Braves go for sweep of suddenly skidding Mets

The Atlanta Braves will send Spencer Strider to the mound on Thursday when they go for a three-game sweep of the visiting New York Mets.

The Braves have won five of their past six games. New York is riding a season-long five-game losing streak and has seen its lead in the National League East shrink to one game over Philadelphia.

That lead was five games just one week ago.

Strider (1-5, 4.35 ERA) will be opposed by Clay Holmes (7-3, 2.87) as the teams complete their first of four series of the season.

Strider is coming off his best start of 2025, a six-inning scoreless stint against the Colorado Rockies on Saturday. Strider struck out a season-high 13 batters and allowed only three hits and one walk.

It was a good sign for the powerful right-hander as he continues to recover from Tommy John surgery that caused him to miss nearly all of 2024 and a hamstring strain that cost him the first month-plus of this season.

“There’s positives and there’s negatives in every start,” Strider said after the 4-1 win over Colorado. “I think things got a little inconsistent the second half of the outing so that’s something to work on. And I was set up to eat up more innings and was unable to do so, so that’s something I’d like to improve upon.”

In eight career appearances (six starts) against the Mets, Strider is 4-1 with a 5.58 ERA. He has struck out 39 batters in 30 2/3 innings. He beat New York twice in 2023.

Holmes did not receive a decision in his most recent outing on Friday, a 7-5 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays. In five innings, he allowed one run on three hits, two walks and three strikeouts. Holmes was yanked after only 79 pitches and the New York bullpen could not hold a lead, a decision that fueled plenty of second-guessing.

“I think the thought process is really good and they’ve done a lot of things right so far this year, so it’s just trusting that,” Holmes said. “I think coming out of this, it’s going to give me a boost going forward. So, they’re just not trying to push it too far and limit it there at five innings.”

Over his past five starts, Holmes has a 2.43 ERA but he has surrendered six homers in those 29 2/3 innings.

This will be Holmes’ first career start against the Braves. In 10 relief appearances against Atlanta he has a 1-0 record and 0.82 ERA over 11 innings.

Atlanta has benefited recently from the hot bats of Ronald Acuna Jr. and Matt Olson. Acuna, who has played in only 23 games since returning from ACL surgery, has eight home runs and is batting .390. Olson has reached base safely in 19 straight games, lifted his batting average to .251, and hit his 15th home run on Wednesday.

“I wouldn’t say it’s fully clicking,” Olson said. “But finding a way to compete and getting some knocks with guys is scoring position is a good feeling. I wouldn’t say I’m driving the ball like I’m capable of, but I feel like it’s a decent spot to be in.”

New York’s Jeff McNeil had a single on Wednesday and extended his streak of reaching base to 20 games, the longest active streak in the major leagues. Juan Soto needs one hit to reach 1,000 for his career.

–Field Level Media