Two of Major League Baseball’s top young pitchers will be on the mound Wednesday night when the visiting Atlanta Braves and Boston Red Sox conclude a two-game series.
Spencer Strider (11-3, 3.78 ERA) is scheduled to pitch for Atlanta, and Boston is expected to send fellow right-hander Brayan Bello (7-6, 3.60) to the mound.
Strider, 24, is tied for the major league lead in wins, and he also leads the majors in strikeouts (189) and strikeouts per nine innings (14.58).
Strider made history in his most recent start, when he struck out 13 batters during six innings of a 7-5 victory over Arizona on Thursday. Strider became the first player in MLB history to strike out at least 350 batters in the first 40 starts of his career. He’ll enter Wednesday’s game with 354 strikeouts in 40 starts.
Strider has eight double-digit strikeout games this season and 14 in his career. This will be the first time he’s pitched against Boston.
“The last two games his stuff has been as good as it’s been probably the whole time he’s been up here,” Atlanta manager Brian Snitker said. “Velocity, the breaking ball. … He keeps throwing like that, he’s going to be OK.”
Bello, 24, will be facing the Braves for the second time in his career. He earned the win when Boston beat Atlanta 5-2 on May 10.
Bello limited the Braves to two runs on six hits in six innings that night. He struck out five and walked one. He’ll be pitching with extra rest Wednesday. Bello was originally scheduled to pitch against Atlanta on Tuesday, but the Red Sox placed him on the paternity list last weekend and pushed his start back one day.
To this point in his career, Bello has proved to be a much tougher pitcher to face at night than during day games. He’s 1-5 with a 6.57 ERA in nine starts during the day, and 8-9 with a 3.18 ERA in 20 starts at night.
He surrendered three home runs in four innings during his most recent start — a 6-5 loss to Oakland in an afternoon game on July 19. That ended a streak in which Bello had pitched at least six innings in seven straight starts.
“There’s a difference between the day games and the night games,” Bello said through a translator. “Less time to prepare, but that’s not an excuse. At the end of the day, I have to go out there and do my thing and (against the A’s) it just didn’t work out for me.”
The Red Sox will be looking to sweep the two-game series after winning Tuesday’s game 7-1. Every player in Boston’s batting order had at least one hit Tuesday. Masataka Yoshida led the way with three hits, including a two-run home run.
Boston has won two of three games against Atlanta this season.
Before Tuesday’s game the Red Sox traded outfielder Enrique Hernandez to the Los Angeles Dodgers for right-handed pitchers Nick Robertson and Justin Hagenman. Hernandez, 31, is hitting .222 with six homers and 31 RBIs this season.
He played for the Dodgers from 2015-20.
“Maybe moving him is going to give him a new start in a place that he knows,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said. “He prepares, he cares and he wants to win.”
–Field Level Media