The Braves are hoping to snap a three-week skid that’s seen them lose ten of their last sixteen games. Unfortunately, to do that they’ll have to find a way to beat a Dodgers squad that’s found its footing after a rough patch of its own, coming to Atlanta on the heels of back-to-back sweeps of the Rockies and Pirates.

Braves vs. Dodgers Probables

Tuesday: Tyler Glasnow vs. Bryce Elder
Wednesday: Roki Sasaki vs. AJ Smith-Shawver
Thursday: Yoshinobu Yamamoto vs. Chris Sale

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It goes without saying the Braves have the pitching disadvantage in the series opener. Bryce Elder has punched above his weight all season, helping carry a rotation not many people thought he’d be part of entering Spring Training. But he’ll be up against Tyler Glasnow, who, when healthy, is one of the nastiest pitchers to ever pick up a baseball. It’ll be just the eighth start of Glasnow’s season, and he’s boasting a 2.72 ERA with 11.1 strikeouts per nine innings over his first seven appearances.

Wednesday’s matchup pits two young arms oozing with potential against each other. Sasaki has had performances where he looks like the best of a loaded Dodgers rotation. He’s also had his fair share of stinkers, but you have to go quite a while back to find one. Sasaki hasn’t given up more than three runs in a start since July 2nd, and over that stretch, he’s allowed two runs or fewer six times.

For Smith-Shawver, it’ll be just his third start of the season since returning from Tommy John surgery. The first two began with so much promise but fizzled out around the fourth or fifth inning. The Braves are hoping he can clear that hurdle this time around, though the challenge ahead is a lot different from what he faced against the Mets and Twins.

Thursday’s finale is the kind of pitching matchup dreams are made of — two stallions of the sport facing off in a game that could carry loads of playoff implications. Chris Sale might not be the frontrunner in the Cy Young conversation because of some of the other seasons happening around the National League, but you could argue this is the best he’s ever looked in a Braves uniform, even better than when he won the award a couple of years ago. Yamamoto has been equally impressive, backing up a third-place NL Cy Young finish with a campaign in which he’s posted a 2.61 ERA over 23 starts.

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Photo: John Adams/Icon Sportswire