The off-day has come and gone and now it’s time to get back at it.

The off-day has come and gone and now it’s time for the Atlanta Braves to really get going as far as September goes. After dropping a tough four-game series to the Phillies, it’s time for Atlanta to put it behind them and focus on consolidating their position in the Wild Card as they return home to face off with the Colorado Rockies.

Chris Sale is starting tonight, which is always good news for the Braves since he has not just been Atlanta’s best starter this season but he’s been the best starter in baseball so far. Assuming nothing crazy happens between now and the end of the regular season, he’s very likely going to take home the NL Cy Young Award and it is impossible to say that he doesn’t deserve it. Ever since that inexplicable start where he gave up eight runs in four innings against the A’s, Sale has gone fourteen starts where the most earned runs he’s given up in each of those outings was two. In eight of those starts, he’s struck out at least nine batters. The most batters he’s walked in any given start this season is three. He has just been locked in all season and suffice to say, no team goes into a game with Sale exactly chomping at the bit to see him.

 

That is especially the case with the Rockies, who are coming into this game with baseball’s second-worst team wRC+ — both in general (83) and on the road as well (78). While we did get a glimpse of what this offense is capable of when they’re playing at Coors Field, this offense (as usual) is a completely different animal once you get them away from Denver. The Rockies as a team are hitting .220/.279/.364 with a .281 wOBA and the aforementioned team wRC+ of 78. Needless to say, this would be a massive upset if the Rockies were to come in here and rock Chris Sale. With Sale being such an intense competitor and the Braves being right in the middle of an intense fight for a Postseason spot, I’m expecting another great appearance from Sale this evening.

This is why the Rockies will be counting on Kyle Freeland to keep Atlanta’s lineup quiet in this one. While that is entirely possible since this current incarnation of the Braves are always prone to fall asleep at the plate against any given pitcher, the Braves will certain have to be on their toes since Freeland has actually not been bad at all over his past two starts. He got into the seventh while only giving up three runs (two earned) against the Yankees back on August 23 and then he pitched six innings where he only gave up two runs against the Marlins on August 28.

With that being said, the Padres shelled him for five runs over five inings on August 17 and then of course the Braves chased him from the game in the fourth inning when they saw him back on August 11. That start was the second of four starts in a row where he’d surrendered at least three runs to the other team. Freeland is not particularly dominant and I wouldn’t expect him to suddenly pull out the best performance of his season tonight. He’s heading into this game with a 117 ERA-, a 108 FIP- and a 105 xFIP-. The Braves have got to make something happen against this guy tonight.

Still, as both of these teams have shown us in the recent past, anything can happen in baseball. Kyle Freeland could become the lastest pitcher to utterly confuse Braves hitters and this could be the moment Chris Sale slips up. This could also play like the stats suggest and this could (should) be a big win for the Braves tonight. Either way, the Braves absolutely need this. This is the type of game that teams who are trying to make the Postseason absolutely have to have and hopefully we’ll see that level of urgency and execution from the Braves tonight.