Series Preview - Atlanta Braves
The Twins are just coming off an embarrassing series loss to the last place team in the NL East, the Washington Nationals, and now they’ll host the 2nd place Atlanta Braves. The Braves are 35-29 on the year and are just 2 games behind the division leading Mets. After losing 6 of 7 the Braves just won a couple straight games against the Cubbies.
This series is being hyped as the reunion of the 1991 World Series. The only player remaining since that series is John Smoltz, who won’t even pitch. Ron Gardenhire was the new third base coach that year and Bobby Cox remains as the manager 16 years later.
The pitching matchups for the series:
- Tuesday: Kyle Davis (3-4, 5.31) vs. Kevin Slowey (1-0, 4.09). Davis has been inconsistent. He’s mixed a few terrible starts in with some OK starts. Slowey will be making his 3rd career start
- Wednesday: Chuck James (5-5, 3.66) vs. Carlos Silva (3-7, 4.58). James is a lefty whose been mostly solid for the Braves this year. Silva is coming off his worst and shortest start of the year in which he allowed 7 runs in 3+ innings pitched.
- Thursday: Tim Hudson (6-4, 3.51) vs. Johan Santana (6-6, 3.24). Hudson has bounced back from a mediocre 2006 season. He’s coming off a short outing against the Cubs where he allowed 5 runs in 2 innings.
The biggest key of the series will be the Twins getting their bats working. Joe Mauer hopefully shook off the rust in his 1 for 9 series against the Nationals. Other guys that will need to get their bats going:
- Justin Morneau is batting .162 with just 1 extra base hit (a homerun) in the month. Sadly, the whole offense seems to slump when Justin slumps.
- Nick Punto and Jason Bartlett each had a good day at the plate on Sunday and they’ll need to keep that going. The Twins desperately need some production from the bottom of the lineup.
Offensively for the Braves Andruw Jones has been a bust so far in his contract year. He’s batting .221 with 11 homers and hasn’t shown any sign of improvement so far. Jeff Francoeur has led the offense with 44 RBIs. Edgar Renteria has also been an offensive stud with a .325 batting average and 9 homeruns. The most homers he’s had in a year was 16 in 2000.
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