​I’ve never been more grateful for my own inability to hang than I am right now; I slept through last night’s rain-soaked resumption, and it seems that was for the best. Yesterday’s delay offered plenty of time to fret about postponement logistics and radar forecasts for the weekend’s remaining games, but today’s matchup at Busch Stadium comes with a more hopeful forecast: Dugout Radar is predicting only about a 14% delay risk for the rest of the day. Let’s try to level the series, especially with the All-Star break looming on the horizon. Maybe two straight series wins are asking a lot, but a little help from Reynaldo López could go a long way.
López (4-1, 3.18 ERA) is aiming to keep stacking solid starts. Since returning to the rotation on June 21, he’s steadily increased his pitch count and has delivered five consecutive appearances allowing one earned run or fewer. His first five-inning outing back was against these same Cardinals at Truist Park on July 1, a game tied to the famous Ozzie Albies wink. In that 69-pitch effort, López yielded two hits and a single earned run in the opening frame, then shut the door for the next four innings. The only other baserunner he allowed was a walk, and he struck out six as Albies and the late rally did the heavy lifting to secure López’s first win since June 7. He followed up with another strong five-inning performance in Monday’s series finale against the Mets, throwing 80 pitches. His only blemish was a leadoff homer in the second inning, but after two singles, two free passes to Juan Soto, and five strikeouts, the night was done—though the Braves unfortunately fell in a frustrating finish.
Opposing López will be Matthew Liberatore (4-6, 5.34 ERA). June was rough for Liberatore, but the Braves didn’t capitalize on his struggles in that stretch, as Jorge Mateo delivered the lone hit and scored on a sacrifice fly, while four walks and nine strikeouts complicated their plans. In Liberatore’s last start against the Cubs, he worked five innings but was charged with four hits, three earned runs, three hit batsmen, and two walks in the loss. July’s Braves have shown a sharper bats lately (save for a few sleepy plate appearances late last night), so there’s reason to hope they’ll do more damage against Liberatore this time around. The ballgame will be available on BravesVision tonight.
Game Date/Time: Saturday, July 11, 7:15 p.m. ET
Location: Busch Stadium, St. Louis
Broadcast: BravesVision
Streaming: MLB.tv
Radio: 680 AM / 93.7 FM The Fan
Notes: Los Bravos for better SEO.