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Spencer Schwellenbach and the Atlanta Braves roll into St. Louis on a high note to face the Cardinals

After taking a series victory in Yankee Stadium against the team with the American League’s best record, the Atlanta Braves are flying into the Midwest on a good note and will be hoping to keep the good vibes going as they open up a series with the St. Louis Cardinals.

For the third time in two seasons, Lance Lynn will have to deal with the Braves. His two encounters with Atlanta took place with two different teams last season and neither of those appearances went particularly well for Lynn. The first one did result in a win for the White Sox back on July 15, 2023 but Lynn did give up four runs over 5.1 innings pitched on that day. The second run-in happened on August 31, which is when Lynn was with the Dodgers and gave up seven runs over just 4.1 innings. Whatever Lynn had going on last season, he was not fooling Atlanta’s offense last year.

Now Lance Lynn is back with the Cardinals and his recent run of starts has been a bit shaky. After having a three-start run where he gave up only one run over 16 innings pitched across that span, Lynn followed up those three starts with three more starts where he’s conceded 13 runs (12 earned) over just under 14 innings. Obviously, the hope for the Braves is that they can tack on another few innings of misery for Lynn and prevent him from finding the formula for a bounce-back performance.

While this might not be the worst time in the world for the Braves to face off against Lance Lynn again, this might be a tricky time to run into the Cardinals. There are only a handful of teams in the National League who are above .500 and St. Louis recently joined the club after picking up a sweep of the first-place Brewers over the weekend. The Cardinals have won seven out of 10 and will surely be looking to cement their resurgence to being a winning ballclub after spending most of last season in the wilderness.

Meanwhile, the man that has been tasked with keeping the Cardinals quiet tonight is Spence Schwellenbach. The rookie hurler for Atlanta seems to be settling into his role at the big league level and is starting to see actual results. While he did make it clear in his first two starts that he had the stuff to belong, those starts also saw his proverbial train get derailed in a hurry. In his most recent starts, that hasn’t been the case as he’s managed to put together two really good starts where he went six innings in both appearances and held the Orioles and Tigers to just two and one run, respectively.

I’m sure that the rookie would finally like a bit of serious run support to help him out there. In his four starts so far this season, the Braves have scored a grand total of six runs over his 21.2 innings pitched so far. This includes the 9-0 shutout loss that the Braves suffered in Boston. Schwellenbach has definitely pitched well enough to keep the Braves competitive in his first two starts and I’d say that it’s high time for his offense to give him some runs so it doesn’t feel like the balance of the game is teetering on the result of a rookie’s next pitch.

Overall, this figures to be a very interesting contest against two teams that are starting to gain a bit of footing. The Braves will still be double-digit wins above .500 whether they win or lose tonight and the Cardinals have started to distinguish themselves from what is looking like a somewhat mediocre pack in the NL Wild Card race. However, baseball isn’t a sport where you can share the spoils of battle at the end of any given contest — there has to be a winner and a loser. Hopefully the Braves can continue what’s been an impressive road trip so far and keep the good vibes going with a win in the shadow of the Gateway Arch.