After a crazy game last night, the Braves look to ride the momentum to another win
A day after the trade deadline has passed, the struggling Atlanta Braves will take on the Cincinnati Reds once again after a crazy game where for only the third time in MLB history two teams scored eight runs in the same inning.
With every single arm that the Braves had in the rotation at the start of the year being on the IL, today’s starter will be getting another go. Outside of a few outings, Bryce Elder has been one of the worst starting pitchers in MLB this season. Of pitchers with at least 80.0 innings pitched, only Walker Buehler has worse fWAR. Only two SPs have a worse a worse ERA, and only three have a worse FIP. If we look at expected ERA (xERA) he does not look any better having the third worst.
In his last start he was pulled after only 2.2 innings after giving up eight earned runs on six hits and four walks, and one HBP. He also had an outing against the Phillies on the twenty-seventh of June when he gave up nine earned runs on three HRs, eight hits, and four walks in only two innings. He showed signs of being a solid temporary fix when he went 8.0 innings and gave up only one ER against the Giants back on the seventh of July but has terrible since then. Since then, he has averaged slightly over four innings per start and has a 10.50 ERA over 30.0 innings.
Elder will try to turn things around today against a Reds offense that is in the bottom ten in MLB in runs scored. No player on the Reds has more than three ABs against him, so it is hard to draw a conclusion on how the offense will be against Elder on matchups alone.
The Reds will bring Brady Singer who carries a 4.60 ERA over 109.2 innings of work. His on-field results are pretty similar to his expectancy with a 4.50 xERA, which good for the bottom 26.0 percent of qualified starters. The Braves do have a chance to get to Singer as he has struggled with walks. His 9.1 percent walk rate is in the bottom 34.0 percent of MLB, his groundball rate is in the bottom 23.0 percent, and strikeout rate is in the bottom 44.0 percent.
Over the past month, the Reds and the Braves are ranked nineteenth and eighteenth respectively in runs scored with a difference of only one run. On the pitching side of things, it has not been close at all, the Reds have had a 3.64 ERA over the past month, which is eighth best in MLB, while the Braves’ 5.61 is twenty-eighth.
The Reds seem to have the advantage in this game on paper, but if the Braves can get the offense going early and Elder can channel what he did in the first week of July, the Braves may have a chance.
First pitch is at 12:40 EDT.
Game Info
Game Date/Time: Friday, August 1, 12:40 p.m. EDT
Location: Great American Ball Park, Cincinnati, OH
TV: FanDuel Sports South, FanDuel Sports Southeast
Streaming: MLB.tv
Radio: 680 AM / 93.7 FM The Fan