Atlanta Braves begin journey to the West with series opener against Diamondbacks

After successfully ending their home game day with a series win over the Phillies, the Atlanta Braves are looking to keep the good mood going as they travel west next week – starting with a trip to the desert to face the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Tonight’s game should be interesting just because of the pairing of starting pitchers. First of all, for the second time in as many weeks, the Diamondbacks have a rookie making his MLB debut as a starting pitcher. Last week, it was Cristian Mena who got the nod. Tonight, it’s Yilber Diaz who will throw his first pitches as a major leaguer to start today’s game.

Diaz is eligible to start not only because the D-backs are currently dealing with a huge injury situation among their pitchers, but also because he has done a very good job in the minors so far this season. In fact, Diaz started for the Reno Aces on July 1, where he struck out 13 batters – not bad for a guy who only got promoted to Triple-A on June 11.

Still, it’s clear to everyone that there’s still a big difference between the ability of Triple-A hitters and those in the big leagues, and Atlanta’s job is to make that difference as clear as possible. As Ivan mentioned in the series preview, this could be a situation where Diaz may not be on the field very long, and if that’s the case, it’ll be up to the Braves to take Diaz out of the game and get into the Diamondbacks’ potentially depleted bullpen going into this game. If Atlanta could give Diaz a rude reception in the MLB, this could actually be a fun night at the ballpark for Atlanta.

Meanwhile, the Braves are sending everyone but one rookie to the mound for tonight’s game. 2024 NL All-Star Chris Sale gets the ball for the Braves tonight, and as usual, you have to give Atlanta’s chances in any game Sale starts at this point. The 35-year-old pitcher has been excellent for the Braves this season, as it looks like his return to health has translated into good form from Sale as well. He enters this game with an ERA of 65 and a FIP of 58 for the season so far – both numbers that are as good as anything we’ve seen from Sale since his best days as a pitcher for one of the AL’s Sox teams.

Since the A’s inexplicably allowed him eight runs in five innings, Sale has absolutely put pressure on opposing batters. In his last five 32-inning starts, Sale has walked nine batters and allowed seven runs while striking out 45 batters over the same period, for a nice 38 percent strikeout rate and 30.4 percent strikeout-to-walk ratio. Or, to put it as simply as possible, opponents have only posted a .165 batting average against Sale during that time period. Sale has been a nightmare for opposing batters, and at this point it’s just a matter of the offense giving him run support so he can continue to keep the other team at bay while he’s on the mound.

While the last three games represent an absolutely microscopic sample size compared to the rest of the baseball season, it’s very encouraging that the Braves have scored at least five runs in each of the three games against the Phillies. It’s still far too long since Atlanta won a game in which the other team scored more than three runs (April 17, to be exact), but hopefully tonight, with Chris Sale starting pitcher, won’t be the night that puts that stat to the test. Instead, let’s hope the Braves can ruin Yilber Diaz’s major league debut and get Sale enough run support to get off to a solid start on the road.

Game Information

Date/time of the game: Monday, July 8, 9:40 p.m. ET

Location: Chase Field, Phoenix, Arizona

TV: Bally Sports South, MLB Network (out-of-market only)

Streaming: MLB.tv

Radio: 680 AM / 93.7 FM