Braves seek first win of season as they face Nick Pivetta and the Padres
It’s been a rough start for the Braves so far.
I have a toddler, and toddlers … are messy. They are the smallest living beings in the house, but they make, by far, the most mess. They’re at the perfect intersection of being able to do things for themselves, but they are also not good enough at any of them to be fully trusted. They knock things over. They spill things on the floor and themselves. It’s incredible.
Mark, seriously, where is this going?
Oh yeah, I need to go sweep.
And the Atlanta Braves need to avoid being swept.
AJ Smith-Shawver gets the unenviable task of stopping the season-opening three-game slide, and the Braves have been bad. They’re currently in the bottom 10 (22nd) in runs and the bottom 10 in ERA (21st), and the bullpen has been the 7th worst in baseball so far. And the eye test hasn’t been much better as they haven’t really seemed to threaten the Padres much, even though the Braves are back to being 2nd in average exit velocity with nothing to show for it.
Back to AJSS, he’ll get his seventh major-league start after a solid spring where he had a 20:5 K:BB ratio and a sub 4 (though just slightly) ERA over 16 innings. His last two seasons have been a bit up-and-down. He misses plenty of bats, but he also walks too many people. And while he’s been in the majors and on the doorstep of a full-time rotation spot, he’s never quite been able to put enough together to really solidify his hold. He’s in danger of being passed up by some other pitching prospects (and has already been by Spencer Schwellenbach), but a good spring will give him his shot in 2025.
