The Braves are confronted with the Marlins in a Double Header, with Hurston Waldrep started the first game and Erick Fedde started the second.
Hurston Waldrep will make a backup of what was a good start against the Reds earlier in the week. He only allowed one point and covered 5.2 innings with only 2 free running, but he had a pretty silly 4 strikeouts that he will want to improve. His start showed a very different pitcher than last year, with new mechanics to help his command and a dramatically different pitch mix. He threw away the four-seater for a zinc shed and a hard cutter, while he dropped his slider use in favor of his curveball. I am nice to emphasize the curveball more than the slider, because it has an impressive movement for the relatively high speed as far as curveballs go. The Snijder is an interesting pitch, but the zinc shed is not much to write home about, except to add a small movement to its very flat foursman. Hopefully the Command Boost and New Pitch Mix Hurston can enable a home for themselves at the Major League level and use that splitter he is known for.
Ryan Gusto will start for Miami and he has a fairly interesting season as a 26 -year -old Rookie, who act as a solid back of the Rotation Starter mainly for Houston before he lands on the trade theadline in Miami. Gusto has a solid but non-spectacular strikeout and walking speeds and throws six throws with a nice turnout on his four-year-old from the mid-90s, good cut on his cutter and a strong drop on his Curveball.
For Atlanta, they are currently usually playing the string that 15 games behind a playoff spot and 18 games back in the division. Proud and selling tickets are almost everything they still have to play for in 2025.
Pin date/time: Saturday, August 9, 1.15 pm Edt
Location: Truist Park, Atlanta, High
TV: Fanduel Sports South, Fanduel Sports Southeast, Gray TV
Radio: 680 AM / 93.7 FM De Ventilator
Erick Fedde takes the hill in the second game for the Braves, opposite the former Cy Young winner Sandy Alcantara for the Marlins.
Fedde will probably only be a brave for two months and is a veteran at the moment, but the Braves seem to let him throw his zinc shed a little more and his sweeper a little less, so that is a tendency that is worth keeping an eye on. None of his arsenal is generally particularly impressive, despite some good expansion. Otherwise he has generally been bad this year and he is here to eat innings at the Majors for this Atlanta team that erased his rotation due to injury.
Alcantara is far away from his former Cy Young winner himself. He missed the entire last season because of an injury, but the warning signals even appeared in 2023, when his strikeouts fell. He has more or less maintained his speed, but his strikeouts have fallen even more this season, under 7 K/9 innings and his groundball rate is also a decent piece (~ 7%), while his walks have risen. That is a very bad combination for a man approaching 30 who has never had large strikeout things and has been familiar with pitching to make contact with speed and avoiding walks.
Despite the struggles of Alcantara, the Marlins may remain the surprise team of the National League this season, sitting one match below .500 and only 5.5 games back from a wildcard place when we touch the home edition of the season. If you had told fans in March that this series would contain one team on this point in the season with a lot to play and the other team just went through the movements, it would not have been so surprising, but nobody saw the Marlins the first and the Braves were the last.
Pin date/time: Saturday, August 9, 7.15 pm Edt
Location: Truist Park, Atlanta, High
TV: Fanduel Sports South, Fanduel Sports Southeast, Gray TV
Radio: 680 AM / 93.7 FM De Ventilator
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