Atlanta Braves at Washington Nationals preview: Mike Minor faces Stephen Strasburg
By Brad Rowland
In the wake of the unfortunate Gavin Floyd injury, there is a great deal of doom and gloom surrounding the Atlanta Braves at the moment. However, there is an insanely intriguing pitching match-up on the horizon for game two of the four-game series against the Washington Nationals, as Mike Minor squares off against the always electric Stephen Strasburg.
Minor has struggled a bit in his last two outings, allowing a combined 22 (!) hits across nine innings, but with his sizable track record of success, there is little reason for worry. Prior to those two ugly performances, Minor allowed two combined runs to the Seattle Mariners and Boston Red Sox over 14 innings, and while the Nationals lineup looks a bit scary on paper, they haven’t performed in a way that should frighten Braves fans for Friday night.
On the side of Washington, Strasburg is one of the more “famous” pitchers in all of baseball, and with good reason. He is really good. The 25-year-old has a 2.98 career ERA across 528.1 innings in the big leagues, and his strikeout rate of 10.5 per 9 innings is absolutely elite, especially for starting pitcher. However, the Braves have some mild success against him when compared to other organizations. Strasburg has a 3.86 career mark in ERA against Atlanta in 13 starts, and earlier this season, the Braves roughed him up for 6 runs (3 earned) across just 4.1 innings.
It doesn’t get much better than Stephen Strasburg versus Mike Minor for the division lead, but that is what we have on Friday evening in the nation’s capital.
Here is a look at the particulars for Friday:
Date: June 20, 2014
Start Time: 7:05 pm ET
TV Channel: Fox Sports South
Radio: 680 AM/106.7 FM (Local in Atlanta), Full list of Local Affiliates
Live Stream: MLB.tv (Click Here, $)
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