If the Braves are going to continue getting their season turned around, they will have to take care of business against a rough-looking Rockies team.
Following a series win that helped to stop the rot that had been creeping into the season, the Atlanta Braves now have another opportunity to turn their season around as they’ll be welcoming the moribund Colorado Rockies into town for a three-game series.
The last time the Braves saw the Rockies, they were busy getting bamboozled by Chase Dollander and the rest of Colorado’s pitching staff. The Rockies salvaged their series with a 2-1 win — a loss that continued to highlight the lack of consistency and pop for Atlanta’s lineup. It’s pretty difficult to leave a series in Colorado without hitting a home run but the Braves managed it!
Anyways, ever since that series, the Rockies have gone 8-30 and appear to be on track to join last year’s White Sox as one of the worst teams to ever play big league baseball. On paper, Colorado is in a tier of their own at the bottom of baseball right now. Heading into Thursday’s action, they are hitting .222/.285/.368 as a team with an Isolated Power number of .146, a team wOBA of .288 and a team wRC+ of 68. The only numbers that aren’t the worst in the National League are their Isolated Power and slugging and that only comes with the main caveat that associates all of their numbers, which is that their offense will always get a boost thanks to their home hitting environment. Away from home is where we truly see just how bad the Rockies are, as they are hitting .195/.253/.314 with .120 in Isolated Power, .253 wOBA and a team wRC+ of 58. For comparison’s sake, the Pirates have the second-worst team wRC+ on the road at 74. Oof!
With that being said, the Rockies are still a major league baseball team which means that they have to be taken seriously. If you don’t believe me, ask the Giants since the Rockies just beat them on Thursday. Ask the Marlins as well as Colorado went down to Miami and swept the Fish in their own house. The Rockies might be bad but this is still baseball and you’ve got to show up. Hunter Goodman would be a positive contributor on any team and Jordan Beck has been performing fine at the plate as well. Additionally, Ryan McMahon has been reliable on defense and the same goes for Ezequiel Tovar as well. This is a very bad team but at the same time, it’ll say a lot about how the Braves are going if they can’t at least hold serve at home with a series win, bare minimum.
Friday, June 13, 7:15 p.m. ET (FanDuel Sports South/Southeast, Gray TV)
RHP Bryce Elder (10 GS, 57.1 IP, 21.0 K%, 6.9 BB%, 4.08 ERA, 100 ERA-, 4.30 FIP, 110 FIP-, 0.3 fWAR)
Elder is coming into this one off the strength of what was arguably the best start of his career. Elder delivered eight shutout innings where he only gave up three hits and one run while walking nobody and striking out 12 Giants batters. Elder did have his usual moment of leaving a hanger for an opposing batter to hit to the moon but other than that, he was excellent and this was a prime example of what Elder is capable of on his best day.
He wasn’t on his best day when he saw the Rockies back on April 28. That was when he went six innings and gave up three runs on five hits and another one of those hangers getting hit into the actual mountains for a home run. Basically, it’s pretty clear what Elder is usually going to deliver: He’s going to give you at least six innings and hopefully he doesn’t throw too many (or any) hangers while he’s out there.
RHP Germán Márquez (13 GS, 63 IP, 13.9 K%, 7.1 BB%, 7.00 ERA, 153 ERA-, 4.46 FIP, 107 FIP-, 0.7 fWAR)
As you can probably guess from the numbers, Germán Márquez is having a rough go of it. “So is everybody else for Colorado,” I hear you saying. Well, let’s talk about Márquez’s start against the Braves back on April 29. The Braves tagged him for seven runs over just 5.1 innings of work. That was the second of what is now three starts this season where Márquez has given up at least seven runs, with two of those instances being all earned runs. His ERA is not that high because of one bad start — it is there by merit. He’s given up at least four runs in nine of the 13 starts he’s made so far and the Braves should come away disappointed if they don’t get back in on the fun this time around.
Saturday, June 14, 4:10 p.m. ET (FanDuel Sports South/Southeast)
RHP Spencer Strider (5 GS, 25 IP, 22.4 K%, 10.3 BB%, 5.40 ERA, 133 ERA-, 5.56 FIP, 142 FIP-, -0.1 fWAR)
If anybody is in search of a potential “get-right” game, it’s Spencer Strider. Strider has been stuck in neutral over the handful of starts that he’s made so far, as he has definitely had a rough time even coming close to the form that made him one of the best starters in all of baseball not too long ago. With that being said, Strider did log six innings against the Giants in his most recent outing and while he still gave up a few runs, that’s easily the longest that he’s gone in a start so far. Once you mix longevity with run prevention, that’ll hopefully result in us seeing a product from Strider that we’re used to seeing.
While the events of 2022 have barely any bearing on what’s going to happen here in 2025, it is worth mentioning that Strider’s 16-strikeout performance came against the Rockies three years ago. It would be like asking a genie for three wishes if we asked for a repeat performance but I think we’d all just settle for a solid effort from Strider in this one.
RHP Chase Dollander (10 GS, 44.2 IP, 20.6 K%, 10.8 BB%, 6.85 ERA, 150 ERA-, 6.30 FIP, 150 FIP, -0.4 fWAR)
Dollander proved to be very tough for the Braves to handle when they saw him in April. While Dollander didn’t go super-deep into the contest, he definitely did enough to make sure that it was a long and frustrating day at the plate for the Braves. Dollander eventually finished with 5.2 innings pitched and just one run allowed on two hits and three walks. Still, he hasn’t been too hot since that start — he’s made five starts since then and over that span, he’s sitting on a 7.32 ERA and a 6.13 FIP and he just got done giving up five runs in just three innings against the Mets.
To be fair to Dollander, he had a couple of good starts against the Rangers and Diamondbacks during that stretch but that was after he gave up six runs over three innings against the Tigers and only lasted three innings against the Marlins on June 3. If the Braves want revenge, they’ll have an opportunity for it.
Sunday, June 15, 1:35 p.m. ET (FanDuel Sports South/Southeast)
RHP Chris Sale (14 GS, 80.2 IP, 31.7 K%, 7.4 BB%, 2.79 ERA, 69 ERA-, 2.74 FIP, 71 FIP-, 2.2 fWAR)
Sale is truly in the midst of an impressive run at the moment. Over his last six starts, Sale is sporting an ERA of 1.19 and a FIP of 2.29 with a strikeout rate of 12.11 Ks per nine innings, a walk rate of 3.18 walks per nine innings and a strand rate at nearly 92 percent. He’s once again in Cy Young form, which is trouble for Colorado considering what happened the last time Sale saw them. Last September, Sale went seven innings and struck out nine batters while giving up a grand total of zero runs with no walks and just six hits as well. While 16 strikeouts from Spencer Strider might be a bit much to ask, I’d imagine that another strong performance from Chris Sale would just be par for the course at this rate.
TBA
The future is fun to think about, isn’t it?