After a sweep of the Pittsburgh Pirates where they were able get through without facing Paul Skenes, the Atlanta Braves are headed to Chicago where the Acuña brothers will be facing off.
Grant Holmes will be taking the mound, and as we have seen, he tends to run out of gas after going through the lineup twice. A big question mark is after an off day if Didier Fuentes will be available for long relief if needed. A combo of Holmes and Fuentes in the same game seems to be a solid strategy of it can be done.
So far this season Holmes has an ERA of 3.86 and FIP of 1.317, which are both right on par with the rest of his career. However, his 21.2 percent strikeout rate is the worst of his career, and his expected ERA (xERA) of 4.49 shows he is due for some regression. He has been particularly fortunate with a left on base percentage of 83.3 when his career average is 79.2, and his BABIP against him is .256, which is lower than his career .287.
Oddly, it is the second time a hitter faces him in a game when he struggles, not the third. Hitters are averaging an OPS of .569 the first time they see him, a 1.010 the second time, and a .519 the third. Nine of his twelve HRs that he has given up have been during the second time through the order. It will be interesting to see how Walt
Weiss handles him moving forward.
Only two players on the entire White Sox active roster have faced Holmes, and neither have more than two at-bats. Coincidentally it is Ronald Acuña’s brother, Luisangel, who has those two at-bats and he is hitless. Randal Grichuk is hitless in his one at-bat.
Like the Pirates that the Braves just swept, the White Sox are a team that have been surprisingly good on offense. They are fourth in MLB in HRs, and seventh in total runs per game. Good news for the Braves is they are bottom ten in ERA with a 4.38 right behind their crosstown rivals, the Cubs.
Former Braves pitcher Erick Fedde was originally slated to take the mound for the Braves. But then it was announced that Brandon Eisert will be opening. Eisert held Atlanta hitless last season in 1.1 innings and has had a solid year thus far in 14.0 innings. This season he has a 3.21 ERA, 2.97 FIP, and a 1.214 WHIP. He also has fifteen strikeouts to only five walks.
Based on Fedde originally slotted to start, it can be guessed that he will be following Eisert. Fedde’s time with the Braves is probably time that he would like to forget when he had an ERA of 8.10 in 23.1 innings in 2025. Fedde is not exactly doing well this season either. He currently sports an ERA of 4.94 and an xERA of 4.50. His xERA is in the bottom 33.0 percent of MLB. He is only striking out 14.2 hitters which is in the bottom 4.0 percent of MLB and is walking 9.4 percent, which is in the worst 40.0 percent.
On paper, the Braves’ offense should be licking their chops should they get to face Fedde, but we never truly know with the great game of baseball what will happen. Ronald Acuña and Austin Riley have had the best success against Fedde on the team. In nineteen at-bats Acuña has three HRs, a .316 average, and a 1.277 OPS. In twenty- two at-bats Riley has a .982 OPS with one HR. Another player to keep an eye on is Michael Harris. We already know he is on fire this year, but in his nine at-bats against Fedde he has a .667 average and 1.445 OPS. As far as Eisert goes, there is not enough data to really draw any conclusions, but based on his 14.0 innings this year, the Braves need to get him off the mound as fast as they can to move on to the other pitchers on the White Sox roster.
First pitch is at 7:40 EDT
Game Time: Friday, June 9th, 7:40 pm EDT
Location: Rate Field, , Chicago, IL
Watch: BravesVision / Gray TV
Radio/Audio: 680 AM / 93.7 FM The Fan
