Atlanta Braves Host Cubs After All-Star Break

The Atlanta Braves enter the second half of the 2015 MLB Season five games below .500 at 42-47 and in third place in the National League East. Even after a dreadful four game sweep in Denver at the hands of the Colorado Rockies, the 2015 Braves have played surprisingly well considering all the offseason blockbuster trades conducted by new President of Baseball Operations John Hart.

To begin the second half of the season, the Atlanta Braves welcome the up and coming Chicago Cubs (47-40) led by rookie phenom 3B Kris Bryant and new Manager Joe Maddon. Though the Cubbies are in third place in a very tough NL Central, Chicago at the moment possesses the sacred 2nd Wild Card spot in the National League. Whatever GM Theo Epstein is building on the Northside, it’s young and it’s starting to get scary good!

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The Atlanta Braves send RHP Julio Teheran (6-4, 4.56 ERA, 86 K’s) to the mound tonight to take on RHP Kyle Hendricks (4-4, 3.55 ERA, 79 K’s). It certainly has been a very up and down season for Julio Teheran. While he has had tremendous success at home (5-0, 2.04 ERA), Teheran’s struggles on the road are a growing concern (1-4, 6.95 ERA). Fortunately for Julio and the Atlanta Braves, this is a home stand for Atlanta and Teheran has yet to lose a game at Turner Field for the Braves in 2015. Here’s to keeping that trend well through this weekend.

A pair of lefties will square off in Atlanta Saturday night when rookie stud Manny Banuelos (1-0, 0.75 ERA, 9 K’s) takes on veteran ace Jon Lester who has not benefited from pitching in the Friendly Confines so far in 2015 (4-8, 3.59 ERA, 109 K’s). Lester is not getting any run support from the Cubs, losing each of his last six starts and is winless in his last ten. He actually has a longer winless drought than Shelby Miller by just one day. Miller has not won a game since May 17th. Lester last beat a team for the Cubbies on May 16th.

Banuelos will have an innings limit this season as Atlanta may choose to bring him out of the bullpen in the not so distant future. I know that Atlanta isn’t built to contend for a championship this year, but I do love watching Manny Banuelos pitch and don’t want to see him go the bullpen when Williams Perez comes off the DL. Could Fredi Gonzalez look into a six man rotation to keep innings limits on young arms for the rest of the season?

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In the series finale Sunday, we likely will have a great pitchers’ duel to enjoy. The Atlanta Braves send ace Shelby Miller (5-5, 2.38 ERA, 95 K’s) to the mound to challenge RHP Jake Arrieta (10-5, 2.66 ERA, 123 K’s). Expect Arrieta to come out guns-a-blazing as he was a major snub from this year’s Mid-Summer Classic. With those numbers, how did he not make Bruce Bochy‘s roster? Again Shelby Miller looks to end a painstakingly long winless drought on Sunday. Can the Atlanta Braves batting order for once give Shelby something to work with?

Given how things went down in Denver, I’m wondering where the Atlanta Braves’ heads are at after that senseless drubbing in the Mile High City before entering the All-Star Break. I really hope that one of the veteran leaders on this ball club takes it upon himself to elevate the morale in the locker room so this surprisingly fun 2015 Atlanta Braves team can get back to winning games and make this summer at least bearable for diehard members of Braves Country.

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