Originally, the Braves were supposed to be in Chicago today getting ready to face the Chicago White Sox in a three-game weekend interleague series. Instead, thanks to a rain delay from earlier this season, the Braves will be making a one-night jaunt over to Wrigley Field to finish their season series with the Goliath to their David — the Chicago Cubs.
As we all know, the Braves are currently on a bit of a down note (or a good one, defending on how you feel about next year’s draft positioning) since they’ve lost eight out of their last ten games. While that might be a bit discouraging for tonight’s game, the Braves may still have a puncher’s chance tonight since the Cubs are coming off of a series loss to the Cincinnati Reds, who aren’t that much better than the Braves. However, the last Cubs/Braves game was a bit of a horror show, so the less we talk about that, the better.
Tonight’s starting pitcher for the Braves will be Lucas Harrell, who will be making his second career start. His first career start went well enough, but that was against the Marlins — the Cubs may be on a small bit of a down note at the moment, but they’re still the Cubs and that offense still has the potential to explode at any point, so Harrell will have to step his game up in order to keep the NL Central leaders at bay.
Meanwhile, Jason Hammel will be Chicago’s starter. The good news is that the Braves actually won the game in Atlanta that Hammel started. Hammel only went 5.2 innings and gave up three runs in what eventually turned into a 5-1 win for the Braves. More recently, Hammel got rocked by the Mets in his last start on July 1st, so he’ll be entering this game looking for redemption on multiple fronts.
Again, this isn’t a game that looks favorable for the Braves on paper. There’s a reason why the two teams are currently on polar opposites of the National League standings. However, games aren’t played on paper, so maybe we’ll see the Braves boosted a bit by the return of Gordon Beckham. Let’s hope for the best.
Game Info
Game Date/Time: Thursday, July 7th at 8:05 PM ET
Location: Turner Field
TV: Fox Sports Southeast
Radio: WYAY 106.7, Braves Radio Network, 680 AM/93.7 FM