After splitting a four-game series in Arizona, the Atlanta Braves will make their final stop before the All-Star break Friday night when they begin a three-game series against the San Diego Padres. The Braves will be looking to put an end to a two-game skid behind rookie right-hander Spencer Schwellenbach. The Padres will counter with righty Randy Vasquez.
Atlanta dropped three of four to the Padres at Truist Park in one of their lowest points of the season. The Braves were outscored 18-10 in that series. They avoided a sweep when Chris Sale outdueled Vasquez in the series finale to win 3-0.
The Braves have used a number of pitchers to try and fill the fifth spot of the rotation but seem to have settled on Schwellenbach, who will make his eighth start of the season since making the leap from Double-A to the majors. Schwellenbach is coming off one of the best starts of his young career where he limited the Phillies offense to just one run over six innings to go along with six strikeouts. It isn’t surprising that Schwellenbach has struggled when facing a lineup for the third time, but he has shown a lot of promise over his first seven starts and has done a decent enough job of rounding out the rotation.
Vasquez allowed 10 hits and three runs over six innings in his previous matchup against the Braves in May. He’s struggled against lefties but is actually in a stretch where he has allowed just three earned runs combined over his last three starts (15 1⁄3 innings).
After scoring five runs or more in six-straight games, the Braves’ offense fell flat in a 1-0 loss Thursday night to close out the series against the Diamondbacks. Austin Riley and Marcell Ozuna accounted for four of Atlanta’s five hits in the loss. Ozuna enters Friday leading the National League with 75 RBI. That is tied for the most ever by a Braves player since 1966 for the most RBI before the All-Star Break. Andruw Jones had 75 RBIs in 2006, so Ozuna has three games to best that record.
Eddie Rosario returned to the Braves to start the road trip after he was released by Washington and made an immediate impact with a late single in Monday’s comeback win against the Diamondbacks. However, he was just 2-for-14 in the series and has a 50 wRC+ for the season.
Friday’s game is set for another late start at 9:40 p.m. ET and can be seen on Bally Sports Southeast.
