Cody Snavely
The Los Angeles Dodgers are heading out on their second-to-last road trip of the 2024 Major League Baseball regular season, this time heading back to the East Coast for seven games. First, the Dodgers will take on the Atlanta Braves for a four-game wraparound series.
It is the second meeting between the two National League postseason contenders since early May when Los Angeles swept Atlanta in a short three-game series. However, unlike last time, the Dodgers will be without two of their top starting pitchers, Tyler Glasnow and Gavin Stone, who won both their games in that first series.
The Dodgers have been playing great baseball despite a slight bump in the road. In their last two series, they split a two-game set with their Freeway rival, the Los Angeles Angels, and lost two of three to the red-hot Chicago Cubs, who are fighting for their postseason lives every day.
The Dodgers are modestly .500 over their last ten games, winning five, but since August 1st, they have won twenty-three of their thirty-six games, which is second in all of Major League Baseball behind the Chicago Cubs (23-12).
The Dodgers enter this season with their magic number to clinch the National League West at twelve with only sixteen games remaining.
Entering this late in the season, the Atlanta Braves are in unfamiliar territory. They are in third place in the National League East, a division they have won every season since 2018, and are a full game behind the New York Mets in the third and final National League wild-card spot.
This is a much different Braves team that had won back-to-back one-hundred-win seasons as they have lost the 2023 National League Most Valuable Player in Ronald Acuña Jr. (ACL), top starting pitcher Spencer Strider (UCL), and third baseman Austin Riley.
Overall, the Atlanta Braves have placed twenty players on the injured list this season, which is fifth in Major League Baseball, even under the Los Angeles Dodgers, who have placed twenty-five players on the injured list this season and have lost a total of 1982 days on there, the most in baseball.
As the Dodgers head to Atlanta, they will face a team fighting for a postseason spot. The Braves, despite their challenges, are determined and will create a postseason-like atmosphere in their stadium.
Pitching match-ups
Game One: Landon Knack (2-3, 3.00 ERA) vs Spencer Schwellenbach (5-7, 3.78 ERA)
Game Two: Jack Flaherty (12-6, 2.86 ERA) vs Chris Sale (16-3, 2.38 ERA)
Game Three: Walker Buehler (1-5, 5.95 ERA) vs Charlie Morton (8-8, 4.11 ERA)
Game Four: Yoshinobu Yamamoto (6-2, 2.88 ERA) vs Max Fried (LHP)(9-9, 3.46 ERA)
Game Times
Game One: 4:20 PM PT, Apple TV+
Game Two: 4:20 PM PT, SNLA, Bally Sports Southeast, MLBN (out-of-market only)
Game Three: 4:00 PM PT, ESPN Sunday Night Baseball
Game Four: 4:20 PM PT, SNLA, Bally Sports Southeast, MLBN (out-of-market only)
Who’s in & who’s out?
The Los Angeles Dodgers will be without left-handed relief pitcher Anthony Banda as the lefty was placed on the 15-day injured list prior to the series finale against the Chicago Cubs.
Banda, who has been one of the Dodgers’ most dependable bullpen arms since his arrival from the Cleveland Guardians via trade after the lefty was DFA’d, will now miss an extended period of time after self-injuring his left hand and causing a fracture.
In his place, the Dodgers have activated right-handed pitcher Brusdar Graterol, who was recovering from a low-grade hamstring strain suffered in early August.
The Dodgers activated right-handed pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto in the same series. He made his first start since mid-June, pitching four solid innings, allowing one run on four hits, and collecting eight strikeouts on the night. He will likely make his second start and first on the road during this series.
Right-handed pitcher Joe Kelly is set to go on a minor league rehab assignment this weekend and could rejoin the Dodgers in Miami after this four-game set against the Braves next week.
Turning back to the starting rotation, the Dodgers are hopeful that veteran lefty Clayton Kershaw and hard-throwing right-hander Tyler Glasnow can return before the end of the regular season.
Glasnow, who has now thrown two bullpen sessions since being placed on the 15-day injured list in late August due to right elbow tendonitis, will face live hitters this weekend in Atlanta and could rejoin the team on their next homestand.
Prior to this crucial series the Atlanta Braves are losing another arm in their starting rotation as right-handed pitcher Reynaldo López has been placed on the 15-day injured list with right shoulder inflammation after being removed from his start in Washington after just one inning. In his absence the Braves have recalled righty Daysbel Hernández.
Joining Hernández will be old friend Cavan Biggio who was also recalled from the Braves Triple-A team.
Biggio, who was acquired from the Giants organization following Whit Merrifield‘s foot fracture, has posted a .622 OPS in 74 games between the Blue Jays and Dodgers this season, and slashed .167/.397/.313 over 13 games between Triple-A Sacramento and Triple-A Gwinnett.
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