Kyle Wright, Braves look to begin road trip on a good note

The Atlanta Braves will begin a nine-game road trip Saturday when they open a three-game set against the Philadelphia Phillies. The series was originally scheduled to start on Friday, but the game was canceled early due to inclement weather. The teams will now play Saturday, have a doubleheader on Sunday and then wrap up the series on Monday.

Kyle Wright will be on the mound for the Braves on Saturday and will be looking to put it all together in his third start of the season. Wright has shown flashes through his first two outings. He looked dominant breezing through the first two innings of his debut in Tampa before the wheels came off in the third inning. Wright pitched into and out of trouble in his second start against the Mets allowing five hits and four walks but ran his pitch count up over 3 1/3 scoreless innings. Wright’s success hinges on his ability to command his four seamer and that is the area that needs to be shored up the most heading into Saturday’s start.

The Phillies will counter with right-hander Jake Arrieta who will be making his second start of the season. Arrieta battled through an injury plagued 2019 season. He was a little bit behind the rest of Philadelphia’s starters but made his debut this past Monday against the Yankees where he allowed seven hits, three runs and a pair of homers in five innings. Arrieta faced the Braves twice in 2019 allowing five runs in 11 innings.

Philadelphia’s J.T. Realmuto (.335/.385/.708), Bryce Harper (.250/.464/.550) and Didi Gregorius (.292/.346/.592) have gotten off to good starts at the plate and the Phillies are third in the league with a 120 wRC+ as a team. It is not as pretty on the pitching side of things where Philadelphia’s pitching staff ranks 24th in the league with a 4.72 FIP. The bullpen has been a big part of those struggles posting a 7.89 ERA (5.67 FIP) through the early going.

Atlanta will be without Ozzie Albies and Matt Adams for the first part of the road trip after they were placed on the injured list earlier this week. Nick Markakis returned to the lineup has since returned to the lineup and delivered a walk-off home run in Thursday’s win over the Blue Jays. In Thursday’s win, Brian Snitker went with an outfield alignment of Adam Duvall in left, Ronald Acuña Jr. in center and Markakis in right and hinted that he may stick with that for a while.

First pitch from Philly Saturday is scheduled for 6:05 p.m. ET and can be seen on Fox Sports Southeast.

Game Info

Game Date/Time: Saturday, August 8, 6:05 p.m. ET

Location: Citizens Bank Park, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

TV: Fox Sports Southeast

Streaming: MLB.tv

Radio: 680 AM / 93.7 FM The Fan, WNNX 100.5, Braves Radio Network