After playing their first week of games in dreary weather, the Atlanta Braves are now ready to play regular season baseball in the pleasant and (relatively) warmer confines of Truist Park, where they will face the Arizona Diamondbacks tonight.
While the Braves were unable to play their series finale on the South Side of Chicago, Spencer Strider’s next start was moved from Wednesday to Friday, and he will now be able to declare that he started both Opening Day and the home opener just over a week later. In any case, it’s usually a terrific day when this guy takes the mound, and his start on Opening Day was actually quite good – five innings pitched, eight strikeouts, two walks, and three singles allowed. Unfortunately, one of those hits was a two-run homer during a tough fifth inning that signaled the end of his day, but apart from that poor inning, it was the type of performance that we’re used to.
While the Braves were unable to play their series finale on the South Side of Chicago, Spencer Strider’s next start was moved from Wednesday to Friday, and he will now be able to declare that he started both Opening Day and the home opener just over a week later. In any case, it’s usually a terrific day when this guy takes the mound, and his start on Opening Day was actually quite good – five innings pitched, eight strikeouts, two walks, and three singles allowed. Unfortunately, one of those hits was a two-run homer during a tough fifth inning that signaled the end of his day, but apart from that poor inning, it was the type of performance that we’re used to.
In 2023, Ronald Acuña Jr. smashed a stunning home run onto the Chase Field concourse, making the game memorable. Hopefully, Acuña will start the new baseball season at Truist Park by hitting a comparable distance tonight! It’s a lot to expect of any player, but this guy can handle it.
One of the pitchers that Acuña will have a chance against is Arizona’s starter for the night, Tommy Henry. This’ll be the first time that Henry has faced the Braves and he’s coming off of a performance at home against the Rockies where he ended up in the “loss” column after giving up six hits (including a homer from Ezequiel Tovar) and five earned runs to Colorado. Needless to say, it was an inauspicious start to the season for Henry — especially since the Diamondbacks need him to step up in the absence of Eduardo Rodriguez. Henry didn’t exactly have the best spring training results either and while you can usually toss that to the wayside once the real games get started, you really don’t want to carry a rough spring into a rough start to the season — especially when it comes to giving up runs against the road version of the Rockies.
That is not to suggest that the Braves should not take him seriously as a pitcher; everyone is in The Show for a reason, and Henry’s reason is that his breaking stuff is extremely good. He has a sinker, a slider, and a particularly strong changeup, which earned him a Whiff percentage of 33.3 percent last season. He also has a four-seamer that can reach 91 miles per hour on a good day. In fact, it’s the four-seamer that normally gets him in trouble; it’s the pitch he hung in the zone, allowing Tovar to hit his game-tying homer.
