GAME PREVIEW
St. Louis Cardinals (13-6) at Atlanta Braves (9-9) at
Pitching matchup: Joel Pineiro (3-0, 4.12 ERA) vs. Jair Jurrjens (2-1, 1.42 ERA)
Time: 7:05 p.m. EDT
Location: Turner Field, Atlanta
TV: Peachtree TV/ESPN Radio: 640 WGST
Weather: Partly Cloudy, 78 degrees
Twitter: Tomahawk Take
Things didn’t quite go as planned for the Atlanta Braves (9-9) in yesterday afternoon’s series finale with the Reds.
For the first time in more than a week, a Braves starter – Kenshin Kawakami – was pummeled, while the offense reverted back to it’s troubling form. The 8-2 loss concluded the club’s nine-game road trip with a 4-5 record.
Today, Atlanta heads home to begin a three-game set with the upstart St. Louis Cardinals (13-6). The Redbirds are coming off a series in which they took two of three from the Chicago Cubs.
On the mound for the Braves will be Jair Jurrjens (2-1, 1.42 ERA). The right-hander is coming off stellar back-to-back starts. On April 17 against the Pittsburgh Pirates, Jurrjens tossed 6 2/3 innings of one run ball but suffered the loss. This past Wednesday, the 23-year old threw 7 2/3 innings of scoreless baseball but picked up the no-decision to the Washington Nationals.
The Braves will face the right-handed Joel Pineiro (3-0, 4.12 ERA). Despite the perfect record, Pineiro has been up-and-down for much of the young season. He’s flip-flopped in three starts, at times looking brilliant and at others looking less than mediocre.
On April 15, he surrendered five runs and nine hits to the Arizona Diamondbacks in just five innings but notched the victory. In his last start against the New York Mets, Pineiro went eight solid innings while allowing six hits and just two runs.
He made two appearances against Atlanta last season — one as a starter and one as a reliever. In his July 31 start, he was pinned with a loss when the Braves hit him for six runs on ten hits in six innings. In an August 22 game, Pineiro threw three innings out of the bullpen, allowing two runs on five hits.
Pineiro has excellent movement on his mid-90’s fastball and changeup and stifles hitters with a devastating curveball.
Kelly Johnson (6-for-9, 2 home runs, 4 RBIs) has had the greatest success against Pineiro of the Atlanta starters.
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