As it turns out, Thursday night will be a very good day for local fans in Rome to show up to the ballpark and for Braves fans in general to keep an eye on the Rome Emperors. Walt Weiss spoke with the media before Tuesday’s night middle game between the Braves and the Marlins and revealed that Spencer Strider will be joining Sean Murphy in Rome to begin his rehab assignment as well.
While Murphy is expected to begin his rehab stint tonight, he’ll serve as a battery mate with Spencer Strider on Thursday night since that’s when Strider will make his first start since suffering an oblique injury during the tail end of spring training. According to Weiss, Strider is expected to toss 40-45 pitches before bowing out. I’d imagine that Strider’s timetable for a potential return to the big leagues will come shortly after his performance and the obvious hope is that he’ll look good enough once he’s done on Thursday night.
At the same time, they could really try to let him stretch out as much as possible since he’s dealing with an oblique injury after all. Obliques are notoriously tricky to deal with and the obvious hope is that Strider won’t re-aggravate the injury in any way, shape or form while he’s on rehab assignment with Rome. So this could only be the first start for Strider on rehab for all we know.
Either way, if you’re a fan in the Rome area then Thursday night seems like the perfect night to mosey on over to the ballpark to catch a game. If you can’t make it to the game, you’ll be able to watch for free on Bally Sports Live and I highly suggest that y’all do so since the Braves will be off on Thursday, anyways. Here’s hoping that the rehab stint is a successful one for both Murphy and Strider and that we’ll see them both at the big league level real soon!
