After a long and grueling road trip against some stiff competition, the Braves are finally back in Cobb County and ready to play a game at home for a change. They’ll be getting a change of pace from first-place teams as well, as the Braves will be hosting the Blue Jays for the first of a quick two-game series.

The Blue Jays will be visiting SunTrust Park on a bit of a down note after splitting a pair of games against the Mets and then dropping a series against the Yankees (which is the fashionable thing to do for everybody in baseball, I guess). The Blue Jays aren’t the best road team either, as they’ll be heading into tonight’s game with a 17-23 record away from the building formerly known as the Skydome.

Additionally, Toronto’s starter for the game will be trying to bounce back from a bad outing on his last time out. It’s been a rough season so far for Marcus Stroman and you could argue that giving up six runs on six hits and four walks against a poor Mets offense is probably the nadir of Stroman’s season. It hasn’t been all doom and gloom for Stroman this season, as he has shown flashes of what made him a reliable and solid arm in Toronto’s rotation for the past couple of seasons when he’s been healthy. Still, it would be nice to see Atlanta’s offense continue to reap pain and keep him down in the doldrums.

Speaking of hurlers who are having a rough go of it in 2018, Julio Teheran is taking the mound for the Braves tonight. The story of Julio’s season is that he just hasn’t been able to string together multiple good starts in a row and the constant in all of his starts is that he’s had to labor through all of them. He’s clearly trying to find a way to compensate for his drop in velocity and it’s been showing in each of his starts so far this season.

Teheran will have to be on high alert for Curtis Granderson and Russell Martin, who have fared pretty well against Julio in the past. Julio will also have to be concerned about Marcus Stroman himself, because this did happen last year.

I will eat one of my many Braves hats if Stroman manages to repeat that feat tonight but hopefully Julio Teheran will keep things on the safe side and keep the American League pitcher inside of the ballpark tonight. That would be pleasant.

In fact, it would be pleasant to see the Braves take care of business against a Jays team that is clearly different from what you see from them in the blue confines of Rogers Centre. Things have once again tightened up at the top of the NL East and if the Braves are going to stay at the top, they’ve got to pick up wins against opposition like the fourth-place team in the AL East.

Game Info

Game Date/Time: Tuesday, July 10, 7:35 PM ET

Location: SunTrust Park, Atlanta, GA

TV: Fox Sports Southeast

Streaming: MLB.tv

Radio: 680 AM / 93.7 FM, WYAY 106.7, Braves Radio Network