Braves look to get back to .500 behind Ian Anderson

If this headline seems familiar, that’s because the Atlanta Braves were in the same spot last Saturday. The Braves will have this chance at home against Miami, an opponent they have dominated in recent years, although a large portion of that domination is due to Ronald Acuña Jr., who is still down in Triple A. Anderson seemed to return to his old self last outing against the Padres. After a rough 2 2/3 inning outing in his season debut, in which he allowed five runs, following a bad end to spring training, Ian went 5 2/3 innings allowing one run, two hits, and a walk to go along with seven strikeouts against a good Padres lineup to get back on track. This Marlins lineup should be a much less difficult test for Anderson, who is still only 23 years old.

Elieser Hernandez will take the mound for Miami and is coming off his best start of the season. Hernandez strikes a decent number of hitters out, at over 9 K/9 every season since his rookie season, but he also gives up a lot of homers, with a career rate of 1.98 HR/9. Given the power that exists in this Braves lineup, that should be a good matchup for Atlanta. Hernandez throws his low 90s, low spin fastball about half of the time. He throws his best pitch, the slider about 35% of the time, and mixes in the occasional changeup the rest of the time.

It will be interesting to keep an eye on Dansby Swanson tonight at the plate, as he had some solid at-bats and outcomes on Friday night. Dansby going from horrendous to solid (or more likely, scalding hot, given his seemingly binary streakiness) would be very helpful to a Braves offense that has yet to really get going.

Game Info

Game Date/Time: Saturday, April 23, 7:20 p.m. ET

Location: Truist Park, Atlanta, Georgia

TV: Bally Sports South

Streaming: MLB.tv

Radio: 680 AM / 93.7 FM The Fan