ATLANTA BRAVES NOTES:
Good Start
Atlanta beat San Diego, 8-1, last night, and the win moved the Braves to 14-4 (.778) on the season. That record ties the club’s best mark through 18 games since the team moved to Atlanta in 1966. Just one other Atlanta team has opened with a 14-4 record through 18 games since 1966. The 1997 club also started 14-4, and would go on to finish with a 101-61 record an the NL East division title. No club in Atlanta history has started 15-4 through 19 games, which the Braves can do with a win today. Atlanta was 8-10 through 18 games in each of the last two seasons, and would rally to win the division in both years.
TODAY’S GAME: The Braves and Padres today conclude a three-game series with the seventh and final game between the clubs this season…The two played just 10 days ago at Truist Park in Atlanta.
• Atlanta has won each of the first two games of this series, and goes for the sweep today.
• San Diego won three-of-four games between the two clubs last week, outscoring Atlanta, 25-14… The Padres are responsible for three of the four losses Atlanta has this season…Against all other opponents, the Braves are 11-1.
• Atlanta went 3-4 against San Diego last season, snapping a streak of five consecutive years in which the Braves won the season set…Atlanta needs a sweep this week to win the season series.
• Atlanta is 10-2 in its last 12 games as the visiting team here at Petco Park, dating to the 2019 season…The Braves swept the Padres here in 2019 and 2021, and split four games last season.
• RH Charlie Morton has made 12 career starts against San Diego and compiled a 6-3 record with a 2.63 ERA (21 ER/72.0 IP)…He last faced them just 11 days ago, on April 8 at Truist Park, and allowed three runs, two earned, over 5.0 innings to take the loss…The 6-foot-5, 235-pound righty has made three starts for Atlanta this season, going 2-1 with a 3.86 ERA (7 ER/16.1 IP).
• RH Nick Martinez has made three appearances and two starts in his career against Atlanta, going 0-1 with a 6.17 ERA (8 ER/11.2 IP)…In his last start against the Braves, April 7 at Truist Park earlier this month, he allowed four hits and four runs over 4.2 innings in a no-decision…The 6-foot-1, 175- pound Miami native has made three starts for the Padres this season, going 0-1 with a 5.60 ERA (11 ER/17.2 IP).
WIN: Atlanta beat San Diego, 8-1, last night to win its eighth straight game…Sean Murphy, Ozzie Albies and Matt Olson all homered for the Braves.
• Atlanta improved to 10-1 (.909) on the road this season, and has outscored opponents, 66-25, away from Truist Park…The Braves’ .909 winning percentage on the road is best in baseball…The Cubs rank second with a .714 mark (5-2).
• The Braves lead the majors in both runs scored (66) and home runs (21) on the road this season, and are averaging 6.0 runs per game away from Truist Park.
• The Braves hit multiple homers in a game for the sixth time this season last night, and are undefeated when doing so…When Atlanta homers at least once in a game, the club is 13-1.
• Atlanta’s eight runs last night gave them 97 on the season, most in the National League and third most in baseball…Only the Rays (125) and Rangers (100) have scored more runs than the Braves this season.
OLSON RUNS BATTED IN: 1B Matt Olson connected on his sixth home run of the season last night, a three-run shot in the ninth inning…Olson has a National League-most 20 RBI on the season.
• Olson has his 20 RBI in just 18 games, and is on pace for 32 RBI before the calendar flips to May… Since the Braves moved to Atlanta in 1966, no player has tallied 30-or-more RBI before the start of May.
• Dale Murphy and Chipper Jones have the most RBI for an Atlanta player in March/April, collecting 29 runs batted in during the 1985 and 1998 seasons, respectively.
• No player in baseball has reached 30 RBI before May since the 2019 season, when Cody Bellinger (37), Christian Yelich (34) and Domingo Santana (30) all reached the mark.
STREAK: Atlanta beat San Diego, 8-1, last night, and the Braves have won each of their last eight games…It is the longest active winning streak in baseball.
• The Braves’ run is the second-longest winning streak in baseball this season, trailing just a 13-game stretch by Tampa Bay…The Rays won each of their first 13 games of the season.
• Atlanta had just one longer streak all of last season, winning an MLB best-tying 14 consecutive games in June.
