At least there’s no Hector Neris to mess it up this time.
Oh, hey, it’s my turn to do official game coverage for the first time this season. Oh, hey, the Braves have started the season 0-5 with an incredibly ugly offensive approach that deviates from what they’ve done for the last five years, and have lost a bunch of games through every combination of ridiculous baseball stuff, poor relief usage and pitching, poor starting pitching, a PED suspension, and the list just goes on and on. So, maybe the less said, the better, at this point. After all, our front page is littered with everything you could ever need to know about why the Braves are 0-5 at this point.
The good news, if such a thing is even possible, is that the Braves have 2024 NL Cy Young Award winner Chris Sale on the bump for his second start of the year. His first start of the year? Chris Sale-esque, to be certain (7/1 K/BB ratio), but marred by the fact that he pitched for the 2025 Braves, such that three runs were charged to his ledger anyway due to batted ball shenanigans, sequencing shenanigans, and blah defense behind him. Sale faced the Dodgers once last September and beat them with a ho-hum 6/2 K/BB ratio, six-inning effort in a 10-1 blowout.
The bad news is that the Braves have to face an actual human being that will pitch baseballs to them, and given that they can’t seem to figure out what they should be doing at the plate (probably not weak swings after watching strikes, guys), that could be an issue. The name of said human is Dustin May, and he’ll be making his first major league start in nearly two years — the lengthy absence stems from Tommy John Surgery, and then an esophageal tear that kept him out the rest of the 2024 season as well. May had a full Spring Training and didn’t really turn heads or anything, but he’s been effective when healthy (3.5 fWAR in 191 2⁄3 career innings, with a 74 ERA-, 86 FIP-, and 89 xFIP- across 46 career appearances, mostly starts).
May actually started two of the 2020 NLCS games against the Braves — the Dodgers won both. But, the Braves haven’t seen him since.
Game Info
Game Date/Time: Tuesday, April 1, 10:10 p.m. EDT
Location: Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles, CA
TV: FanDuel Sports South, Southeast
Streaming: MLB.tv
Radio: 680 AM / 93.7 FM The Fan