The Atlanta Braves close out their regular-season home slate Thursday night with Tyler Mahle on the mound, and the right-hander has every reason to be one of the biggest stories of the finish line.
Mahle, acquired at the trade deadline in early August, is set for what should be his final tune-up before presumably taking the ball in Game 2 of the National League Wild Card Round next week. Since arriving in Atlanta, he has been outstanding: eight starts, a 1.28 ERA, 2.85 FIP and 3.27 xFIP. He’s also been sharp in the areas that matter most, piling up 44 strikeouts against just seven walks over 49 innings while allowing only four home runs.
That stretch has only added to what he was already doing before the trade. Since coming back from injury on June 24, Mahle has posted a 2.37 ERA, 3.19 FIP and 3.60 xFIP across 15 starts.
For a pending free agent, it’s been the kind of run that can change the conversation around his future. Whether that future includes Atlanta remains to be seen.
Cincinnati will send Brady Singer to the mound, and his season has gone the other way. The 30-year-old right-hander has struggled to the tune of a 5.67 ERA, 5.55 FIP and 4.67 xFIP, with home runs doing the most damage. Singer has given up 31 long balls in 154 innings, a glaring issue the Braves will look to exploit.
Atlanta’s offense hasn’t done much in the series so far, but this matchup gives the Braves a chance to wake up against a pitcher who has been vulnerable all year.
In Other News...
Braves Playoff Rotation Just Lost A Starter At The Worst Time
The Braves playoff rotation took a hit at the worst possible time Monday, when the club announced that Martn Prez is headed to the injured list with lower back inflammation. It is a late setback for a team trying to line up its pitching for October, and it leaves Atlanta with less breathing room than it wanted as the postseason gets underway.
Prez was in position to matter in the NL Wild Card Series, and his absence also carries over into the NLDS if the Braves advance. With only a short window to adjust, Atlanta now has to rethink how it wants to piece together its early-round pitching plans while waiting to see how the rotation picture settles. [Read more 🡒]
Braves Could Dangle Big Names To Fix A Roster Problem
The Braves have already wrapped up the NL East, but the work ahead in Atlanta is likely to be less about celebrating the division title and more about figuring out how to smooth out a roster issue that has lingered beneath the surface. With an offseason in front of them, the front office could have to weigh whether the cleanest path to improvement means moving from a position of depth or from a few recognizable names who still carry real value in the market.
Alex Lodise, Cam Caminiti, Eric Hartman, Ozzie Albies, Spencer Strider and Reynaldo Lopez are among the players mentioned as possible trade candidates, and each brings a different mix of recent performance and contract considerations that could shape how other clubs view them. For the Braves, the calculation is less about attaching a label to any one player and more about deciding which pieces are most useful in solving the problem at hand without weakening the core that got them back to the top of the division. [Read more 🡒]
Braves Leave Cincinnati With One Big October Concern
The Braves spent a weekend in Cincinnati with little left to decide in the standings, but plenty to monitor as October approaches. Ronald Acua Jr. left with a shin contusion, though the early tests came back clean, and Atlanta also got a mixed bag on the field with a shutout loss, a narrow extra-innings win and another close defeat. There were bright spots along the way, including work from pitchers JR Ritchie and Chris Sale, plus contributions from Matt Olson and Austin Riley, but the bigger picture was less about the record than about how the group is holding up.
For a club that already has its division and postseason position locked in, the final tune-ups are about health and rhythm, and Acuas status now sits at the center of that conversation. The Braves do not need to chase anything in the standings, which makes every late-game decision and every awkward step on the bases feel a little more important than usual, especially with October closing in and the margin for error shrinking in a different way. [Read more 🡒]