The Braves and Phillies have split the first two games of this four-game set in Philadelphia without much late drama, and Sunday’s third meeting brings a matchup of two starters whose season lines don’t tell the full story.
Atlanta will hand the ball to Tyler Mahle in the 1:10 p.m. ET game on NBC.
On paper, Mahle is 5-10 with a 4.25 ERA, but he has looked far sharper since the Braves picked him up at the trade deadline. In five starts for Atlanta, the right-hander is 2-1 with a 1.48 ERA, having allowed five earned runs over 30 1/3 innings while striking out 32 and walking five.
Mahle’s most recent outing backed that up. He didn’t get a decision last Sunday against the Rockies, but he held them to one run on five hits across 6 2/3 innings and matched a season high with nine strikeouts.
He has already seen Philadelphia twice this year, though both of those outings came while he was with the Giants. In those April starts, he allowed five earned runs over 10 2/3 innings and took one loss. In five career starts against the Phillies, Mahle is 1-2 with a 3.80 ERA.
Philadelphia will counter with Aaron Nola, whose numbers have also been uneven despite a better run of late. Nola is 6-10 with a 4.93 ERA overall, but he posted a 2.65 ERA across six August starts after opening the season with an ERA of 4.34 or worse in each of the first four months.
He comes in having allowed two or fewer runs in five straight outings. The long ball, though, has remained an issue. Nola gave up six home runs in August and has matched a career high with 32 homers allowed in 28 starts this season.
This will be the 40th time Nola faces the Braves in his career. He is 17-12 with a 3.80 ERA against Atlanta, but the Braves got him in their first meeting this season on April 26, when he was charged with six runs on seven hits in 4 2/3 innings.
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