The Atlanta Braves are headed home and will face the San Francisco Giants after arguably their worst stretch of the season.
The good news is that the Giants are not good this year, and Drake Baldwin will be back for this series. Time will tell on the Baldwin return if he is back to full strength, but what we do know is that the Braves lack of rotation depth due to injuries is starting to rear its head.
Because of the state of injuries, it appears that Grant Holmes will be getting another start, even though he has proven that he gets absolutely rocked the second he faces a hitter the second time through. The first time Holmes faces a hitter in a game they are averaging a slash line of .187/.256/.280, which is excellent. The second time in a game he faces a hitter they are averaging a slash line of .317/.391/.663. When every single hitter you face averages MVP numbers the second time you face them, that is a recipe for disaster.
If Holmes does indeed get the start (the Braves have swayed recently from their probable pitchers), it will be shocking if Didier Fuentes does not come in to pitch in a long relief role early in the game. Ritchie would potentially have this long relief role if it were not for the Strider injury. Of all the Giants hitters, only four have faced Holmes before and none of them have more than five at-bats. Rafael Devers leads the team with those five at-bats, and he has a .400 average in that span.
Fortunately for the Braves they will be facing Adrian Houser in the midst of arguably the worst season of his career. His 5.54 ERA is the second worst of his career and his 1.538 WHIP is his worst of his career. His expectancy stats (XSTATS) paint the picture that he can’t blame bad luck on his poor performance either. His xERA so far has been 5.44, which is good for bottom 13.0 percent of qualified pitchers. Pretty much every stat that matters is in the bottom 13.0 percent or worse. The only thing he has going for him is his slightly above league average walk rate of 8.1 percent.
Of the players on the Braves’ active roster, Austin Riley and Ozzie Albies have faced Houser the most with seventeen and sixteen at-bats respectively. Both players have seen success with Riley hitting .471 with a HR and Albies hitting .375 with a .974 OPS. Michael Harris has a much smaller sample with eight at-bats but has an average of .375 in that span. Surprisingly, Matt Olson has struggled in his eleven at-bats against Houser where he has only hit .182 with a .630 OPS.
The Braves could really use a boost offensively as they have only scored more runs than three other MLB teams in the month of June.
First pitch is at 7:15 EDT
Game Info
Game Time: Tuesday, June 16th, 7:15 pm EDT
Location: Truist Park, , Atlanta, Ga
Watch: BravesVision / Gray TV
Radio/Audio: 680 AM / 93.7 FM The Fan
