The Braves didn’t get the off day they might have wanted in the middle of this stretch, but they do get another shot at stopping the skid in Chicago, where Grant Holmes will take the ball in the makeup game against the White Sox.
Atlanta arrives at 74-53 after getting swept in Minnesota, a frustrating follow-up to back-to-back series losses to the Diamondbacks and Twins. That’s made the road trip feel heavier, especially with a run of first-place opponents coming up next.
The Marlins didn’t offer any help, either, getting swept by the Phillies and trimming Atlanta’s division lead to 4.5 games. That eight-game winning streak from not long ago suddenly feels like a distant memory.
Still, the Braves keep saying the same thing: one game at a time. And this one matters, even if it’s just a makeup date from June, when Atlanta left Rate Field after two painful losses with a 45-23 record and a promise to return in August for the final game of the series.
Holmes gets the assignment after AJ Smith-Shawver’s return to the rotation forced some shuffling. Chris Sale was the original expected starter for a second look at the Sox, but Holmes will instead get the nod.
He comes in at 7-5 with a 3.82 ERA, and his month has already had two very different sides to it. He opened August with back-to-back scoreless six-inning outings that made people rethink a few things said around the trade deadline.
Then came the rough outing against Arizona: 3.2 innings, six hits, six earned runs, a homer, three walks, and three strikeouts. He threw 65 pitches, with 31 in the zone and nine hard-hit balls in fair territory.
Even after that rough patch, manager Weiss backed him. And with Atlanta’s recent pattern of starters doing enough to keep things close only to watch the offense leave them stranded, Holmes doesn’t need perfection - just a clean enough outing to give the Braves a chance.
There are a few familiar names in the White Sox matchup history. Former Rockie Brenton Doyle has the most at-bats against Holmes with five, and he’s hit .200 with a 1.133 OPS and a homer.
Miguel Vargas has the other home run off Holmes. Munetaka Murakami wasn’t part of the June meeting because of his hamstring strain, and the hope now is simple: no home run No. 30 against Atlanta today.
Chicago will send left-hander Anthony Kay to the mound. Kay is 9-5 with a 4.01 ERA and signed a two-year deal with the Sox in December after two seasons with the Yokohama Bay Stars in Japan.
Since then, he’s adjusted his mix for MLB hitters, leaning on a tweaked changeup and sweeper to help his four-seam fastball and cutter play better. He also uses a sinker fairly often and a slider the least.
The Braves have seen Kay plenty, too. Lane Thomas has the strongest line against him at .444, with nine at-bats, most of them from his time with the Royals earlier this season.
Matt Olson has two at-bats against Kay, while Ozzie Albies, Sean Murphy, Austin Riley, and Dominic Smith have each faced him once. Murphy is 1-for-1 with a single, and Smith’s lone meeting with Kay produced a grand slam in a Mets-Jays game in 2020.
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Murphys track record is part of why the discussion keeps circling back to him. When healthy, he has shown the kind of production that makes him look like more than just a part-time catcher, and the argument for getting him into the lineup more often is hard to ignore. The question now is whether Atlanta keeps handling things this way, or whether the recent debate pushes the Braves toward a setup that better matches their offensive ceiling. [Read more 🡒]