Folks, I’m gonna say it.
Seven video games into the 2026 season, the vibes round the Atlanta Braves are getting dangerously excessive.
Maybe it’s simply PTSD from the marathon of ache that was the 2025 season, however Thursday night time’s 17-2 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks was some severe catharsis — and whiplash from the sturdy pitching which anchored the season-opening homestand.
A day after the Braves turned the first MLB group since 1979 with 11 gamers amassing a success and an RBI in the identical sport, Atlanta turns to Grant Holmes for Game 2 of the four-game collection in Phoenix.
The 30-year-old right-hander stuffed a essential hole final season as a starter — his first in a full-time capability at the main league stage — on a depleted workers. He threw 115 innings (fourth-most on the group) and posted a 3.99 ERA and 4.40 FIP earlier than he joined the novel that was the 2025 Braves’ damage record with an elbow damage which value him the remaining two months of the season.
Holmes didn’t discover the identical success in his 2026 debut Sunday in opposition to Kansas City, surrendering three runs on 5 hits over 5 innings to take the loss in the Braves’ first defeat of the marketing campaign.
He’ll be going through off in opposition to Diamondbacks starter Eduardo Rodriguez. The southpaw, who’s in his third season with Arizona after earlier stints with Boston and Detroit, allowed only one unearned run on 4 hits over 5 innings in his season debut in opposition to the Dodgers March 28.
However, he didn’t issue into the resolution after the Diamondbacks blew a 2-0 lead in the remaining 4 innings.
More notably, Rodriguez is only some weeks faraway from beginning Venezuela’s 3-2 World Baseball Classic championship sport win over the United States on March 17, permitting only one hit over 4 1/3 scoreless innings.
This time, he’ll be going through off in opposition to Venezuelan teammate Ronald Acuña Jr., who ought to be atop the Braves lineup and remains to be in search of his first homer of the season.
It’ll be one other late-night begin in the desert. And this sport shall be the first of two in a row which shall be a nationwide TV broadcast, this one on Apple TV.
Game Date/Time: Friday, April 3, 9:45 p.m. EDT
Location: Chase Field, Phoenix, AZ
Radio: 680 AM / 93.7 FM The Fan
