discomfort. He sat out for a month, returned a week ago against the Mets and then proceeded to give up six runs with three of them being unearned. I do not know what the Rays have against Griffin Jax but hopefully we’ll see more of the same for Jax when it comes to both the volume of runs given up and he potential for the Rays to be charitable with their unearned runs as well.

As far as the offense for Atlanta goes, there’s nowhere to go but up after the way the past two games have gone. It certainly wasn’t fun to see Atlanta only put up one run the day after getting shut out but maybe that’s just a case of two good pitchers simply performing to the standard that they’re capable o

With that being said, it’s certainly time for the Braves to perform at their expected standards at the plate as well. Griffin Jax is no pushover but if Atlanta’s going to halt this skid at the earliest convenience, the lineup will have to find a way to click here on Wednesday night. For whatever it’s worth, Griffin Jax doesn’t exactly have fond memories of Truist Park, as he got absolutely tagged for four runs while only picking up one out in a relief appearance for the Twins back in 2025. Matt Olson, Ozzie Albies, Sean Murphy, Michael Harris II and Drake Baldwin all reached base against Jax back in that 2025 appearance, so here’s hoping that all of those guys will be able to build on the success they had against him in last season.

Either way, it’s September and there’s a divisional lead for the Braves to protect so they have no choice but to get the job done. It’d especially be nice to see the Braves pick up a win so that they don’t have to go into that quick turnaround tomorrow at noon having to wake up trying to salvage a series instead of going for a big series win. The Rays are formidable competition but the Braves are at the top of the NL East for a reason, as well. It’s time to show up and prove it in this high-profile series.