Padres at Braves Preview: Ervin Santana up for final game

After losing the first game of their series against the San Diego Padres, the Atlanta Braves have turned the series around, winning the next two games. In the final game, the team will look to Ervin Santana to lead them to a third win and a series clenching victory. The Padres counter with converted pitcher and former outfielder Jason Lane.

Let’s jump right into this matchup.

The Pitching Matchup:

After going through a bit of a rough stretch in May and June, Santana has settled down quite a bit throughout th entire month of July. For the month, Santana is looking at a 3.25 ERA, 3.06 FIP and 3.60 xFIP while holding batters to a .242 average. His strikeout-to-walk numbers aren’t back up to the ridiculous levels of April, but he is posting a solid K/BB of 3.10.

Jason Lane will be making his first major league start today, and that marks a long process for him of converting from the outfield to the pitcher’s mound. He does have 4.1 major league innings under his belt this year, but for the sake of sample size, we’re going to have to look at his Triple-A numbers. He threw 115.2 innings for the Padres Triple-A squad and wound up with a 4.67 ERA and 4.70 FIP. He struck out next to no one (4.90 per nine innings), but also walked next to no one (1.71 per nine) while allowing a .302 batting average and .327 BABIP.

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