Top notch Live: Braves faces fastidious” division matchup with hungry opponent in a drawn battle line fixture” read full match details here..
Starting with their game against the leading Phillies on Thursday, the Atlanta Braves will have a golden opportunity to wreak havoc on the National League East race this weekend in Philadelphia. Philadelphia leads the division by five games going into the four-game series. The Braves persevered, taking two of three games against the Phillies in Atlanta last week. They then won five games in a row against the Minnesota Twins and Washington Nationals.
Atlanta’s 5-1 victory on Wednesday capped a three-game sweep of Minnesota. Jorge Soler drove a home run to spark the Braves’ offense, and Chris Sale became the first pitcher in the National League to reach 15 wins this season. “It’s a good time to have a happy flight,” Sale stated in reference to the Philadelphia trip, where the hosts would be nursing their wounds from their previous game.
The Phillies took a pounding on Wednesday, absorbing a 10-0 loss to the Houston Astros. Philadelphia failed to get a hit in the first seven innings and finished with just three singles on the day.
They’ll look to bounce back behind Cristopher Sanchez (9-9, 3.51 ERA), who took the loss against the Braves last Thursday. The Dominican lefty pitched respectably in that contest, yielding three runs in six innings while striking out eight.
It’s impressive how far (Sanchez) has come,” manager Rob Thomson said earlier this month. “He’d be a No. 1 on a lot of teams.” Sanchez has allowed three runs or fewer in six of his last eight starts overall, but he has never defeated the Braves in his career. In four lifetime games (three starts) against Atlanta, Sanchez is 0-3 with a 4.66 ERA.
Marcell Ozuna is 3-for-7 with a double against Sanchez, while Michael Harris II and Orlando Arcia are a combined 0-for-15 with eight strikeouts against him. Harris and Arcia also enter this one in a bit of a cold stretch after the two combined to go 1-for-8 with six strikeouts on Wednesday. Harris is just 6-for-32 in his last nine games, while Arcia has gone 15 straight contests without a multi-hit effort.
Charlie Morton (7-7, 4.24), who has been outstanding thus far this month, will start for Atlanta. The 40-year-old right-hander has made four starts in August and is 2-0 with a 1.96 ERA, though he did have one awful outing against the Milwaukee Brewers.
Morton did not face his old team this season despite having made a brief appearance for the Phillies in 2016. In his 19 career starts versus Philadelphia, he is 5-7 with a 4.81 ERA. While Trea Turner (3-for-17) and Nick Castellanos (1-for-17) have outstanding career stats against Morton, Bryce Harper (.423) and Alec Bohm (.444) are on the other end of the spectrum.
“(These games are) important, obviously,” Thomson said. “I don’t know how much more important (than other games), but I always say that you’ve got to win at home and you’ve got to win in your division. … So, it’s a big series.”
