After a solid team victory to start the series behind Bryce Elder on Monday, the Braves will hope to secure a series win in a battle of fifth starters behind Jose Suarez, facing Aaron Civale. Suarez wasn’t supposed to be in the starting rotation, and perhaps might have missed the Opening Day roster were it not for the well documented torrent of pitching injuries that hit the Braves this spring. As it is, however, the Braves will turn to Suarez, the picture of a replacement-level pitcher for the last turn of their rotation. Fortunately, however, the Braves are 3-1 and will have Chris Sale back on the mound to finish out the series on Wednesday, so you feel good about them being 4-2 or 5-1 by the end of the series, even with Suarez on the mound. At his best, Jose limits walks and induces ground balls to get by with a below average strikeout rate.
The Braves offense will be facing Aaron Civale, the former Guardians righty. He had a nice 2023 season and the Guardians sold high on him, but he has never been able to replicate that level since. He’s been pretty much a solid fifth starter the last couple seasons. He pitches primarily off of a ~90 MPH cutter, but mixes in six total pitches, the best of which is probably his curveball. Civale does well to keep his walks down, but doesn’t strike particularly many batters out and doesn’t induce a particularly large number of ground balls. He’s certainly nothing the Braves should be afraid of, but he is a real MLB pitcher.
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The A’s were billed as a team with a very promising offense and pitching challenges, but the offense hasn’t really broken out yet this season, aside from seven runs in a loss to Toronto and they have yet to win a game. That said, they do seem to have some talented bats, headlined by Nick Kurtz, and there’s always a risk of allowing an offensive explosion when you are throwing out a pitcher like Jose Suarez, though the Braves avoided that with Bryce Elder on Monday. Hopefully Jose can avoid disaster today and hand the ball over to the steady left hand of Chris Sale tomorrow with a series sweep opportunity.
Game Info
Game Date/Time: Tuesday, March 31st, 7:15 p.m. ET
Location: Truist Park, Atlanta, GA
TV: BravesVision, Gray TV
Streaming: Braves.TV
Radio: 680 AM / 93.7 FM The Fan
