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Chris Sale will have to be dominant again if Atlanta Braves are going to beat the Reds tonight

The good news for the Atlanta Braves tonight is that Chris Sale will be starting and that usually means good things for the Braves this season. The bad news is that the lineup the Braves are likely to put out against the Cincinnati Reds in the middle game of this three-game series is going to be one of the most diminished that we’ve seen from this team since the mini-rebuild days of 2014-2017.

First off, congratulations are in order to Austin Riley, who is expecting his second child to be delivered into the world soon. That’s far more important than any ol’ baseball game and here’s hoping that his wife and his newborn both experience a safe delivery. However, that now means that the Braves are going to be missing yet another member of their lineup at a time where they really, really can’t afford to be losing any more of their regulars.

Their primary right fielder is gone for the season, their primary center fielder is still out injured, their primary second baseman just went down until the tail end of the season, their primary third baseman is becoming a father all over again and will be temporarily missing and the other regulars are either performing at an incredibly diminished rate (particularly Matt Olson, Orlando Arcia and Sean Murphy) or proving that you can’t win with just two players producing at something even close to a high level (Marcell Ozuna and Travis d’Arnaud).

So yeah, I’m sure y’all are already aware of this but if you aren’t, it’s time to brace yourself for what this lineup is going to look like this evening. Perhaps it’s kind of fortunate for Atlanta that they’re catching Cincinnati on a night where they’re going with a bullpen game. Their Opener will be Nick Martinez, who has had a scoreless appearance in 8 of his past 11 appearances. This includes an appearance on July 12 where he pitched three scoreless innings in a 7-4 win over the Marlins. Martinez has started a handful of games this season and he does have five appearances this season where he’s gone five innings or more. Only one of those outings ended up going well for the Reds, which is when he pitched five scoreless innings against the Dodgers back on May 16.

Meanwhile, Cincinnati’s bullpen is going into this game with a collective ERA- of 89, a FIP- of 97 and an xFIP- of 111. This bullpen is definitely not a group of slouches by any means but they are vulnerable — the Braves struggled mightily in last night’s game against Cincinnati but still found themselves with the tying run at the plate against Alexis Díaz in the ninth inning of last night’s contest. With that being said, it really wouldn’t be shocking at all if Atlanta’s offense (especially in its current state) found themselves engaging in some extremely tough sledding this evening.

So once again, the onus has been placed squarely upon Chris Sale to help give the Braves a chance to win. Sale has been so good for Atlanta this season that he ended the first half as one of the favorites to win the NL Cy Young Award. Dating back to April 26, Sale has made 14 starts and he’s given up two runs or less in 13 of those starts. There’s no other way to put it: Chris Sale has essentially been dominant on the mound this season and has returned to the form that he had during his heyday as a member of either one of the Sox teams in the AL.

Again, it’s also a bit of a double-edged sword since Sale has basically had to be dominant in order to keep the Braves in some of these games. He’ll likely have to put up one of his best performances of the season tonight if Atlanta’s going to have a shot at evening up this series. Baseball’s a very weird sport and anything can happen but I also think it’s very fair to not exactly be expecting the world of the home team this evening.