Can you believe that the Braves haven’t been over .500 all season?
Atlanta comes to town for the first time since being swept by the Phillies on opening weekend. The Braves have been a streaky team, with four winning streaks and five losing skids of at least three games.
The Braves are paying the price in the bullpen for letting Mark Melancon and Darren O’Day walk. Their three best relievers last season were Melancon, O’Day and Shane Greene. Melancon is a Padre, O’Day is a Yankee and Greene has not pitched in the majors yet in 2021. He was signed by the Braves on May 9 and called up to the big-league roster Sunday.
Stay in the game with the latest updates on your beloved Philadelphia sports teams! Sign up here for our All Access Daily newsletter.
The Braves went cheaper in the ‘pen and it’s showed. Only one of their eight most-used relievers had an ERA below 4.00 entering Sunday.
Atlanta signed starting pitchers Charlie Morton and Drew Smyly early in the offseason to one-year contracts worth $15 million and $11 million, respectively. Morton has been decent but hasn’t pitched up to his standard. He has a 4.21 ERA and his rates of walks, strikeouts and home runs are all worse than his prior three-year average.
Smyly has a 5.98 ERA and has allowed 14 home runs in nine starts. The Phillies will face him in Tuesday’s series opener.
The Braves are also without Marcell Ozuna, probably for the rest of the season. Their starting leftfielder was arrested on May 29 and charged with aggravated assault strangulation and misdemeanor battery related to family violence.
MLB
Ozuna signed a four-year, $65 million contract this past offseason to return to the Braves. The collective bargaining agreement prevents the Braves from voiding his contract, the same way the Phillies could not void Odubel Herrera’s. MLB suspended Herrera for the rest of the season in 2019 and the same thing could happen to Ozuna.
“The Braves fully support Major League Baseball’s policy on domestic violence which stresses to the fullest that our society cannot and will not tolerate domestic violence in any form,” the team wrote in a statement.
Ozuna, who was off to a slow start, led the National League last season with 18 homers and 56 RBI while hitting .338.
Last year’s NL MVP, Freddie Freeman, is having a surprisingly modest season. He's hitting .229 with an .807 OPS. His batting average is a career-low, it’s the lowest his on-base percentage has been since 2012 and the lowest his slugging percentage has been since 2011. He’s homered once in his last 16 games.
The Phillies will have their top trio going in this series. Aaron Nola is followed by Zach Eflin (on nine days rest) in Game 2 and Zack Wheeler in Game 3. It’s the first time since the first weekend of the season that the Phillies have their top three starters pitching in the same three-game series.
It couldn’t be a better setup from a rotation standpoint, though Nola is 1-4 in his last six starts against the Braves. He’s allowed at least four runs in six of the teams’ last nine meetings and has a 5.26 ERA over that span.
The Phillies are 16-19 behind Nola, Wheeler and Eflin. Unless that trend reverses quickly, they won't be close to contention in September.
Subscribe to the Phillies Talk podcast: Apple Podcasts | Google Play | Spotify | Stitcher | Art19 | Watch on YouTube