House That Hank Built
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Atlanta Braves & Washington Nationals square off in critical series

By Jake Mastroianni

ATLANTA, GA - MAY 28: Ronald Acuna Jr. #13 of the Atlanta Braves steals second base ahead of the throw to Brian Dozier #9 of the Washington Nationals in the first inning of an MLB game at SunTrust Park on May 28, 2019 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Todd Kirkland/Getty Images)
ATLANTA, GA - MAY 28: Ronald Acuna Jr. #13 of the Atlanta Braves steals second base ahead of the throw to Brian Dozier #9 of the Washington Nationals in the first inning of an MLB game at SunTrust Park on May 28, 2019 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Todd Kirkland/Getty Images) /
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SAN DIEGO, CA – JULY 14: Mike  Soroka #40 of the Atlanta Braves pitches during the first inning of a baseball game against the San Diego Padres at Petco Park on July 14, 2019 in San Diego, California. (Photo by Denis Poroy/Getty Images)
SAN DIEGO, CA – JULY 14: Mike  Soroka #40 of the Atlanta Braves pitches during the first inning of a baseball game against the San Diego Padres at Petco Park on July 14, 2019 in San Diego, California. (Photo by Denis Poroy/Getty Images) /

Game 2 – Patrick Corbin vs. Mike Soroka

This is the best pitching matchup of the series, and the scary thing is Patrick Corbin is probably the Nationals third-best starter.

But we will have our ace on the mound and we need him to be ace-like.

Soroka’s start against the Nationals earlier this season was cut short when he was hit in the arm with a comebacker. He only pitched two innings in that game. We’ll be looking for him to go a lot longer on Friday.

Noone on the Nationals has faced him more the once, and the only player to get a hit off him was the Braves killer himself — Trea Turner.

Patrick Corbin has been lights out in three July starts giving up just 4 earned runs in 20 innings.

Josh Donaldson is 4-for-5 off of him, but no one else in the current starting lineup has had much success against him.

Game 3 – Anibal Sanchez vs. TBD

We still aren’t sure who will be starting for the Atlanta Braves on Saturday, but it looks like they’ll be going against a former teammate in Anibal Sanchez.

Anibal has already made two starts this season against his former team and has faired pretty well against them giving up 4 runs in 12 innings on just 7 hits.

Brian McCann has the most experience against him and has done pretty well with 11 hits in 38 at-bats. But Tyler Flowres also has 2 home runs against him, so it will be interesting to see who starts behind the plate.

Pay close attention to the use, or lack of use, between Touki Toussaint and Sean Newcomb in the first two games of this series.

If one of them doesn’t pitch, then I expect one of them to get the start on Saturday.

Newcomb wasn’t used in the Brewers series, so my money is on him at the moment. But Touki only threw an inning in that series so it’s not like he wouldn’t be available to start on Saturday.

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