Fried looked a whole lot better in his most recent start than he did in the string of starts he made before that one. Hopefully he can keep it up against a good Twins team.
The Atlanta Braves are back on the road after a productive homestand against the Phillies and the Nationals. They’ll be seeing the Phillies again to finish off this road trip but before that happens, they’ll have to face off with the Minnesota Twins at Target Field.
Max Fried will be starting this one for the Braves and I’d imagine that everybody associated with the Braves is hoping that he’ll be able to build off of the performance that he had in his most recent outing against the Philadelphia Phillies. That was when Fried went seven innings and only gave up two runs while picking up four strikeouts in the process. This was Fried’s best start in a while and it looked more like the guy we’re used to seeing instead of the version of Fried that had been lingering around for most of August following his activation from the IL.
Still, it’s very likely that he’ll once again have to be on top of his game if the Braves are going to have a chance at winning this one. Atlanta’s offense spent the most recent homestand essentially just middling about and scraping together just enough offense to make sure that each great pitching performance didn’t end up going in vain. While one week’s games is just about as small of a sample size as you can get, is anybody really shocked that the Braves had the 21st-best wRC+ in all of baseball last week? Granted, a 93 wRC+ isn’t awful (for reference’s sake, Texas really went through it last week as they ended up with a team wRC+ of 39 for the week. Yikes!) but it’s also the type of performance that we’ve grown used to seeing from this version of the Braves.
With all of that being said, the Braves figure to have a tough task on their hands when it comes to dealing with Bailey Ober. While Ober did give up three runs over six innings in his last outing, a lot of that was simply the result of a bloop single immediately cascading into something bad once a big bopper (in this case, Manny Machado) came up to the plate. Outside of that, Obver hadn’t given up more than two runs in each of his past five starts preceding the one against the Padres and he went at least six innings in each of them. In fact, he’s gone at least six innings in his past ten starts dating back to early-June, so I’d say that i’s pretty much guaranteed that he’s going to be out there for a good, long while tonight.
Once Ober does exit the game, that might be Atlanta’s chance to strike. I placed the emphasis on “might” since the Twins bullpen is definitely no slouch. Minnesota’s bullpen is sporting a 97 ERA- (tied for 11th in all of baseball) and an 89 FIP- (tied for fifth-best). With Bailey Ober himself coming into this game with an 87 ERA- and an 89 FIP-, that might be a case for the Braves of jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire. Still, you know they’re going to give themselves a puncher’s chance in this one and with the way the replacement players have been getting the job done lately, it’s not like this is a completely hopeless cause for the Braves.
The Twins are a very good team and they’re also in the midst of a big battle to not just hold onto their Wild Card spot but also to potentially stay on top of the AL Central as divisional champions. Meanwhile, the Braves are also fighting to hold on to their respective spot in the Postseason as well. Needless to say, both teams badly need this win and we should see a very intense game of baseball played tonight. We’re not quite in September yet but these games are still very crucial and here’s hoping that Atlanta can get this road trip started in the right way.
Game Info
Game Date/Time: Monday, August 26, 7:40 P.M. ET
Location: Target Field, Minneapolis, MN
TV: Bally Sports South
Streaming: MLB.tv
Radio: 680 AM / 93.7 FM The Fan