Series Preview: Red Sox at Braves
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The Red Sox have returned to the Dead Ball era.
“Sell the team” chants have taken over NESN.
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Alex Cora was fired at 10-17. Chad Tracy is at 8-8. Craig Breslow is probably fielding calls about Aroldis Chapman, Willson Contreras, Sonny Gray, Garrett Whitlock…guys who can help winning clubs right now. And Boston travels to face the only team with 30 wins. Baseball being what it is, they could sweep, of course. But this is going to be a tough series. The pitching matchups might favor Atlanta despite the Red Sox having good pitchers too. Chris Sale won’t be pitching so at least one of their aces misses the weekend series.
Connelly Early takes the ball Friday night against Spencer Strider. Early is coming off an excellent outing against Tampa Bay, 7.0 scoreless innings in their lone win in three games against the AL East leader. Strider began the year on the IL and, after being knocked around in Colorado for 3.1 inning,s shut down the Dodgers for 6.0. Maybe he’ll be rusty again. Kinda of an even-odd thing. One hit, 2 walks, 8 strikeouts even during an Ohtani slump is nothing to sneeze at.
View LinkPayton Tolle, aka Mass Pike, has made three starts on at least five days rest and one start on four days rest. Those three have included two gems and one kinda OK start. In the one on four days he wasn’t as sharp and issued four walks. Hopefully the Braves are a good matchup for him. They are actually the 23rd ranked offense in walks but 24th in strikeouts. So maybe this will be a defense-heavy workload. Durbin to the rescue? Bryce Elder is a righty who strikes people out but not at the elite level. He has 53 Ks in 54.2 innings but struck out 8 and 9 batters, respectively, in his last two starts. He does have 20 walks over that time which is…fine. He only averages 87 pitches per outing so if they work a few deep counts (I know, I know) maybe they can hold him under the 6.0 inning mark. He has reverse splits and this year righties are hitting .268/.297/.310 with lefties at an insane .130/.246/.236. Basically every lefty becomes Caleb Durbin. Not great for Tracy’s matchups.
Brayan Bello just pitched on Tuesday. He could be the TBD after an opener again. That’s four days rest. Jake Bennett can’t be recalled yet. The opener is working out for him. Whatever is causing him issues at the start of the game just doesn’t seem to be there. With 6.1 and 7.0 innings and 1 run allowed each time the Red Sox should keep the arrangement going as long as they can. Grant Holmes is the weak link of the series. Not that it matters when a guy with an ERA of nearly seven can shut down the lineup and given Wednesday. He’s a righty with essentially even splits. He’s given up an OPS of .680 to same-sided hitters and .678 to lefties. He hasn’t made it into the fifth in three of his last five starts.
Ronald Acuña Jr. has been on the IL. With any luck they’ll miss him.
Drake Baldwin is having a tremendous season with 11 homers and 37 runs scored (leading the league) while slashing .295/.378/.520.
Matt Olsen has 14 homers and 15 doubles.
Old friend Dom Smith is hitting .358/.386/.543 in limited playing time.
Ozzie Albies, Austin Riley, Michale Harris II…basically the entire lineup is dangerous. Must be nice.
Probable Pitching Matchups
Friday, May 15: Connelly Early (3.16 ERA / 4.35 FIP) vs. Spencer Strider (2.89 ERA / 3.75 FIP)
Saturday, May 16: Payton Tolle (2.78 ERA / 2.80 FIP) vs. Bryce Elder (1.81 ERA / 3.09 FIP)
Sunday, May 17: TBD (— ERA / — FIP) vs. Grant Holmes (4.35 ERA / 5.19 FIP)
When/Where to Watch
Friday, May 15: 7:15 PM ET on NESN
Saturday, May 16: 7:15 PM ET on NESN
Sunday, May 17: 1:35 PM ET on NESN
In the meantime, imagine Craig Breslow slowly turning into a Batman villain…
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