Chris Sale gets call as Atlanta Braves look to avoid rough series start against Giants

After losing two straight games after losing the series finale to the Pirates and then the series opener to the San Francisco Giants, the Atlanta Braves are now trying to make sure they don’t have another unusual streak of at least three straight losses.

I say it’s unusual, but as far as this season goes for the Braves, it’s actually relatively normal for them to have an “extended slide.” It’s happened seven times in the 2023 season, where the Braves have lost at least three games in a row. Meanwhile, it’s already happened three times so far here in 2024 for Atlanta and they’ll be desperate to make sure it doesn’t happen for the fourth time already.

Luckily, they have a pretty solid candidate on the mound to make sure that doesn’t happen. Chris Sale is getting the ball for the Braves and he’s in the midst of a resurgent (and healthy) season that has him on track for the type of season he hasn’t had since his heyday in Boston. If you don’t believe me, just take a look at his StatCast page. Just red as far as the eye can see. You love the sight of it.

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Sale will enter this season with four straight very good starts, which appears to be a response to his odd start on June 1st, where he gave up eight runs against the Oakland A’s, of all teams. Aside from that day off, Sale has been excellent for the Braves so far this season. It would certainly help if he had some run support – while two of his last four starts have resulted in Braves blowout wins, those two wins were sandwiched between two seven-inning starts where Sale gave up just three runs between those two starts, but the Braves lost because they scored a total of one (1) run in those two games. So, as usual, it’s up to the offense to hope they meet the pitchers where they are at.

As for Atlanta’s offense, they’ll have to deal with Jordan Hicks starting for San Francisco. Hicks has had a very interesting season in that his ERA- tells you one thing while his FIP- tells you a completely different story. His ERA- is 86, which normally suggests that this is a tough opponent for any team to handle. Hicks has a very high ground ball rate (he’s currently in the 86th percentile in that regard) so if he can keep the ball on the ground against Atlanta, you could say he’s in his comfort zone.

However, Hicks’ FIP- is 109, which is a pretty big difference between a FIP- and an ERA-. Hicks relies on his sinker as his most used pitch, but it’s also the pitch that’s hit him the hardest. Opposing hitters have both a .320 batting average and an expected batting average against his sinker, he doesn’t really miss many bats with it, and he doesn’t really use it as a serious pitch. It’s a little weird, and it also explains how he can have nights where he can throw five scoreless innings (like he did on June 17 against the Cubs) and then immediately follow that up by allowing five runs in four innings in his very next start. Hicks has been pretty solid for the Giants so far this season, but he’s shown himself to be vulnerable, and I hope the Braves are able to find and exploit any vulnerabilities that are exposed tonight.

As usual, the middle of any series is crucial. For the Braves, they hope to limit their skid to just two games. Meanwhile, the Giants are looking to join the other National League clubs that are slowly but surely starting to climb up to and above .500 here in the middle of the season. It looks like we’re in for some fun tonight.

Game Information

Game date/time: Wednesday, July 3, 7:20 p.m. ET

Location: Truist Park, Atlanta, Georgia

TV: Bally Sports South

Streaming: MLB.tv

Radio: 680 AM / 93.7 FM The Fan