A good pitching matchup and two teams that haven’t really hit portends a low-scoring game
After a long road trip, the Braves are back at home, and will kick off a weekend set with the Rays on Friday night. As we covered in our series preview, the Braves and Rays are two similar underachieving contenders that have especially sputtered when it comes to offensive performance. Combine that reality with the fact that Friday night’s matchup features the best-so-far starter on both teams, and it looks like a low-scoring game is in the cards. So, of course, this is probably going to be a 10-8 barnburner or something.
For the Braves, it’ll be Chris Sale on the mound. Sale is just outside the top five in MLB pitching fWAR, but that’s purely a result of the fact that he has one or two fewer starts than the guys ahead of him. He has some of the best peripherals in baseball, essentially delivering lengthy outings with run prevention commensurate to a good reliever. He’ll take a 74/61/63 (ERA-/FIP-/xFIP-) line into tonight’s game and look to break into the top five with a strong performance.
The Rays, meanwhile, have paragon-of-Rays-ness Zack Littell going for them. Littell was a replacement-level journeyman before the Rays scooped him up on waivers last year; since then, he’s become a well-above-average starter that currently fronts their rotation. His 97/85/92 line isn’t anywhere near as good as Sale’s, but he’s had a number of dominant starts on the year already, and his line looked considerably better until he had back-to-back poor outings against the Orioles over the last couple of weeks.
Having spent most of his career in the American League, and the last few years in the AL East, Sale is no stranger to the Rays. They roughed him up last April, he dominated them for five innings in one of his two 2022 starts, he was a mixed bag against them in two 2021 starts, and so on and so forth. The fact that Sale is dominating so far in 2024, and the Rays are scuffling offensively, likely matters far more than any history, especially since only five guys on their active roster have ever faced him before in a regulation game. Littell, meanwhile, had a couple of unremarkable two-inning relief appearances against Atlanta last year, and really struggled against the Braves as a reliever previously, before his Rays-naissance. Nearly every Brave has seen him, but only for a handful of PAs.
Game Info
Game Date/Time: Friday, June 14, 7:20 p.m. ET
Location: Truist Park, Atlanta, GA
TV: Bally Sports Southeast
Streaming: MLB.tv
Radio: 680 AM/93.7 FM The Fan, La Mejor 1600/1460/1130 AM