• The Braves are batting .277/.359/.511 during the run, and averaging 6.4 runs per game…Atlanta has 15 homers in that span, and has homered in all eight games.
• Atlanta pitchers have compiled a 2.84 ERA (23 ER/73.0 IP) during the streak, allowing opponents to bat just .224 (61-for-272) and fanning 10.2 batters per 9.0 innings.
JESSE CHAVEZ: Pitched 1.0 scoreless inning with a pair of strikeouts last night, and has 9.0 scoreless innings over 10 appearances this season.
• This year marks the first time in his 16-season MLB career that his first 10 outings have been scoreless.
• He is one of seven pitchers in the majors this season with at least 10 games pitched, and the only one of them without a run on his record.
MURPHY EXTRA BASES: Sean Murphy homered in last night’s fourth inning, giving him 11 consecutive extra-base hits dating to a fourth-inning double on April 6…He later singled in the eighth to stop the streak.
• The streak now stands as the longest extra-base run in Atlanta history (since 1966), surpassing the mark set by Gary Matthews, Sr. in 1979…Matthews had 10 in a row from June 17-23.
• Only one player in Braves franchise history (since 1900) has a longer such streak…Wally Berger of the Boston Braves had 12 such hits in August of 1935.
• Research courtesy of the Elias Sports Bureau.
Tonight’s Starting Pitcher – #50 Charlie Morton
2023 Record: 2-1, 3.86 ERA
Today’s Game
• Set to make his second start of the season and thirteenth career appearance against San Diego.
• Struck out six while allowing two earned runs over 5.0 innings during his last start against the Padres.
• Morton’s career 2.63 ERA is the lowest against a single opponent (min. 10 appearances).
• Has held San Diego hitters to a .196 batting average through his 11 outings, also the lowest against a single team with at least 10 appearances against.
• Scattered six hits, three runs, two earned runs, three walks and a home run through 5.0 frames in his last start against San Diego.
• Struck out Jake Croneworth to record his 1,700th career punchout.
• Became the 15th active pitcher to record as many strikeouts…Max Scherzer leads active hurlers with 3,207.
• In his age 39 season, Morton is the sixth-oldest active pitcher in the majors.
• Since the beginning of the 2021 season, Morton has struck out 256 hitters with his curveball, the most in the majors.
• He has thrown his curveball on 37.4% of pitches, the second highest rate in baseball among qualified starters.
• During that span hitters missing on 52.2% of curveballs thrown, the second highest rate in the majors…The MLB average is 12.7%.
• Only Chicago’s Drew Smyly’s throws a curveball more often (42.5%.)
2023 Recap
• Made his first start of the season against St. Louis.
• Only struck out one hitter through 5.1 innings pitched against the Cardinals, marking just the ninth time in his career Morton pitched at least 5.0 frames while failing to record at least two punchouts and the first since June 5, 2015 against Pittsburgh.
• Struck out San Diego’s Jake Croneworth on April 8 to record his 1,700th career punchout.
• Is one of 15 active pitchers in baseball with as many strikeouts
SAN DIEGO PADRES NOTES:
Padres drop 3rd straight in front of 42,693 patrons, plate 1 run to the Braves’ 8
• The Padres avoided being shut out for their 3rd consecutive game with their sole run in the 8th inning, but the loss was their 3rd straight and the 6th in their last 7 games.
• The run in the 8th snapped a streak of 25 straight scoreless innings from the San Diego offense, falling 25 innings shy of the club record 37.0 scoreless innings back in 1971.
• Starter Blake Snell suffered his 3rd loss of the year, and the Padres have now lost all 4 of his starts…he tossed a season-high 5.0 innings and allowed 2 runs (earned) on 3 hits with 3 walks and 5 punchouts…said Snell postgame: “We know we can score and shut people down, and we haven’t been doing that on both ends, so we’re definitely frustrated. We know how good we are. We know how quick we can turn it around
and be the team we know that we are.” Padres have played more games than any team (19), and today is Game 14 in a stretch of playing 18 games in 18 days; 21 games in 22 days
• No other team has played more games so far in 2023 than the Padres (19), and after enjoying their sole off day so far on April 5 in Atlanta, they won’t have their 2nd until April 24, playing 18 games in 18 days from April 6-23 and 21 games in 22 days from April 6-27…their 3rd off day will be on April 28 (in Mexico City)…their 1st off day in San Diego won’t be until May 4.
