{"id":663341,"date":"2026-04-04T20:10:30","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T20:10:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/663341\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T20:10:30","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T20:10:30","slug":"braves-vs-diamondbacks-game-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/663341\/","title":{"rendered":"Braves vs Diamondbacks, Game 3"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s Atlanta Braves baseball! Let\u2019s break down everything you need to know about tonight\u2019s matchup.<\/p>\n

First Pitch: 7:15 PM ET<\/p>\n

Location: Chase Field, Phoenix, AZ<\/p>\n

TV: Fox<\/p>\n

Radio: 680 AM\/93.7 FM The Fan<\/p>\n

Weather: The roof is OPEN<\/a>; 87\u00b0 and mostly clear with 6 mph wind<\/p>\n

RF Ronald Acu\u00f1a Jr (R)
C Drake Baldwin (L)
1B Matt Olson (L)
3B Austin Riley (R)
LF Mike Yastrzemski (L)
2B Ozzie Albies (S)
CF Michael Harris II (L)
DH Dominic Smith (L)
SS Mauricio Dub\u00f3n (R) <\/p>\n

Quick thoughts:<\/p>\n

RF Corbin Carroll (L)
2B Ketel Marte (S)
SS Geraldo Perdomo (S)
C Gabriel Moreno (R)
DH Adrian Del Castillo (L)
3B Nolan Arenado (R)
1B Jose Fernandez(R)
CF Alek Thomas (L)
LF Jorge Barrosa (S)<\/p>\n

Quick thoughts: <\/p>\n

Del Castillo, a catcher, was just activated off the IL (taking Jordan Lawlar\u2019s roster spot) and is making his season debut. The slumping Carlos Santana, who has just one hit and a .207 OPS in 23 plate appearances on the season, is out of the lineup at first base in favor of youngster Jose Fernandez. <\/p>\n

Not a ton of experience for Arizona against Bryce Elder here. Nolan Arenado has the most ABs, with 11, but is also hitting just .182 off the sinkerballer. Corbin Carroll\u2019s 2-5, Geraldo P\u00e9rdomo\u2019s 2-3, and Alek Thomas is 2-4. No one on the Arizona roster has ever taken Elder deep. <\/p>\n

5.30 ERA \/ 4.73 xERA \/ 4.55 FIP<\/p>\n

19.3 K% \/ 7.5 BB% \/ 3.5% HR<\/p>\n

Pitch mix (avg 4S FB velo = 91.8 mph)<\/p>\n

vs RHH: 53% sinker, 37% slider, 6% changeup, 3% 4S FB<\/p>\n

vs LHH: 33% slider, 30% sinker, 22% 4S FB, 15% changeup<\/p>\n

What\u2019s different so far this year? <\/p>\n

Elder\u2019s new cutter. The righty threw it exclusively to lefties last week, which is suboptimal usage<\/a>, but something he vowed to improve. Is this the day? <\/p>\n

What to watch:<\/p>\n

It\u2019s all about locations for Elder. He had a 47.6% whiff rate when he took his stuff out of the zone, but only a 10.6% whiff over the plate. His slider, specifically, is the most egregious example of this – 63.1% out of the zone but only 13% in it (and that\u2019s almost entirely derived from landing it in the bottom third of the zone – it gets a whiff rate of just 7% in the middle or upper third).<\/p>\n

As I mentioned above, does he expand his cutter usage to attack righties? <\/p>\n

Quick snapshot (2025):<\/p>\n

The arsenal (2025)<\/p>\n

Pitch 1 = four-seamer (93.6 mph, 45% usage)<\/p>\n

Pitch 2 = slurve (80.4 mph, 35% usage)<\/p>\n

Pitch 3 = changeup (84.3 mph, 10% usage)<\/p>\n

Pitch 4 = sinker (93.2 mph, 10% usage)<\/p>\n

What\u2019s different so far this year?<\/p>\n

Soroka, like Elder, has added a cutter, primarily using it against righties. <\/p>\n

Soroka struck out ten last time out thanks to nine whiffs on the slurve and a ton of called strikes on both it (ten) and the four-seam fastball (seven). Are the Braves prepared to fire off \u2018A\u2019 swings in the zone? <\/p>\n

vs RHH: Balanced when ahead, power when behind<\/p>\n

42% four-seamer, 36% slurve, 20% sinker, 1% changeup<\/p>\n

vs LHH: Fast, then slow<\/p>\n

48% four-seamer, 34% slurve, 17% change, 1% sinker<\/p>\n

Sequencing (2025):<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

How to read a plinko chart: Each circle represents the usage of a pitcher\u2019s arsenal in a given count (color key below). The thickness of the connecting lines reflects how often each count occurs, helping show how a pitcher navigates an at-bat.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t like being on the wrong side of a revenge game. It\u2019s not the first time that Soroka has faced the Braves – he went four innings with two runs on four hits against Atlanta last May as a member of the Nationals – but this feels like a newer, more improved version. If they struggle tonight, it\u2019s as good a reason as any. <\/p>\n

Soroka\u2019s new cutter has been an early-to-mid-AB usage point for him so far – last time out, he threw it to righties once on 0-0, but the rest were 1-1 and 2-0, while the lone one thrown to a lefty was on 0-1.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Likely available:<\/p>\n

Used recently:<\/p>\n

The three high-leverage arms all pitched last night, but none of the usage was too extreme to preclude them from coming back tonight if needed. That being said, the 3-day usage likely means that the Braves would like to stay away from Raisel Iglesias and Dylan Lee if possible.<\/p>\n

Potential limitations:<\/p>\n

Osvaldo Bido is the only obviously unavailable arm, but Atlanta should have a long man available in either Suarez or P\u00e9rez, so it\u2019s not a problem. <\/p>\n

Quick takeaway:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Likely available:<\/p>\n

Most of the pen got the night off last night, given that Eduardo Rodriguez went seven innings, so there\u2019s a whole contingent of the pen that is on two days\u2019 rest. <\/p>\n

Used recently:<\/p>\n

Potential limitations: <\/p>\n

Closer Paul Sewald and longman Andrew Hoffman are the only real questions tonight, Hoffman owing to his five-day usage and Sewald because he\u2019s historically been very bad against Atlanta, as we saw last night. <\/p>\n

How does Arizona, in the macro sense, and Paul Sewald specifically, rebound from a gut-wrenching loss last night? <\/p>\n

Does a leveled-up Michael Soroka exact revenge on the Braves for trading him after the 2023 season? <\/p>\n

Can Bryce Elder keep Arizona\u2019s speedy outfielders off the barrel and prevent extra-base hits? <\/p>\n

Another national broadcast, although at least we have a familiar voice on the call with Brandon Gaudin doing play-by-play. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s Atlanta Braves baseball! Let\u2019s break down everything you need to know about tonight\u2019s matchup. First Pitch: 7:15…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":663342,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2394],"tags":[191,46,4166,5,192,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-663341","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-atlanta-braves","8":"tag-atlanta","9":"tag-atlanta-braves","10":"tag-atlantabraves","11":"tag-baseball","12":"tag-braves","13":"tag-mlb"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116348260430320069","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=663341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663341\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/663342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=663341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=663341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=663341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}