After pulling a rabbit out of the hat with a 1-0 victory on the road against the Rays, the Braves will now be looking to pull off a mini-sweep after tonight’s game in this quick two game series at Tropicana Field.
The big question going into tonight’s contest will be if Julio Teheran can pick up from where he left off in his last start. He had a stellar outing against the New York Mets but that’s not really a surprise, is it? After all, Julio has historically dominated the Mets over the years but this year, he’s been a bit underwhelming against teams not from Queens.
We’re all hoping that that will change against the Rays and that Julio Teheran can really get his season rolling with two consecutive strong starts. He’ll have to do so against a lineup that he hasn’t seen much of, which isn’t a huge surprise since Tampa’s an AL team. The players who Julio has experience against are former NL mainstays in the form of Carlos Gomez, Adeiny Hechavarria (who is nursing an eye injury after the roof and playing surface of Tropicana Field conspired to injure him) and Wilson Ramos. Both Gomez and Ramos have homered off of Teheran in the past, so those matchups may be something to keep a real eye on when it comes to tonight’s game.
Meanwhile, if you were expecting the Braves to have an easier time at the plate this evening, that may be the case against rookie Ryan Yarbrough. With that being said, Yarbrough has proven that he can hold his own on the mound. He threw five scoreless innings in his most recent outing and he’s doing this with a four seamer that is sitting at nearly 90 mph exactly. You’re going to see that and a cutter mostly, with a changeup and slider thrown in every now and then.
Obviously, the current Braves have no experience whatsoever against Yarbrough so the obvious hope is that the offense can continue rolling and overwhelm Tampa’s young starter. Or, we could see another pitcher’s duel where the Braves end up needing Ronald Acuña to come to the rescue once again.
Either way, it should be interesting to see how this turns out for the Braves this evening. While Atlanta has already done well enough by picking up a shutout win on the road and it would be nice to see them get greedy and snatch a mini-sweep as well.
Game Info
Game Date/Time: Wednesday, May 9, 7:10 PM ET
Location: Tropicana Field, Tampa, Florida
TV: Fox Sports Southeast
Streaming: MLB.tv
Radio: 680 AM/93.7 FM, WYAY 106.7, Braves Radio Network