The San Francisco Giants open a three-game series against the Atlanta Braves on Friday at Oracle Park, and the one thing Atlanta still has not supplied is a starting pitcher for any of the three games. First pitch is set for 7:15 p.m. PT, with the rest of the series on Saturday and Sunday.
That uncertainty sits next to a team that still looks dangerous on paper. The Braves arrive at 48-31, but they have lost 10 of their last 13 games, a slide that has included allowing 5 runs per game while scoring only 3.2. The opener is listed as TBD against Reynaldo Lopez, Saturday as TBD against Bryce Elder and Sunday as TBD against Chris Sale, a rare gap for a club that usually enters a series with its rotation mapped out.
For the Giants, the matchup comes at a useful point on the calendar. They are 33-47, 5-5 since the anti-Pride Night protest and 10-11 on the month, and they nearly swept Atlanta last weekend before rain pushed the final game of that set into August. Max Muncy hit the lone home run in that previous series, and now San Francisco gets the same opponent again before heading to Miami for a three-game road series against the Marlins.
The Braves also return to Oracle Park with a long list of familiar faces. Joey Bart was traded for after the Giants series, and Mauricio Dubon, Dominic Smith and Mike Yastrzemski are also listed as former Giants on Atlanta’s side. J.P. Martinez is Atlanta’s bullpen coach, and Antoan Richardson is its first base coach, which gives the trip a different edge for a series that starts before Atlanta has even declared who will throw the first pitch.
The schedule makes the next step clear. Friday’s game is the one that matters first, and until Atlanta names its starters, the story of Braves vs Giants is as much about what is missing as what is already set.
