The Braves are back in Cobb County and looking to keep their good month rolling along.
Following a successful road trip to Washington D.C. and Chicago, the Braves are returning back home to start off what should be an eventful homestand against some serious competition from the NL West — starting with the San Francisco Giants.
Needless to say, seeing the Giants after running through some of baseball’s cellar-dwellers should be a bit of a shock to the senses initially, but it’s also not like the Braves were out here barely scraping by against their competition during this season-reviving stretch of games. Dating back to when Atlanta’s 14-game winning streak began on June 1, the Braves have had the National League’s best team wRC+ (139), wOBA (.375) and Isolated Power (.259).
The Braves have also had the NL’s best team ERA (2.69) and FIP (2.75). This has been no fluke of a run for the Braves — if anything, it’s a bit of a drastic course correction for a defending World Series champion who brought back most of their team. Good baseball like this is an expectation around here.
With that being said, the Braves are definitely going to receive a test in the form of San Francisco. This will specifically come from the Giants’ starting pitcher for tonight, Logan Webb. The Braves will be catching Webb coming off of one of his best starts of the season, which is when he shut out the Royals over seven innings of work. Conversely, the Braves should serve as a sterner test for Webb than Kansas City’s light-hitting offense. With that being said, Webb pitched 12 innings over two starts against the Braves last season and only gave up two runs — including seven shutout innings in Cobb County (and both of those starts were after the magical August 1 date from 2021), so he does have some recent success against Atlanta.
Meanwhile, Max Fried will also be going into this game with a history of success against his opponent. While the Giants did get to Fried in his home start against San Francisco, Fried eventually paid the Giants back with seven shutout innings at Oracle Park last season. Also, it appears like it’s time for Fried to get things back under control as far as his season is concerned. He was fortunate to get through six innings against the Pirates while only giving up one run and then the Nationals tagged him for four runs over 5.2 innings. The Braves are likely going to need Fried to pitch at ace level tonight if they’re going to have good shot of winning tonight and if anybody in the Braves rotation can reach back and deliver a great performance, it should be Fried.
The Braves are returning home riding a wave of excitement. They’re right in the thick of the postseason hunt, they’ve brought themselves back into the conversation in the NL East race and the team is playing with a lot of confidence at the moment. The Giants will be the toughest team they’ve played so far this month and they’ve got them for a four-game series. Hopefully the Braves can get this tough homestand started on the right foot with a win for Max Fried and Atlanta this evening.
Game Info
Game Date/Time: Monday, June 20, 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
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