Familiarity Should Favor Hitters In NL East Battle
Braves vs. Mets, 7:10 ET
Braves vs. Mets, 7:10 ET
We have a small slate on the schedule for the day of baseball, but that doesn't mean there won't be some good games. It was a bit interesting to me that there were no games for the WNBA today either. With no hockey, and the NBA Championship ending last night, I was rather surprised to see that they didn't have games today. I would think to help grow the league, the WNBA would want to take advantage of other sports not being around. Either way, the small baseball slate gives us an opportunity to focus in on a specific game and I've chosen a divisional battle between the Braves and Mets.
The Braves are starting to once again climb out of whatever funk they were in to start the season. I'm not going to sit here and tell you that I think they will make the playoffs, or be anything outside of a .500 team this year. Instead, I'll go on the record with what I've said before - you don't win divisions in the first month of the season, but you certainly can lose them. If the Braves didn't start so poorly, their team would be above .500 for the year. I suppose that's a good sign overall that they are still playing good baseball outside of that stretch. However, they still haven't fully overcome what they needed to. Spencer Schwellenbach toes the rubber today. He's been very strong for the Braves with a 5-4 record, 3.26 ERA, and a 1.01 WHIP. He has been far worse on the road, with an ERA about a run and a half higher than at home. He also just faced the Mets in his last outing and allowed four earned runs over seven innings of work.

May 29, 2024; Cumberland, Georgia, USA; Atlanta Braves starting pitcher Spencer Schwellenbach (56) tosses the ball for a force out after fielding a ground ball against the Washington Nationals during the first inning at Truist Park. Mandatory Credit: Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports
The Mets are slipping as well, but the hope they have is not dashed at all. They recently lost seven straight games, and while that's a bad look, they are still well above .500 and I think only a complete disaster would force them to lose a spot in the playoffs. We knew there would be some blips on the radar for the Mets at some point, and I will be the first to say I'm not convinced this is a playoff winning rotation. However, there really is no denying this is a good team with a very strong offense and in almost a calendar year, the rotation has outperformed at least my expectations. Paul Blackburn is the latest arm to make an appearance in this rotation and he starts today. He is 0-1 with a 6.92 ERA and a 1.69 WHIP in just 13 innings of work this season. After going five scoreless innings to debut this season, he has allowed three or more earned runs in each of his games. Including a brutal 0.1 inning outing where he allowed four hits and four earned runs on just 14 pitches against the Rays. He did face the Braves in his most recent outing, allowing four hits, four runs (three earned) and two walks and strikeouts in 3.2 innings.
I usually favor hitters in games where a team has recently faced a pitcher. This one is no different to me. As you can see from the stats above, both Schwellenbach and Blackburn gave up runs to their opponent in their last outings. Blackburn's outing didn't go over the total, for what it is worth. I do think this game is an over and I think the Braves probably win. I'm just going to take the over here though.