The Atlanta Braves couldn’t finish off a three-game sweep of the Chicago Cubs, but did come away with another series win. The Braves will enjoy another off day on Thursday before beginning a long stretch of games (17 in a row) without a break. Despite the disappointing result Wednesday, the club is playing good baseball and could get some key pieces back in the lineup in the coming days. Below are some takeaways from the series as we head into the off day.
Chris Sale continues to impress
Naturally, there was some skepticism when the Braves acquired Chris Sale from the Boston Red Sox last December, but the move is looking like one of the more underrated deals of the winter. Sale was magnificent again in Tuesday’s win, firing seven shutout innings while adding nine strikeouts. Over his last three starts combined, Sale has allowed one run and has 28 strikeouts over 18 innings. He has just one walk during that span. For the season, Sale has 61 strikeouts and just eight walks. He’s 12th in MLB among starters in fWAR right now, and would probably be in the top 10 if he had nine starts instead of eight, like most of the guys above him. His ERA and estimators are also all remarkably consistent. Much like when he was acquired, the only question mark for him is really health, but he’s given the Braves a best case scenario sofar.
The Braves will need to keep him up right, but if they can get him to October healthy, Sale looks like he could be a difference maker in the postseason, the same way he’s been a difference maker through the first month-and-a-half of the season.
Offense starting to turn the corner
The Braves were held to just one run in Wednesday’s loss, but finished the game with eight hits. They had 27 hits in the three games and scored 10 runs. Ozzie Albies had five hits in the series. Marcell Ozuna singled in the sixth inning Wednesday to extend his hitting streak to nine straight games. He’s 11-for-26 with a double and two homers during the stretch.
Austin Riley missed his third straight game Wednesday night, but his replacement Zack Short had another good showing. Before he was acquired by Atlanta, Short was 1-for-16 at the plate in 12 games with the Mets and Red Sox. In four games with the Braves, he is 4-for-10 with two doubles, four walks and four runs scored.
Also turning things around is Matt Olson, who has quietly hit safely in eight of his last nine games. He was 5-for-11 in the series with the Cubs with a double and a homer. He drove in four of Atlanta’s seven runs in Tuesday’s win.
Since returning from their dreadful West Coast road trip, the Braves are eighth among MLB teams in wOBA, and unsurprisingly, second in xwOBA. They have the ninth-biggest xwOBA underperformance in that span, which makes it somewhat impressive that they’ve been able to go 6-2 anyway.
Home Cooking
Despite Wednesday’s loss, the Braves are a major league-best 15-5 at home. It is the best stat at home for the club since 2013, when they were 15-5 at Turner Field through the first 20 games of the season. Atlanta has won six of seven home series to start the season and will face the San Diego Padres in a four-game series starting Friday.
Atlanta’s 26-14 mark through its first 40 games is one game better than they were at this point last season. The difference, though, is that they trail the Philadelphia Phillies by three games in the NL East standings. The Braves were 25-15 at this point last season and had a five-game lead in the standings over Philadelphia.
It’s been a weird start of the season in MLB so far, with very clear “clumps” of teams in the standings — only about a third of the league seems particularly competitive right now, whereas last year, over half the league was playing division race-relevant baseball through May 15.
Injury Updates
Brian Snitker said during the broadcast that Austin Riley was still feeling some soreness in his side. He isn’t on the Injured List and seems likely to return at some point this weekend, but it didn’t sound like he is a slam dunk to start on Friday. Ronald Acuña Jr. was also out of Wednesday’s lineup, but Snitker said that he just wanted to give Acuña a day off to reset.
Pierce Johnson threw a live bullpen session Wednesday and could be activated as soon as Friday. He has been on the Injured List since May 1 due to elbow inflammation, but it looks like the mildest case of an elbow ailment ever, given that Johnson is on track to return essentially as soon as the roster rules allow.
Sean Murphy caught Johnson’s live BP Wednesday and appears on track to begin a rehab assignment next week. Murphy suffered a strained oblique on Opening Day and has been on the shelf ever since.
