Spencer Strider takes the mound vs Boston

Spencer Strider’s last outing for the Atlanta Braves was against the Miami Marlins on Thursday (5/21), making that his longest outing since coming off the IL this season. He pitched for 6.1 innings, allowed three runs on four hits and struck out nine batters.

So far, he’s been producing as someone getting back to the swing of things, gaining two wins across his four outings, and boasting a 3.00 ERA and 1.14 WHIP. He also, however, has a total of 12 batters walked in his return this month so far, so that will be something he’ll need to decrease against the Boston Red Sox, who might be struggling heavily on offense with an average of 3.7 runs per game, but can take advantage of drawing walks to secure their runs on the board.

The Ohio native is looking to continue his strong stint to kick the series off, but he’ll need the offense to follow suit and have a complete turnaround from their last series against the Washington Nationals.

Boston’s Ranger Suarez will be facing the Braves, currently holding a 2.40 ERA and 1.01 WHIP across his (2-2) nine games pitched.

If there’s a pitch that the Braves’ offense needs to look out for, it’s his 90.6 mph sinker. The lefty is dominant with it and takes up 30% of his arsenal. Against left-handed hitters, he touches the pitch almost 50% of the time, and it lands almost securely in the zone. He lowers it to around a 24% usage against righties.

The Braves’ offense will need to put on a show to blank the Sox early on and give Strider a quality game, but if they continue where they left off against the Nationals and Suarez gets the best of them, there might need to be a shakeup in the game plan for the remainder of the series.