The Braves have struggled mightily, but Schwellenbach has been a bright light in the darkness
The struggling Atlanta Braves will travel out west to San Francisco to face the Giants in hopes of turning things around after losing eight out of their last ten games which was bookended by arguably the most devastating loss of the season.
If there is a silver lining from yesterday, it is that Braves can score more than three or so runs every once in a while.
The Braves will be handing the ball to Spencer Schwellenbach to make the start. He has never faced any of the players on the Giants’ roster, so it is hard to say how he will do against them.
Schwellenbach currently leads the NL in strikeout to walk ratio with 5.92 and has lowered his season ERA to 3.13, which is twenty-nine percent better than league average in terms of ERA+. He has been solid in his last five starts. Other then his four earned runs against Boston on May eighteenth, he has not given up more than two earned runs in a start and has pitched at least 6.0 innings in each of them.
Hayden Birdsong will be starting for the Giants. He has worked mostly as a reliever this season. In his 38.0 innings pitched, eleven of his fourteen appearances have been in relief. In the terms of ERA, he has been fantastic with a 2.37 ERA. Last season, he only worked as a starter and this season he took over being a starter again on May twentieth.
If we look at his splits between being an SP and an RP the ERA results are similar. He has a 2.45 ERA as an SP and a 2.37 ERA as an RP. The one saving grace for the Braves could be that Birdsong has been slightly lucky in terms of underlying metrics. His 3.60 expected ERA (xERA) is more than a run higher than his actual ERA.
He has not faced the Braves this season, but did face them last season for the second appearance of his young career. In that game he went 5.0 innings and held the Braves to just two earned runs with two walks and five strikeouts on four hits. Of the Braves currently on the roster only five have seen him. Albies, Murphy, Olson, Ozuna, and Riley are the current Braves who faced him in that game. Murphy and Riley both hit solo shots off of him.
Birdsong is only walking 3.3 percent of hitters he has faced as an SP this season, so if the Braves want to score, they are going to have to get baserunners via hits.
If the Braves can get some clutch hits in and Schwellenbach keeps pitching like he has of late, the Braves have a shot to turn things around, starting at 10:15 EDT tonight.
Game Info
Game Date/Time: Friday, June 6 10:15 p.m. EDT
Location: Oracle Park, San Francisco, CA
TV: FanDuel Sports South, Southeast
Streaming: MLB.tv (free)
Radio: 680 AM / 93.7 FM The Fan