Having taken care of business in San Francisco, the Atlanta Braves will look to complete a winning trip when they open a three-game series against the Los Angeles Angels on Friday night in Anaheim, Calif.
With three wins in four games at San Francisco, the Braves built their lead to two games over the New York Mets in the multi-team race for the final National League wild-card spot.
Atlanta manager Brian Snitker was less bothered by a 6-0 loss in San Francisco on Thursday, a result that prevented a four-game sweep, than he was by two defeats in three days at Colorado to start the trip.
It was that stretch that helped bring the Mets, Giants and Cincinnati Reds closer in the chase, while also breathing life into the St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago Cubs.
“We had probably our lowest point of the year and followed that with three (wins) in a row,” Snitker said. “I think that’s good. You hate to lose any game this time of year. Every game is important.”
The Braves flew south knowing that center fielder Michael Harris II appears fully recovered from a hamstring injury that kept him out two months. He hit a grand slam and drove in a career-best five runs on Wednesday in a win at San Francisco before getting one of Atlanta’s four hits on Thursday.
Jarred Kelenic also had hits in the final two games of the Giants series. That is an important occurrence in that it appears the left-handed hitter will be subbing at least part of the weekend for Jorge Soler, who sustained a hamstring tweak on Wednesday.
An MRI taken Thursday showed no significant damage, and it’s likely Soler will be ready for action by the time the Braves return home on Tuesday for the start of a key series against the Philadelphia Phillies.
The Braves are likely to see three right-handers in Anaheim, starting with Jose Soriano (6-7, 3.36 ERA) in the series opener.
The 25-year-old likely won’t mind seeing another NL East team after having dominated two others — the New York Mets and Washington Nationals — in his past two outings. Soriano allowed just one run and nine hits over 12 innings in those games, striking out 13 and walking three.
He was denied a win in his most recent start at Washington because he received just two runs of support. The Angels have lost five of their past six games, getting held to two or fewer runs four times in that span.
Angels manager Ron Washington expects a more energetic offensive attack against the Braves after sitting three key weapons — Logan O’Hoppe, Zach Neto and Jo Adell — on Wednesday ahead of Thursday’s scheduled day off.
“Neto is the only one that complained,” Washington said. “He wrote me a long note about how he doesn’t need a day off and wanted to grind with everybody else. Sometimes you’ve just got to take it out of their hands.”
Soriano has faced just seven Braves batters in his career, all coming in a scoreless four-out relief appearance last season.
Braves rookie right-hander Spencer Schwellenbach (4-5, 3.95 ERA) will be facing the Angels for the first time. He has pitched well in his past three starts, going 1-0 with a 2.25 ERA while striking out 28 in 20 innings.
–Field Level Media
