dailyloe.com – The Atlanta Braves host the Miami Marlins tonight, riding high from another explosive offensive game. The Braves are now the only team in Major League Baseball yet to lose a series this season. They ended the Cleveland Guardians’ similar streak. This matchup features the two teams fighting for first place in their division.
Grant Holmes will start for the Braves, hoping to continue his strong start to the season. He faces a Marlins offense averaging 4.38 runs per game. That run production places Miami in the top half of MLB teams.
Holmes has posted a 2.55 ERA over 17.2 innings pitched this year. He also maintains a 1.08 WHIP. His strikeout-to-walk ratio is fourteen to eight. Holmes has limited hard contact well, with a 28.6 percent hard-hit rate.
That hard-hit rate ranks in the top 17.0 percent of all MLB pitchers. His expected ERA, or xERA, is 3.20. This statistic indicates he has been slightly lucky but still very effective. Holmes has shown a weakness when facing hitters for a third time in a game.
Hitters bat .091/.259/.227 against him the first time through the order. The second time, they hit .192/.222/.346. The third time, batters hit .214/.313/.286 against him. An OPS of .598 the third time through is not bad, but he walks more hitters then.
Holmes has been a key performer in a Braves rotation hit by injuries. Only five Marlins players have faced him before, in limited opportunities. Xaiver Edwards leads the team with seven at-bats against Holmes but has a .393 OPS.
Otto Lopez and Liam Hicks each have one hit off Holmes in two at-bats. The Marlins will start fireballer Eury Pérez. Pérez’s fastball averages 98.3 miles per hour. He has a 5.056 ERA and a 4.98 xERA so far this season.
Pérez had a 3.23 xERA last season, creating high hopes among Marlins fans. He has struggled with command, with a 26.4 percent overall chase rate. Hitters are making hard contact against him 42.9 percent of the time. That hard-hit rate is in the bottom 35.0 percent of MLB pitchers.[]
Source: Battery Power
