<img alt="Washington Nationals v Toronto Blue Jays" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/QUcdpKlLipiYFPRO2Nei1aRgREc=/0x0:3567x2378/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/74022919/2207585111.0.jpg">
Photo by Vaughn Ridley/Getty Images
Toronto’s gotten off to a pretty solid start. The Braves are still wandering around in the wilderness — especially on the road. Will they figure it out under the roof? There wasn’t too much positive to take from Atlanta’s trip to Tampa to see the Rays in their temporary home provided by the Yankees. On a micro-level, the offense took advantage of the dimensions to get their bats going (well, going compared to how it looked early on in the season. The path to team wRC+ 100 continues [they’re currently at 92 as a team, btw]) and they finally picked up their first road win of the season. They still have an abysmal 1-9 record on the road but it’s never too late to improve.
They’ll have their hands full with another AL East team to start this week, as their road trip takes them North of the border to take on the Toronto Blue Jays. The Jays have gotten off to a solid start, as they’re 9-7 and also gave their fans a huge boost by signing Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to a long-term deal that’ll likely keep him in Toronto for the rest of his career. Guerrero himself hasn’t exactly fired out of the gates (especially when compared to his 165 wRC+ season that he had last year) but he’s doing well enough — which you could say about the rest of the offense as well. George Springer, Andrés Giménez, and Bo Bichette have all been swinging the bat pretty well to start the season with Tyler Heineman and Myles Straw also providing extremely capable offense off the bench for this team as well.
The pitching has been very solid as well, as their rotation in particular has helped push them to a handful of wins this season. The Blue Jays have held their opponents to two runs or less in half of the 16 games that they’ve played so far and as we all know, you can’t win if you can’t score. We’ll talk more about the Blue Jays and their starters in particular as this article progresses but just know that it once again looks like the Braves are going to be in for tough sledding at the plate.
Monday, April 14, 7:07 p.m. ET (FanDuel Sports South/Southeast)
RHP Grant Holmes (2 GS, 9 IP, 4.00 ERA, 101 ERA-, 4.67 FIP, 122 FIP-, 26.8 K%, 19.5 BB%, 0.0 fWAR)
Grant Holmes has made two starts of four innings each. In both of those starts, he walked four batters and gave up three hits on April 9 and four hits on March 31. The difference is that in the latter start at home against the Phillies, he struck out six and gave up zero runs. On March 31 against the Dodgers, he gave up a homer and ended up surrendering four runs while only striking out three batters. Needless to say, it’s been a mixed bag for Holmes so far and clearly we’re all hoping that whatever he found against the Phillies will travel with him to Canada against the Blue Jays.
Speaking of the Blue Jays, Holmes actually has some experience against this team. The less we talk about that appearance, the better.
LHP Easton Lucas (2 GS, 10.1 IP, 0.00 ERA, 0 ERA-, 1.74 FIP, 44 FIP-, 28.9 K%, 7.9% BB, 0.4 fWAR)
Despite being lightly regarded heading into this season after bouncing around between the A’s, the Tigers and his current home in Toronto, Easton Lucas has gotten off to a very good start here in 2025. He only gave up one hit against the Nationals on April 2 and then six days later, he only gave up three hits and struck out eight Red Sox batters. While he’s “only” gone five and 5.1 innings in both of those starts, any team would be happy to take that type of performance from their hurler.
Lucas has found these results so far by leaning heavily on his four-seamer — he’s raised his usage of the heater from 53 percent over the course of his career to 57 percent and apparently that’s been enough to help boost him to this solid start. He has a change-up, a sweeper and a slider as well but the Braves are going to be getting a heavy dose of the four-seamer from Lucas. We might see that approach change given that most teams have adjusted towards not feeding the Braves a ton of fastballs but we’ll see if that happens in this game.
Tuesday, April 15, 7:07 p.m. ET (FanDuel Sports South/Southeast)
RHP Spencer Schwellenbach (3 GS, 20 IP, 0.45 ERA, 11 ERA-, 2.35 FIP, 62 FIP- 26.8 K%, 4.2 BB%, 0.6 fWAR)
Schwellenbach has gotten excellent results to start the season here in 2025. Plain-and-simple, if you’e only given up one run through 20 innings, you’re doing something right. The only run that Schwellenbach has given up so far this season came off of a home run from Kyle Schwarber but to paraphrase Rickey Henderson, “You ain’t nobody if Schwarber hasn’t homered off of you,” since Schwarber has become such an extreme Three True Outcomes type of hitter. But yeah, Schwellenbach has gotten off to a fantastic start and hopefully he’ll keep it going in his next start against the Blue Jays. He’ll certainly be hoping that this start goes better than the one he made against them last season.