• SD has lost 11 of their 1st 19 games to start the season for the 1st time since 2018 (went 7-12 to start ’18)…it’s the 1st time since 2017 that the Padres pitching staff had an ERA at or above 4.30 in their 1st 19 games.
Live and die by the long ball
• SD batters rank 20th in the Majors this year in hits (138) but rank T-8th in home runs (22)…they’re 1-6 this year in games in which they fail to homer and 7-5 in games in which they hit at least 1 HR. Padres are 2-7 since their series in Atlanta, have plated a ML-low 2.44 R/G
• San Diego batters have hit a Major-League low .203 (59-for-291) in 9 games since April 10, and they’ve scored a ML-low 2.44 runs per game in that span…including last night’s defeat, San Diego has won just 2 of their last 9 games since April 10, and they’re 1-6 in their last 7 games.
Roadtrippin: Padres set to play Giants in Mexico & see season debuts from Fernando Tatis Jr. and Joe Musgrove in Arizona
• The Padres embark on their 2nd road-trip of the season, which is an 11-day, 9-game trip that includes a 2-game “home” series in Mexico City at Alfredo Harp Helú Stadium against the Giants to cap the trip from April 29-30…the Padres will fly to Arizona following today’s game, play 4 against the D-Backs, have their 2nd off day of the season on April 24 in Chicago, and play the Cubs in a 3-game set…from Chicago, the Padres will fly to Mexico City, have an off day in Mexico on April 28, and host a 2-game series vs. San Francisco before flying home and hosting the Reds the very next day on May 1st.
• Joe Musgrove will toe the slab on Saturday, April 22 in Game 3 of the 4-game set against the D-Backs…he’ll go opposite Merrill Kelly @ Chase Field.
STARTER – NICK MARTINEZ 21
Martinez set for 4th start of season, 2nd vs. the Braves 32-year-old right-hander Nick Martinez looks for his 2nd consecutive quality start to finish off this 3-game set vs. the Braves and avoid the sweep…Martinez faced off against the Braves in his 2nd start of the season on Friday, April 7 and did not factor into SD’s 5-4 victory…he allowed 4 runs on 4 hits and walked a career-high-tying 5 batters for the 5th time. Eddie Rosario’s 11 at-bats vs. Martinez are the most among all Braves hitters, but he is just 2-for-11 (.182) with a HR…Matt Olson (4-for-10, .400 vs. Martinez) and Marcell Ozuna (4-for-8, .500) both have 2 HR vs. Martinez…Ozzie Albies is 1-for-6 (.167) vs. Martinez, with that 1 hit being a HR.
Long ball issues
Martinez allowed 2 home runs in his most recent start last Thursday vs. MIL and has allowed 4 homers on the season…he has a 2.04 HR/9 IP ratio, 1 of 13 NL starters to have made at least 3 starts and allow 2.00+HR/9 IP. Since the start of last season, he’s allowed 13 HR across 70.0 IP as a starter, and 6 HR across 54.0 IP as a reliever.
Pitch count rising
After eclipsing the 100+ pitch plateau in 3 of his 10 starts last season, Martinez tossed 101 pitches in both of his first 2 starts this season, before throwing 92 pitches in his most recent outing last Thursday vs. MIL…among all NL starters who have made at least 3 starts, his 98.0 pitches per outing rank T-6th among all NL hurlers…in fact, along with Yu Darvish and Seth Lugo, the Padres account for 3 of the 8 NL hurlers averaging 98.0+ pitchers per outing entering today’s action. His first 2 outings of the 2023 campaign marked the first time he’s tossed 100+ pitches in back-to-back Major Leauge games since May 3-8, 2017.
Representin’
On February 19, 2023, Team USA announced that Martinez replaced Clayton Kershaw on the 30-man roster for the United States team in the 2023 World Baseball Classic…he started Game 2 of pool play against Team Mexico and was the losing pitcher, allowing five hits and three runs with two strikeouts in 2 2/3 innings of the 11-5 defeat…after he wasn’t guaranteed to start for Team USA for the rest of the event, he returned to Padres spring training to prepare for the start of the Major League season.
