<img alt="Atlanta Braves v San Francisco Giants" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Qb5tn_e2M9hR2TyEPfnE1ERzuow=/0x0:4500x3000/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73527590/2166535699.0.jpg">
Photo by Lachlan Cunningham/Getty Images
Atlanta will hope that their Cy Young favorite can turn in another stellar outing Atlanta’s frustrating rollercoaster of a season continued on Friday, as they dropped what was a winnable game as the offense sputtered. The offense has been better lately than it was in that brutal stretch over the summer, but is still struggling to find consistency.
Fortunately for Atlanta, they have the best pitcher in baseball this season on the mound to try and avoid a three game losing streak. Chris Sale joined the Braves in possible the best offseason move league-wide and has only come in and posted a 2.12 FIP over 134.2 innings through mid-August. The Braves could really use another one of his phenomenal starts that have become the expectation for him this season to shut down what has been a bad Angels’ offense. His slow slider has been Statcast’s best breaking pitch league-wide this season. His fastball has been pretty good and his changeup has been great to go along with it. He has been everything the Braves were hoping for when they made that trade and more.
The Angels will send Griffin Canning out to start on their side and this is probably one of the more lopsided pitching matchups all season. Canning has a legitimately good changeup, but has a pretty abysmal arsenal otherwise and struggles to do much productive outside of eating innings. He throws a mid-90s four-seamer that is very hittable and a pretty bad slider and curveball as well. His strikeouts are way down from his career baseline this season without much to show for it. He doesn’t have a particularly impressive ground-ball rate and has a fairly average walk rate. Canning should be exactly the type of starting pitcher that the Braves offense would want to face to bounce back from a rough night.
This is simply a game that the Braves need to win. The pitching matchup is too favorable and the talent gap is too large to do anything else. Of course, this is baseball, so variance is always significant, but the Braves should be huge favorites this game by baseball standards.
Game Info
Game Date/Time: Saturday, August 17, 9:38 p.m. ET
Location: Angel Stadium, Anaheim, California
TV: Bally Sports Southeast, MLB Network (out of market)
Streaming: MLB.tv
Radio: 680 AM / 93.7 FM
<img alt="Atlanta Braves v San Francisco Giants" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Qb5tn_e2M9hR2TyEPfnE1ERzuow=/0x0:4500x3000/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73527590/2166535699.0.jpg">
Photo by Lachlan Cunningham/Getty Images
Atlanta will hope that their Cy Young favorite can turn in another stellar outing Atlanta’s frustrating rollercoaster of a season continued on Friday, as they dropped what was a winnable game as the offense sputtered. The offense has been better lately than it was in that brutal stretch over the summer, but is still struggling to find consistency.
Fortunately for Atlanta, they have the best pitcher in baseball this season on the mound to try and avoid a three game losing streak. Chris Sale joined the Braves in possible the best offseason move league-wide and has only come in and posted a 2.12 FIP over 134.2 innings through mid-August. The Braves could really use another one of his phenomenal starts that have become the expectation for him this season to shut down what has been a bad Angels’ offense. His slow slider has been Statcast’s best breaking pitch league-wide this season. His fastball has been pretty good and his changeup has been great to go along with it. He has been everything the Braves were hoping for when they made that trade and more.
The Angels will send Griffin Canning out to start on their side and this is probably one of the more lopsided pitching matchups all season. Canning has a legitimately good changeup, but has a pretty abysmal arsenal otherwise and struggles to do much productive outside of eating innings. He throws a mid-90s four-seamer that is very hittable and a pretty bad slider and curveball as well. His strikeouts are way down from his career baseline this season without much to show for it. He doesn’t have a particularly impressive ground-ball rate and has a fairly average walk rate. Canning should be exactly the type of starting pitcher that the Braves offense would want to face to bounce back from a rough night.
This is simply a game that the Braves need to win. The pitching matchup is too favorable and the talent gap is too large to do anything else. Of course, this is baseball, so variance is always significant, but the Braves should be huge favorites this game by baseball standards.
Game Info
Game Date/Time: Saturday, August 17, 9:38 p.m. ET
Location: Angel Stadium, Anaheim, California
TV: Bally Sports Southeast, MLB Network (out of market)
Streaming: MLB.tv
Radio: 680 AM / 93.7 FM
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