The Braves will look to stay hot in Friday’s series opener against the Texas Rangers.
The Atlanta Braves will begin a nine-game homestand with a three-game series Friday night against the Texas Rangers. Atlanta is coming off a series sweep of the Astros and a 5-1 road trip. The series opener will feature a matchup of two left-handers in Atlanta’s Chris Sale and Texas’ Andrew Heaney.
Sale is coming off of a start where he allowed six hits and five runs to the Marlins, but also logged seven innings while throwing over 100 pitches for the first time this season. Sale is carrying a 3.43 FIP which is more than a run lower than his 4.58 ERA. He’s striking out batters at a 28.2% clip which is just under his career average of 30.5%. Another sign that Sale is feeling healthy is that his fastball velocity is up a full tick to 95.1 mph over last season. Keeping him healthy is a priority for the Braves going forward, but he has pitched really well over his first three starts.
Heaney will make his fourth start of the season for the Rangers. Heaney has struggled to start the season and hasn’t made it past the fourth inning in two of his three starts. He allowed four hits, four walks and two runs in his last start in Houston and has allowed eight earned runs over his last 7 1⁄3 innings. Friday’s game will be Heaney’s second career start against Atlanta. The first came back in 2021 where he allowed two runs in four inning.
Orlando Arcia and Marcell Ozuna continued their good starts to the season on the road trip. Arcia was 8-for-19 with three more doubles and a homer. Ozuna was 10-for-25 with a double and three home runs. After a slow start, Ronald Acuña Jr. also seems to be getting things going. Acuña was 10-for-25 with two doubles, three walks and hit his first home run of the season in Wednesday’s win over the Astros.
The Braves made a roster move prior to Friday’s game. Atlanta selected the contract of Luke Williams and optioned outfielder Forrest Wall to Gwinnett. Wall had appeared in just two games and had one plate appearance over the first 17 games of the season.
Friday’s game has a scheduled start time of 7:20 p.m. ET and can be seen exclusively on Apple TV+.
Game Info
Game Date/Time: Friday, April 19, 7:20 p.m. ET
Location: Truist Park: Atlanta, Georgia
TV: None
Streaming: Apple TV+