RHP Kevin Gausman (3 GS, 19.1 IP, 2.33 ERA, 60 ERA-, 3.36 FIP, 86 FIP-, 20.6 K%, 4.4 BB%, 0.4 fWAR)
Our old friend Kevin Gausman has been doing quite well for himself since leaving the Braves. He figured it out in 2021 with the Giants and then proceeded to have three great seasons before falling off a bit last season. Still, he’s got plenty left in the tank and he proved it in his most recent start where he absolutely dominated the Red Sox over eight innings of work. He struck out ten batters, didn’t walk anybody and only gave up four hits and an unearned run. That’ll do the trick!
The Braves last saw Gausman in Cobb County during their September series last season and things actually went relatively well for them in that one. The three runs that Atlanta put up against Gausman in that game ended up being the difference in a 3-1 win for the Braves. Jarred Kelenic and Michael Harris II provided two of the three RBIs and it would sure be lovely if they were able to continue producing against Gausman this week.
Wednesday, April 16, 1:07 p.m. ET (FanDuel Sports South/Southeast)
“TBD”
The scare quotes are there for a reason: We all know who this is going to be. Spencer Strider is expected to make his long-awaited return from elbow surgery and needless to say, the excitement is palpable. Strider made a couple of starts during the Grapefruit League and has followed that up with a few extremely impressive rehab stints. He threw 90 pitches in his most recent rehab start and struck out 13 batters while only giving up three hits and two walks. While yes, that was against Triple-A batters, it’s the type of performance that we’ve grown to expect from Strider over the years and it’s pretty clear that he’s ready to go. Hopefully that bears itself out with a strong performance on Wednesday where the fireballer hits the ground running.
RHP Chris Bassitt (3 GS, 18.1 IP, 0.98 ERA, 26 ERA-, 1.20 FIP, 30 FIP-, 28.8 K%, 4.1 BB%, 0.9 fWAR)
Here’s another Blue Jays starter who has gotten off to a very good start here in 2025. Chris Bassitt has been a fine pitcher for a few years now but he’s gotten off to a fantastic start over his first three appearances. He’s made it into the sixth inning in each of them, he’s only given up one run or less in all three starts and he’s racked up at least five strikeouts in each of them as well. He has given up his fair share of hits but he’s also managed to avoid walking too many batters as well. Simply put, Bassitt has been very effective for Toronto but what else is new for this rotation to start the season so far?
This’ll be Bassitt’s first time seeing the Braves since 2023 and, well, it did not go well for the Braves — like, at all. Bassitt has made 190 starts over the course of his career and he has two complete games under his belts: One against the Angels in 2021 and then one against our very own Atlanta Braves in 2023. Needless to say, let’s hope the Braves avoid repeating that fate this time around, please?
<img alt="Washington Nationals v Toronto Blue Jays" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/QUcdpKlLipiYFPRO2Nei1aRgREc=/0x0:3567x2378/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/74022919/2207585111.0.jpg">
Photo by Vaughn Ridley/Getty Images
Toronto’s gotten off to a pretty solid start. The Braves are still wandering around in the wilderness — especially on the road. Will they figure it out under the roof? There wasn’t too much positive to take from Atlanta’s trip to Tampa to see the Rays in their temporary home provided by the Yankees. On a micro-level, the offense took advantage of the dimensions to get their bats going (well, going compared to how it looked early on in the season. The path to team wRC+ 100 continues [they’re currently at 92 as a team, btw]) and they finally picked up their first road win of the season. They still have an abysmal 1-9 record on the road but it’s never too late to improve.
They’ll have their hands full with another AL East team to start this week, as their road trip takes them North of the border to take on the Toronto Blue Jays. The Jays have gotten off to a solid start, as they’re 9-7 and also gave their fans a huge boost by signing Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to a long-term deal that’ll likely keep him in Toronto for the rest of his career. Guerrero himself hasn’t exactly fired out of the gates (especially when compared to his 165 wRC+ season that he had last year) but he’s doing well enough — which you could say about the rest of the offense as well. George Springer, Andrés Giménez, and Bo Bichette have all been swinging the bat pretty well to start the season with Tyler Heineman and Myles Straw also providing extremely capable offense off the bench for this team as well.
The pitching has been very solid as well, as their rotation in particular has helped push them to a handful of wins this season. The Blue Jays have held their opponents to two runs or less in half of the 16 games that they’ve played so far and as we all know, you can’t win if you can’t score. We’ll talk more about the Blue Jays and their starters in particular as this article progresses but just know that it once again looks like the Braves are going to be in for tough sledding at the plate.
Monday, April 14, 7:07 p.m. ET (FanDuel Sports South/Southeast)
RHP Grant Holmes (2 GS, 9 IP, 4.00 ERA, 101 ERA-, 4.67 FIP, 122 FIP-, 26.8 K%, 19.5 BB%, 0.0 fWAR)
Grant Holmes has made two starts of four innings each. In both of those starts, he walked four batters and gave up three hits on April 9 and four hits on March 31. The difference is that in the latter start at home against the Phillies, he struck out six and gave up zero runs. On March 31 against the Dodgers, he gave up a homer and ended up surrendering four runs while only striking out three batters. Needless to say, it’s been a mixed bag for Holmes so far and clearly we’re all hoping that whatever he found against the Phillies will travel with him to Canada against the Blue Jays.
