Can the rookie throw enough strikes in Coors Field?
The rotation carousel never stops for the Atlanta Braves, who will turn to rookie AJ Smith-Shawver to start Tuesday night’s game against the Colorado Rockies.
Earlier on Tuesday, Atlanta recalled Smith-Shawver from Gwinnett and designated Ian Anderson for assignment to make room on the big league roster. The club will hopefully have Anderson slide through waivers and gain some much-needed minor league flexibility.
As for Smith-Shawver, it all comes down to command. He gets a bunch of swing and miss with his stuff, but finding the strike zone was a real challenge in the first few weeks of the season as he issued eight walks across 13.2 innings and three starts. Colorado’s lineup has really struggled this first month, so this is about as on-paper friendly as it gets for a rookie in daunting Coors Field.
The Rockies will counter with veteran righty Germán Márquez, who was seemingly been with Colorado forever despite only being 30. Marquez has a 9.30 ERA — yes, that is correct — over five starts and 20.1 innings this season. He hasn’t been quite that bad when you see his xERA, FIP and xFIP hover around 5.10 combined, but he has really been fighting it in the early going. Márquez has barely pitched the last few seasons due to injury, so he’s likely still shaking the rust off. This is a pitcher the Braves should be able to get to with a little bit of patience.
First pitch from Coors Field is set for 8:40 p.m. ET once again. Thankfully for you east coasters, this is the final night game of the west coast road trip.