The Braves are a season-best two-games above .500 for the season.
After a win in Tuesday’s series opener, the Atlanta Braves will try to extend their season-best winning streak to seven-straight games when they wrap up a brief two-game series against the Oakland Athletics Wednesday night. Atlanta hit three solo home runs in support of Kyle Wright who tossed a career-high eight innings in the opener. Atlanta improved to 29-27 on the season and are eight games back of the Mets in the NL East standings.
After going 17 games without a home run, Ronald Acuña Jr. has three in his last two games, including a pair of solo shots in Tuesday’s win. Acuña has been streaking of late hitting .400/.457/.767 over his last seven games. He has a 159 wRC+ which would be a career high.
Ian Anderson will get the start in Wednesday’s game and will be looking for better results. Anderson has allowed at least four earned runs in three straight starts and 13 in his last 17 2/3 overall. However, that only tells part of the story as he pitched well in all of those games before being saddled with multiple runs late.
Anderson has had trouble navigating a lineup for a third time and to this point, the Braves have done nothing to prevent him from doing so. To further illustrate, Anderson has a 13.50 ERA and an 8.64 FIP on the third time through a lineup. Under that scenario, he has allowed 20 hits and 15 runs in just 10 innings. When seeing him for a third time, opponents are hitting .417/.472/.792 with a .535 wOBA.
The Athletics will call up left-hander Jared Koenig to make Wednesday’s start. Koenig has put up impressive numbers while pitching in the pitcher-friendly PCL logging a 2.21 ERA and a 3.42 FIP in 53 innings. He doesn’t possess overpowering stuff, but instead relies on good command and the ability to change speeds effectively.
Tuesday’s game marked the return of rookie outfielder Cristian Pache who was dealt to Oakland as part of the Matt Olson trade this offseason. Pache has been outstanding defensively in center, but has again struggled at the plate. He was 0-for-3 in the opener and is hitting just .164/.211/.230 with a 31 wRC+. While those numbers are ugly, Pache has been a bit unlucky as he has one of the widest gaps in the league between his .201 wOBA and his .284 xwOBA. Still, he is clearly still trying to figure things out at the plate.
Wednesday’s game is scheduled to get underway at 7:20 p.m. ET and can be seen on Bally Sports South.
Game Info
Game Date/Time: Wednesday, June 8, 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