The Atlanta Braves are coming off of a sweep of Houston and take aim at the other Texas team today. The Braves will send Chris Sale to the mound against Andrew Heaney at 7:20 EDT at Truist Park in Atlanta.
The Atlanta Braves are 12-5 while the Rangers are coming off of a series victory over the Detroit Tigers to move to 11-9 on the season.
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The game will be broadcast on Apple TV+ tonight.
Chris Sale vs. Rangers Hitters
Marcus Semien has 15 of the Rangers 26 career at-bats against Chris Sale. This isn’t a good sample size to draw conclusions from. The Rangers have a solid lineup but it is worth noting that they have struggled against lefties this season. They are slashing .234/.314/.348 against southpaws. Don’t read too much into that small sample size, they posted a .788 OPS vs. lefties last year.
Marcus Semien is 4-15 in his career vs. Chris Sale with two home runs. Four other Rangers have two at-bats against Sale and one has three. The rest of the Rangers’ roster has never faced the lefty. This could be a good thing.
Sale has looked very good for the Braves this year. Early season ERAs can fluctuate violently but he looks fully healthy and is still capable of dominating. Take a look at the red on his Statcast Page:
The Rangers are one of the better teams in the league at avoiding strikeouts with just 7.25 K/9 (4th best in MLB). Texas is scoring the ninth-most runs per game at 5.15.
Chris Sale has struck out no more than seven and no less than six this season. As you might imagine, his line on strikeouts for this game is 6.5. I lean toward liking the over on that considering most of the Rangers haven’t seen much of Sale, if any at all. However, it’s not worth the risk for me. I’m rooting for Sale but not betting on his player props tonight.
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