Atlanta third baseman Austin Riley brings a red-hot bat into the opener of a four-game homestand against the Cincinnati Reds on Monday.
Riley was 5-for-12 with a double, two homers and four RBIs in the weekend series against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Riley took over the club lead with eight homers and increased his team lead with 24 RBIs and a .292 batting average. In 23 career games against the Reds, Riley is hitting .352 with six homers and 14 RBIs.
“He’s using that gap-to-gap-type approach, and that’s a really good sign,” Atlanta manager Brian Snitker said.
Riley hit two homers in the series finale and helped the Braves beat the Dodgers 4-3 to salvage a game in the series. The win ended Atlanta’s three-game losing streak and allowed the Braves to beat L.A. for the first time in six games this season.
The Reds dropped a 4-1 decision to Washington on Sunday in the rubber game of their series. Despite those losses, Cincinnati has won seven of its last 11 games.
This is the first meeting of the season between the two clubs. The Reds won four of six from the Braves last season and swept a three-game series in Atlanta.
The pitching matchup for the series opener features Atlanta’s A.J. Smith-Shawver (1-2, 4.26 ERA) against Cincinnati’s Brady Singer (4-1, 3.24).
Singer will be making his seventh start. In his last outing against St. Louis on Wednesday, the right-hander took a loss despite allowing only one run over six innings. He has been consistently good all year, failing to cover five innings only once and not allowing more than three earned runs.
“It was a grind there,” Singer said after the loss. “It took me a while there but found a way to keep us in the game. Just trying to figure out a way to make good contact pitches.”
Singer is looking for his first career win against Atlanta. In two previous starts, he is 0-2 with an 8.18 ERA. He has 13 strikeouts in 11 innings against the Braves but has been touched up for five home runs.
Smith-Shawver will be making his fifth start. He earned his first win in his last outing on Tuesday at Colorado — his first career start at Coors Field — when he worked 5 1/3 innings and allowed two runs on four hits, one walk and five strikeouts. Smith-Shawver left the game as a precautionary measure after he was struck in the arm by a line drive.
“He threw a lot of strikes and moved the ball around,” Snitker said. “He was a little bit hard to hit at. He was mixing his pitches and moving it around pretty good.”
Smith-Shawver has made one start against the Reds and it did not go well. He pitched 3 1/3 innings and allowed five runs on four hits — three of them homers — in June 2023.
Cincinnati’s Elly De La Cruz has been a tough out for the Braves. In nine career games against Atlanta, the rangy shortstop is batting .395 with seven extra-base hits — including two homers — with six RBIs and five stolen bases.
–Field Level Media
