Following a three-game sweep of the Arizona Diamondbacks coming out of the All-Star break, the Atlanta Braves have now won 16 of their past 24 games and battled back to .500 on the season as they sit at 45-45.
This marks the first time Atlanta has been .500 since improving to 6-6 on April 17 with a win over the San Diego Padres. To find the last time the Braves were at that mark this late in the season, however, you'd have to go back to July 7, 2015, when a win over the Milwaukee Brewers improved the team to 42-42 on the season.
The reigning World Series champion Chicago Cubs come to town on Monday to start a three-game series at SunTrust Park. Atlanta has the opportunity to have a winning record for the first time in over two years with a victory in game one. The last time the Braves found themselves over .500 was June 1, 2015, when they were 26-25. However, Atlanta hasn't had a winning record after the All-Star break since Sept. 14, 2014, when the Braves were 75-74.
No matter how you break down the numbers, the Braves have a chance to do something they haven't done in a very long time.
If one wants to see how far this team has come in just the past year, look no further than Atlanta's record through it's first 90 games in 2016. On July 15, 2016, the Braves were blown out by the Colorado Rockies to drop to 31-59 on the season. 367 days later, the Braves are a victory away from being on the right side of .500 over halfway through the season.
Julio Teheran will be on the bump Monday as he will look to carry the momentum of back-to-back quality starts on the road. Last time out, the 26-year-old right-hander allowed just four hits over seven shutout innings against against the Washington Nationals at Nationals Park. Prior to that, Teheran went 6 1⁄3 innings against the Oakland Athletics while allowing two runs on three hits and collecting eight strikeouts while walking four.
The issue this season for Teheran, however, has been how he has as fared while pitching at home. Coming into Monday, 43 of the 61 runs he has allowed this season have come at SunTrust Park. While he enters with a 4.79 ERA and 5.48 FIP, he has a home ERA of 7.58 and home FIP of 6.90. His peripherals appear to be hindered at home as his K/9 is down (6.22 at home, 6.79 on the road) and BB/9 is up (3.88 at home, 3.16 on the road). Additionally, he's been prone to surrendering the long ball as 13 of 20 home runs allowed this season have come at SunTrust Park.
In his last start at home, Teheran was obliterated by the National League Central-leading Brewers, as he was chased after allowing seven runs through just three-plus innings pitched.
The Cubs come into the series 46-45 and 4.5 games behind the Brewers in the NL Central. Jon Lester will be on the mound for Chicago on Monday, but the left-hander appears to be a shell of the man who finished second in the National League Cy Young voting in 2016 with a 2.44 ERA.
Through his first 19 starts of the season, Lester boasts a 4.25 ERA, 3.97 FIP, 9.17 K/9 and 3.08 BB/9. Although his strikeout rate is up from the 8.75 K/9 he posted in 2016, his walk rate is also up from the 2.31 BB/9 he finished with last season. Additionally, Lester allowed 55 earned runs over 202 2⁄3 innings pitched last year. Thus far in 2017, he has already allowed 51 earned runs over just 108 innings pitched.
He will be looking to bounce back from what was undoubtedly the worst outing of his career as he failed to make it out of the first inning against the Pittsburgh Pirates on July 9 after giving up 10 runs on six hits and walking three.
Freddie Freeman comes into Monday's game slashing .335/.442/.723 with 17 home runs and a 192 wRC+ through 46 games in 2017. He's 5-for-14 (.357) in his career against Lester with three singles, a triple and a home run.
The Braves currently sit a half-game behind the Cubs in the National League Wild Card race and six games behind the Rockies for the second of two Wild Card spots. This series might prove to play a pivotal role in Atlanta's chase for a playoff berth in 2017.
Game Info:
Game Date/Time: Monday, July 17, 7:35 p.m. ET
Location: SunTrust Park
TV: Fox Sports Southeast
Radio: 680 AM/93.7 FM, Braves Radio Network