After the Braves were given an extremely rude welcome back home to Atlanta, they have no choice but to bounce back in tonight’s game against the Cardinals. Fortunately, tonight also falls on a lovely day of the week. It’s Wednesday, but it’s also Mike Soroka day.
Things have been shaky for a lot of Braves pitchers — both in relief and in the rotation. Mike Soroka has been anything but shaky. He showed plenty of promise in his short sample size from last season and he’s been even better here in 2019. He’s currently sporting a 1.21 ERA and a 2.63 FIP, and his advanced stats are even more absurd at the moment. His ERA- is currently at 28 and his FIP- is at 64. There’s no way that this is going to last for an entire season, but to let you know how good this is (and also relate things to the history of Atlanta’s opponent tonight), Bob Gibson finished the entire 1968 season with a 1.12 ERA, 1.77 FIP, a 38 ERA- and a 65 FIP-.
Again, I’m not trying to compare a 21-year-old kid from Canada to one of the greatest pitchers to ever hurl a baseball, but I’m just trying to point out that Mike Soroka has gotten off to a fantastic start this season. MLB.com’s quick preview of the game went even further to explain just how good Soroka has been to start this year’s campaign (and his career, in general):
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Yeah, anytime you have to go all the way back to the dead-ball era in order to cite a statistic, either something great has happened or something horrible has happened. Fortunately for the Braves, it’s the former and Mike Soroka will be going into tonight’s game with plenty of confidence.
Soroka has yet to face any of the Cardinals batters, but you’ll probably hear the announcing crew talk about how the pitcher has the advantage in this type of situation. Again, Soroka has been very good to start off this season and it wouldn’t be a shock to see keep things going in a positive direction.
On the other side of things, the Cardinals will be sending Michael Wacha to the mound. Wacha’s early-season production is a perfect example of why the Pitcher Win-Loss stat is pointless in terms of evaluation. He’s got a 3-0 record, but he’s gotten knocked around in nearly every start he’s made this season, including games where he ended up getting the “win.” He’s currently sitting on a 5.35 ERA and a 5.46 FIP, and his last start saw him allow four runs on nine hits against Pittsburgh.
On paper, this should be a prime opportunity for Atlanta’s bats to do some damage. While it wasn’t nearly enough to win last night, getting a handful of runs against Michael Wacha might be all the help that Mike Soroka needs with the way he’s been pitching. Hopefully we’ll see the opposite of what happened last night, which would be seeing the Braves jump on the Cardinals early and taking control of the game right from the start of things.
The Braves don’t have much experience against Wacha, but Freddie Freeman is 3-for-7 against him with a double. Ender Inciarte has fared nicely against Wacha, as he’s gone 6-for-9 against the pitcher. However, Inciarte could be a question mark for the game since he had to exit last night’s game with a back ailment. Even if he does play, he might not be 100 percent so his previous exploits against Wacha may be null-and-void when it comes to tonight’s game.
The main thing is that the Braves need to bounce back after last night’s debacle. Atlanta should have the advantage on the mound tonight, which could potentially overflow into advantages in other aspects of the game as well. If we get another great start from Mike Soroka, then a rebound will absolutely be in the cards for the Braves this evening.
Plus, you know, Austin Riley could make his debut today. I highly suggest that you all tune in to the game tonight.
Game Info
Game Date/Time: Wednesday, May 15, 7:20 p.m. ET
Location: SunTrust Park, Atlanta, GA
TV: Fox Sports Southeast, ESPN
Streaming: MLB.tv
Radio: 680 AM / 93.7 FM The Fan, Rock 100.5, Braves Radio Network
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