COBB COUNTY — It’s been a battle, but as we head into the weekend, the Atlanta Braves hold a two games to one lead over the Houston Astros in the World Series.
Great pitching and a couple of timely hits led Atlanta to a 2-0 victory Friday night. The game on Saturday presents a completely new challenge.
Watch Channel 2 Action News at noon and 6 p.m. on the WSB Streaming app Saturday for the latest information ahead of Saturday night’s game.
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Game 4 Preview:
Matchup: Braves vs. Astros. Atlanta leads best-of-seven series two games to one.
Time: First pitch scheduled for 8:09 p.m. Actor/Singer Jordan Fisher will perform the national anthem
Tickets: The game is sold out but tickets are available on the secondary market. As of 9 a.m. Saturday, the lowest price tickets were $750 on StubHub.
Weather: Severe Weather Team 2 Meteorologist Eboni Deon said it will remain chilly and breezy Saturday night with temperatures in the low 50′s and slowly clearing skies.
Starting Pitchers: Zach Greinke starts for Houston, the Braves have not announced a starting pitcher at this time.
Greinke is a former Cy Young award winning pitcher with 17 years of major league experience and has started numerous big games in his career. He last pitched 11 days ago vs. Boston in the American League Championship Series throwing 1 1/3 innings and gave up a two run home run.
The Braves have several options to start Saturday night’s game. They could do a straight bullpen game as they’ve done a few times during the playoffs with reliever Jesse Chavez starting and then another relief pitcher jumping in after him. Or with a series lead, they could trot out Kyle Wright who threw a shutout inning in game 2. Wright has started a full season of games at AAA Gwinnett and could potentially function as a fourth starter.
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The two big storylines for the game will be who pitches for the Braves and whether the Astros can wake up their sleeping bats.
The Astros were facing a 2-1 deficit in the ALCS when they scored seven runs in the top of the 9th inning in Game 4 against Boston for a rousing comeback win. They went on to win the next two games of the series largely on the back of their hitting.
Atlanta has controlled most of their playoff series so far on the backs of their pitching staff but have a huge hurdle to overcome with the loss of pitcher Charlie Morton. Game 4 was always likely to be a “bullpen” game for the Braves, who are now facing the possibility of two games without a set starting pitcher.
The Braves have not hit well during the series so far either. Outside of catcher Travis d’Arnaud who’s hitting .417 in the World Series, none of the other big hitters have done much on a consistent basis. The Braves will need to score some runs in order to help protect the heavily used bullpen the next two nights.
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