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Grant Holmes and the Atlanta Braves get ready to face Reds

Following a disappointing end to their four-game series with the Dodgers and once again falling out of the Postseason spots, the Atlanta Braves are once again forced to pick themselves up and bounce back as they embark on a week-long road trip. They’ll be starting the road trip tonight with their series opener against the Cincinnati Reds.

With Reynaldo López currently on the IL, the Braves needed someone to fill his spot for the time being and as far as tonight goes, that job will be given to Grant Holmes. Holmes will be entering this game having served as one of many reliable arms for Atlanta’s bullpen here in 2024. He’s also been solid in the few times that he’s been called upon to start. As long as we don’t talk about what happened at Coors (what happened at Coors, stays at Coors), Grant Holmes has done a perfectly fine job as a starter so far. I’m not saying that we should expect Grant Holmes to go seven innings and keep Cincinnati completely quiet but I would be shocked if this ends up being a disaster.

I’d be especially shocked considering how Cincinnati’s lineup has performed overall here in 2024. The Reds as a team have a bottom-five offense according to team wRC+ (90) and have only hit .233/.306/.394 as a unit, with a .306 team wOBA. Now granted, the Braves haven’t been much better (.240/.306/.408 with a .310 wOBA and 97 wRC+) but it gets a bit more interesting when you compare what the two teams have done at home and on the road, respectively. The Reds at home this season have hit .232/.311/.406 with a .313 wOBA and 89 wRC. Atlanta, on the other hand, has a .234/.300/.410 team slash line on the road, with .309 wOBA and 97 wRC+. They’ve also hit 108 home runs on the road, which is the third-highest number in all of baseball. While those averages aren’t really great (for either team), it’ll be very interesting to see if the Braves can show a bit more life here on the road than they did over their final two games of the Dodgers series.

They’ll have to get it done against Brandon Williamson, who has been very solid for Cincy since making his long-awaited return from injury back on September 1. He’s made three appearances and tow starts and the most he’s given up in any of those appearances has been just one run. Now granted, he hasn’t gone particularly far in either of those three appearances but he has improved slowly but surely when it comes to getting deeper into games. His last start saw him make it through five innings and if this continues then he might just make it into the sixth inning tonight. With the way the Reds have been pitching as a staff, it really wouldn’t be too shocking if they did keep Atlanta quiet for another game.

Tonight’s story is the same as it’s been all month. The Braves simply have to get the job done any way that they can in order to make sure that they stay in this Postseason race. Hopefully they’ll be able to get it done tonight so that this could potentially be the start of a good run. It’s likely that all the Braves will need to get into the Postseason from now until the end of the season is one good extended run of form. They’re still on the road but they have a handful of favorable games right before the big series against the Mets next week. Before they can worry about next week, they have to make something happen this week and it’s time for the Braves to make it happen against the Reds tonight.