Speaking of the Blue Jays, Holmes actually has some experience against this team. The less we talk about that appearance, the better.
LHP Easton Lucas (2 GS, 10.1 IP, 0.00 ERA, 0 ERA-, 1.74 FIP, 44 FIP-, 28.9 K%, 7.9% BB, 0.4 fWAR)
Despite being lightly regarded heading into this season after bouncing around between the A’s, the Tigers and his current home in Toronto, Easton Lucas has gotten off to a very good start here in 2025. He only gave up one hit against the Nationals on April 2 and then six days later, he only gave up three hits and struck out eight Red Sox batters. While he’s “only” gone five and 5.1 innings in both of those starts, any team would be happy to take that type of performance from their hurler.
Lucas has found these results so far by leaning heavily on his four-seamer — he’s raised his usage of the heater from 53 percent over the course of his career to 57 percent and apparently that’s been enough to help boost him to this solid start. He has a change-up, a sweeper and a slider as well but the Braves are going to be getting a heavy dose of the four-seamer from Lucas. We might see that approach change given that most teams have adjusted towards not feeding the Braves a ton of fastballs but we’ll see if that happens in this game.
Tuesday, April 15, 7:07 p.m. ET (FanDuel Sports South/Southeast)
RHP Spencer Schwellenbach (3 GS, 20 IP, 0.45 ERA, 11 ERA-, 2.35 FIP, 62 FIP- 26.8 K%, 4.2 BB%, 0.6 fWAR)
Schwellenbach has gotten excellent results to start the season here in 2025. Plain-and-simple, if you’e only given up one run through 20 innings, you’re doing something right. The only run that Schwellenbach has given up so far this season came off of a home run from Kyle Schwarber but to paraphrase Rickey Henderson, “You ain’t nobody if Schwarber hasn’t homered off of you,” since Schwarber has become such an extreme Three True Outcomes type of hitter. But yeah, Schwellenbach has gotten off to a fantastic start and hopefully he’ll keep it going in his next start against the Blue Jays. He’ll certainly be hoping that this start goes better than the one he made against them last season.
RHP Kevin Gausman (3 GS, 19.1 IP, 2.33 ERA, 60 ERA-, 3.36 FIP, 86 FIP-, 20.6 K%, 4.4 BB%, 0.4 fWAR)
Our old friend Kevin Gausman has been doing quite well for himself since leaving the Braves. He figured it out in 2021 with the Giants and then proceeded to have three great seasons before falling off a bit last season. Still, he’s got plenty left in the tank and he proved it in his most recent start where he absolutely dominated the Red Sox over eight innings of work. He struck out ten batters, didn’t walk anybody and only gave up four hits and an unearned run. That’ll do the trick!
The Braves last saw Gausman in Cobb County during their September series last season and things actually went relatively well for them in that one. The three runs that Atlanta put up against Gausman in that game ended up being the difference in a 3-1 win for the Braves. Jarred Kelenic and Michael Harris II provided two of the three RBIs and it would sure be lovely if they were able to continue producing against Gausman this week.
Wednesday, April 16, 1:07 p.m. ET (FanDuel Sports South/Southeast)
“TBD”
The scare quotes are there for a reason: We all know who this is going to be. Spencer Strider is expected to make his long-awaited return from elbow surgery and needless to say, the excitement is palpable. Strider made a couple of starts during the Grapefruit League and has followed that up with a few extremely impressive rehab stints. He threw 90 pitches in his most recent rehab start and struck out 13 batters while only giving up three hits and two walks. While yes, that was against Triple-A batters, it’s the type of performance that we’ve grown to expect from Strider over the years and it’s pretty clear that he’s ready to go. Hopefully that bears itself out with a strong performance on Wednesday where the fireballer hits the ground running.
RHP Chris Bassitt (3 GS, 18.1 IP, 0.98 ERA, 26 ERA-, 1.20 FIP, 30 FIP-, 28.8 K%, 4.1 BB%, 0.9 fWAR)
Here’s another Blue Jays starter who has gotten off to a very good start here in 2025. Chris Bassitt has been a fine pitcher for a few years now but he’s gotten off to a fantastic start over his first three appearances. He’s made it into the sixth inning in each of them, he’s only given up one run or less in all three starts and he’s racked up at least five strikeouts in each of them as well. He has given up his fair share of hits but he’s also managed to avoid walking too many batters as well. Simply put, Bassitt has been very effective for Toronto but what else is new for this rotation to start the season so far?
This’ll be Bassitt’s first time seeing the Braves since 2023 and, well, it did not go well for the Braves — like, at all. Bassitt has made 190 starts over the course of his career and he has two complete games under his belts: One against the Angels in 2021 and then one against our very own Atlanta Braves in 2023. Needless to say, let’s hope the Braves avoid repeating that fate this time around, please?
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