The Braves-Blue Jays series took an interesting turn on Wednesday, with two bench-clearing alterations taking place late in the game, and more importantly, Atlanta losing Freddie Freeman to a wrist injury. Despite the elephant in the room that is Freeman’s injury, the Braves actually have a chance to finish off a sweep that has included games in two different countries, and in cities that are over 700 miles apart.
Both teams will send their aces to the mound tonight, with Julio Teheran looking to build on a great start in his last outing for Atlanta. Teheran pitched six shutout innings against the Marlins on Saturday, allowing just three hits and striking out four. That start aside, the issues that have plagued Teheran this season can be traced to two significant statistical categories that are not in line with his career averages.
Teheran has been abnormally wild at times early on, with an 11% walk rate this season compared to his career 6.8% rate. In addition to control issues, Teheran’s batted ball profile has seen a considerable spike in fly balls, with his GB/FB rate dipping from a career 0.9 to .74 thus far in 2017. Both of these issues will be worth monitoring tonight, as the Blue Jays offense is still potent enough to make a fly ball pitcher pay, especially in SunTrust Park.
In opposition of Teheran tonight will be Blue Jays right-hander Marcus Stroman, who currently owns a 3-2 record with a 3.33 ERA. Stroman has pitched well for Toronto thus far in 2017, and though he may not produce high strikeout totals, he can be very effective at times as he induces 2.6 GB/FB (which is actually considerably lower than his rate the past two seasons). Tonight will mark Stroman’s first career appearance against the Braves.
Neither team has a lot of experience against either of tonight’s starting pitchers, though three Blue Jays, Justin Smoak, Chris Coghlan, and Devon Travis have homered off of Teheran in the past. For Atlanta, Danny Santana has the most career at-bats against Stroman, with three hits in nine at-bats. It will be interesting to see how Brian Snitker manages the lineup with Freddie Freeman out, and with Santana having some success against Stroman it is possible that he could get a start tonight.
Losing Freddie Freeman for any extended period of time was always going to be a death sentence for this team, especially given how bad their pitching has been thus far. The emergence of Matt Kemp into a legitimate power threat behind Freeman has been a huge boost to the offense, and now he will be become the focal point of the lineup. Where the pieces fit together around Kemp remains to be seen, and with Adonis Garcia out as well, the Braves lineup tonight could be a strange mixture. Braves beat writer Mark Bowman reported earlier today that the organization was weighing some external options, but someone like Rio Ruiz could fill a void, at least in the short term.
Game Info
Game Date/Time: Thursday, May 18, 7:35 p.m. ET
Location: SunTrust Park
TV: Fox Sports Southeast
Radio: 680 AM/93.7 FM, Braves Radio Network