The Braves opened a four-game series against the Pirates last night with a 5-2 victory over hard-throwing right-hander Gerrit Cole, who was charged with five runs and ten hits in 4.2 innings. Tonight Atlanta will face another hard-throwing right-hander in Tyler Glasnow, who enters the contest with 3-2 record and a 7.34 ERA.
On the mound tonight for the Braves will be R.A. Dickey, who is coming off a win against the Nationals in his last start on Friday. Tonight would normally be the rotation spot for Julio Teheran, but according to Braves beat writer Mark Bowman, the club felt it would be best to keep Mike Foltynewicz and Teheran from pitching back-to-back. Perhaps they did so with the hope that a little knuckleball hangover following a Dickey start may do Teheran some good as he looks to bounce back from a career-worst start last time out.
Regardless of the reasoning, Dickey gets the ball tonight in hopes of continuing what has been an impressive homestand for Atlanta given the adversity they faced when it began with Freddie Freeman breaking his wrist. Dickey has been up-and-down this season for Atlanta, but has yet to allow more than four earned runs in a game thus far. He currently owns a 3-3 record with a 4.13 ERA, and an opponent average of .268. The average against is noteworthy because Dickey has just 26 strikeouts in 48 innings, meaning he relies heavily on the defense and will likely do so again tonight.
As for Glasnow, he enters the game with a very ugly stat line that includes a 1.95 WHIP, a .295 opponents average, and 24 walks in 34.1 innings. None of those statistics would indicate that Glasnow is very highly-regarded in the game, but the 24-year-old has been a mainstay near the top of prospect rankings for multiple seasons, mostly because of a 75-grade fastball that sits in the upper-90’s. Glasnow’s inability to translate his electric stuff to the big leagues early on is disconcerting for the Pirates no doubt, but the Braves will look to capitalize and further those struggles tonight.
Naturally, very few Braves have gotten to face Glasnow thus far in his major league career, with Brandon Phillips’ four at-bats being the most on the team. Conversely, every Pirate who is not a rookie has faced Dickey at least once, with little success to speak of. David Freese has a home run of Dickey in seven at-bats, while John Jaso and Josh Harrison are 1-for-13, and Andrew McCutchen is 1-for-12.
Game Info
Monday, May 23, 2017
7:35 pm ET
SunTrust Park, Atlanta, GA
TV: Fox Sports Southeast
Radio: Braves Radio Network, 680 AM / 93.7 FM