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The Atlanta Braves face off against the Seattle Mariners and are looking to avoid their first three game losing streak and sweep since September 17th, 2023. Last night was the first time this season that the Braves lost two in row.
The Phillies have been hot and are on the Braves’ tail only trailing by 0.5 games. Chris Sale is on the mound to try and prevent a further skid, and he will face off against rookie Emerson Hancock.
Sale has been impressive this season thus far. Through 31.2 innings pitched and five starts he has a 3.69 ERA, thirty-three strikeouts to only seven walks, and an impressive 0.916 WHIP. What’s more is his expected ERA (xERA) is even lower at 3.12, which is in the best 28.0 percent of MLB. This xERA is largely due to an elite combination of a 37.6 percent chase rate (best 4.0 percent of MLB), 83.9 MPH average exit velocity (best 4.0 percent), 29.3 percent hard hit rate (best twelve percent), and 50.0 percent groundball rate (top 24.0 percent).
Sale went 7.0 innings in his last three starts. His last start was the most impressive of the season so far. He went 7.0 innings only giving up one run on two hits while striking out six against the AL leading Guardians.
Only three hitters currently on the Mariners roster have faced Chris Sale before. In six at bats a piece, both Mitch Garver and Mitch Haniger have a .000 batting average against him. Jorge Polanco has thirteen at-bats against Sale and has been mildly successful against him with a .308 average and .718 OPS.
Emerson Hancock currently has 38.2 innings so far in young career with a career 4.89 ERA, 3.13 SO/W ratio, and 1.190 WHIP. 12.0 of his innings were last season, so if we look at this year alone his numbers are 5.06 ERA, 3.80 SO/W ratio, and a 1.125 WHIP. His xERA is actually worse than his actual ERA at 5.41. This is mostly due to a poor strikeout rate of 17.3 percent (bottom 20.0 percent of MLB), poor barrel rate of 9.6 percent, and poor hard-hit rate of 47.0 percent.
None of the Braves have faced Hancock before, so it will be interesting to see if they can get the bats going against him. The Braves’ bread and butter is hitting the ball hard with a high barrel rate, so the matchup is in their favor.
The Braves have only scored ten runs in the past five games. Here is hoping that this is the matchup that gets the bats hot again.
Game Info
Game Date/Time: Wednesday, May 1, 3:40 p.m. ET
Location: T-Mobile Park, Seattle, Washington
TV: Bally Sports South
Streaming: MLB.tv
Radio: 680 AM / 93.7 FM The Fan
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