The Braves bounced back in a big way following their game one loss to the Cardinals on Tuesday night. Mike Soroka played the “stopper” role perfectly by tossing seven shutout innings in a 4-0 win. Then the Braves followed that up with an offensive onslaught in game three that led to a 10-2 victory, and above all, another series win.
It won’t get any easier this weekend, as Atlanta welcomes the red-hot Milwaukee Brewers to SunTrust Park for their first matchup of the season. The Brew Crew have won 10 of their last 13, including 9 of 10 against NL East opponents. Yes, you read that right. In the past two weeks, the Brewers have swept the Mets, swept the Nationals and taken three out of four against the Phillies in Philadelphia. This is a hell of a ball club that was a hair shy of reaching the World Series a year ago.
The Christian Yelich Show
You can’t even mention the city of Milwaukee without talking about Christian Yelich these days. Last year’s NL MVP has picked up right where he left off, leading the major leagues with 18 home runs.
It’s only mid-May people.
He’s batting .342 with an on-base percentage of .452, a slugging percentage of .762 and an unimaginable 1.218 OPS. This guy may not have the body type of a Mike Trout, but he’s hands-down the best player in baseball right now, and it’s not even close.
Max Fried looks to return to dominance
The Braves young lefty began the year on fire once he was entered into the rotation, but his last few starts have not been as crisp. Fried ended April with his first loss, allowing four runs over 5.1 innings against the Rockies. Two starts later, he gave up four earned runs in an inning of work and was forced to exit the game in the second because of a line drive that struck his throwing hand. Thankfully, the injury was nothing serious, and Fried made his next scheduled start, but he didn’t look like the same lights out arm Atlanta has become accustomed to. The southpaw gave up three earned runs in five innings to the Diamondbacks. Although, he did rack up his fifth win of the season.
The Braves are hoping Fried can bounce back against a mighty Brewers lineup. Atlanta finally looks to be finding their mojo, but every time that seems to happen, they go and lose three in a row. Milwaukee is a team that can make that happen effortlessly if the Braves are not on the top of their game. With that said, there might not be a more trustworthy arm to start this series off right than Max Fried.
The Brewers will send out Jhoulys Chacin (3-4, 4.57 ERA) to match Fried. Catch all the action tonight a 7:20 PM ET.Â