After Freddie Freeman delivered a walk-off single in the bottom of the 10th of last night's game, the Braves are now in a position to do something that they haven't done since April: Win a series.
It might be tough sledding tonight, though, as the Cubs will be sending out Jeff Samardzija, who has had a fantastic start to the 2014 season. Unfortunately for Chicago's ace right-hander, the Cubs offense has either been completely dormant or the bullpen has blown his hard work late, so he currently has a W-L record of 0-3. Either way, if Samardzija is on tonight, then it may end up being another long night for the Braves offense.
However, the Braves will be sending a good pitcher to the mound tonight, as Ervin Santana will be taking the mound for the home team. In addition, Tyler Pastornicky will be making the start at 2nd base tonight. He'll also be batting 9th because, once again, that's still a thing.
Here are tonight's lineups:
And here's some data on Jeff Samardzija:
Trajectory and Movement - from 01/01/2014 to 05/10/2014
Pitch Type | Count | Freq | Velo (mph) | pfx HMov (in.) | pfx VMov (in.) | H. Rel (ft.) | V. Rel (ft.) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Fourseam | 176 | 20.83% | 95.30 | -6.34 | 7.70 | -3.25 | 5.85 |
Sinker | 329 | 38.93% | 95.25 | -9.89 | 5.10 | -3.24 | 5.88 |
Slider | 177 | 20.95% | 84.97 | 2.03 | -0.52 | -3.14 | 5.92 |
Cutter | 63 | 7.46% | 93.43 | -2.82 | 6.93 | -3.21 | 5.84 |
Split | 96 | 11.36% | 86.50 | -7.05 | 4.93 | -3.11 | 5.89 |