Charlie Morton, Braves continue series against Padres

The Braves suffered their second loss of the season with some bad sequencing luck, as Jared Shuster struggled again early in his outing. The Braves simply didn’t get a hit to fall in at the right moment, despite drawing a bunch of walks. The first two games of this series have been back and forth thrillers with fairly high run totals and decided by one run each. These two teams are clearly each of a high quality though, and it would be both unsurprising and entertaining to see this matchup again in October. The series currently sits at 1-1 with two games to go between these two top quality teams.

For Saturday’s matchup, the veteran Charlie Morton returns to the mound for Atlanta. Charlie hasn’t had quite the same effectiveness since he infamously broke his leg in the World Series, as his home run rate took a big jump in 2022. His first start of the season wasn’t great, but it was mostly a result of a lack of strikeouts and some bad sequencing.

Michael Wacha, on the other hand, is not great. He has had a FIP of some degree above 4.00 for the last five seasons, but his 2022 was a solid, if unspectacular year for the veteran. He hasn’t had a particularly high strikeout rate over his career but has historically been solid. He managed 6 innings in his first start of 2023, but gave up four runs and a homer, without striking out many batters. Wacha should be a prime target for the Braves’ powerful offense, which is good because the Padres have a strong offense of their own.

The Braves have been playing very good baseball so far this season and hopefully they can continue to play well against this tough opponent.

Game Info

Game Date/Time: Saturday, April 8, 7:20 p.m. ET

Location: Truist Park, Atlanta, Georgia

TV: Bally Sports Southeast, MLB Network

Streaming: MLB.tv

Radio: 680 AM / 93.7 FM The Fan