The Cleveland Guardians have a tough challenge ahead of them this weekend. They’ll head into a three-game road series against the Atlanta Braves starting on Friday. Both teams have gotten off to similar starts to the season, but the Braves might have the upper hand.
The Guardians have notoriously struggled against the Braves, according to Joe Noga.
“The Guardians went 0-3 against Atlanta last year. Cleveland is 9-15 all time in the regular season against the Braves,” Noga wrote.
It doesn’t help the Guardians that the Braves have been heating up at the plate lately. They were held to two runs in the series opener against the Los Angeles Angels. After that, the floodgates opened as the Braves scored 15 runs over the final two games and won the series against the Angels. Both Ronald Acuna Jr. and Matt Olson put together strong performances in the victories over the Halos.
The good news for the Guardians is that their starting pitching has been outstanding to begin the season. The starters can’t really do anything more, so hopefully the Guardians can get their bats going in this series.
The first step is getting offensive superstar Jose Ramirez going at the plate. Through 13 games, Ramirez is slashing .163/.255/.286 with one home run, six RBI, and six walks. It has been a lackluster beginning to the season for the seven-time All-Star.
The Guardians will open the series against right-hander Bryce Elder, who hasn’t allowed an earned run across 13 innings of work this season. After that, veteran southpaw Martin Perez will take the mound for the Braves on Saturday.
This will be the Guardians’ best chance to do some damage with the bats. In the finale, Chris Sale will take the ball versus right-hander Tanner Bibee. That could be a fun pitcher’s duel, but runs are never easy to come by with Sale on the mound.
The numbers have shown that the Guardians have struggled against the Braves. Given the pitching matchups, those struggles could very well continue if the Guardians don’t wake up on offense.
The pitching has done its job; now the bats need to come alive to win this series.
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