Another opportunity to stack wins against a sub-par opponent
The Braves have won seven straight and it has been a lot of fun. The offense has gotten contributions from up and down the lineup and the pitching has mostly been good. They have taken advantage of a soft stretch of schedule during this streak and will have an opportunity to continue that trend as they host the Pirates for four games. The pitching matchup is extremely favorable for Atlanta on Thursday, as they send Max Fried to the. mound against the Pirates’ JT Brubaker.
Fried has been fantastic this season and is currently tied with Kyle Wright for tenth in the league in pitching fWAR, as he has posted a 2.74/3.53/2.92/3.02 ERA/xERA/FIP/xFIP slash line. The reintroduction of his changeup this season has been an effective addition to his arsenal.
Brubaker has been…significantly less good than Fried, posting a 4.70/4.02/4.61/4.40 slash line. Brubaker is a righty, which is a bit sad because the Braves have been crushing lefties recently, but he still should be a soft target for the Atlanta offense. Brubaker pitches primarily off of his low/mid 90s fastball, which he throws about 50% of the time, with a slider as his secondary pitch, used about 30% of the time, and mixing in a curveball and changeup the rest of his pitches. He throws the fastball as both a sinker and a four-seamer, though this season he has switched to primarily throwing the sinker. The sinker has actually been Brubaker’s only reasonably effective pitch this season, according to the statcast numbers, as the rest of his pitches have largely been crushed. This is not a pitcher that the Braves offense should struggle with, but baseball is baseball, so we will just have to see what happens.
Game Info
Game Date/Time: Thursday, June 9, 7:20 p.m. ET
Location: Truist Park, Atlanta, Georgia
TV: Bally Sports South
Streaming: MLB.tv
Radio: 680 AM / 93.7 FM The Fan