Grant Holmes will open the Braves’ weekend series against the Orioles on Friday night in Baltimore, giving Atlanta its first look at a six-game road trip that starts at 7:05 p.m. ET. Trevor Rogers gets the ball for the Orioles in Game 1.
The matchup matters because the Braves arrive at 60-42 and in first place in the NL East after going 5-2 on their homestand to start the second half. Baltimore is 50-53, fourth in the AL East, and still three games back from the final AL wild-card spot, so the game carries more urgency for the home team than for Atlanta.
Holmes enters at 6-4 with a 3.70 ERA after allowing three runs on seven hits in Atlanta’s 8-5 win over the Rangers on Sunday. He has gone 3-2 since the start of June and is 2-0 in July with a 2.40 ERA, which gives the Braves some recent stability as they turn from a strong homestand to the road.
That stability only goes so far. The Braves have hit multiple home runs in five of their first seven games back and trail only the Washington Nationals in home runs this month with 33, but the rotation still leaves the kind of opening that can push a front office toward the Aug. 3 trade deadline. A first-place club can survive short bursts of inconsistency; it cannot ignore them forever.
Holmes also brings a small piece of history into the start. He faced the Orioles once before and took the loss in a 2-1 defeat last July. Rogers has gone the other way against Atlanta, going 1-7 with a 4.81 ERA in 10 starts against the Braves, though he threw 6 2/3 shutout innings to record his first win over them last July.
Rogers comes in at 6-7 with a 4.28 ERA, but his recent work has been stronger than that line suggests. He posted a 9-3 record and a 1.81 ERA in 18 starts in 2025, then endured seven straight starts with three-plus earned runs from mid-April through the end of May before settling back down. He has allowed fewer than three runs in seven of his last eight starts and owns a 1.04 ERA through three July starts.
Saturday’s game will come with both teams still sorting out where they stand. For Atlanta, the opener is less about setting a tone than proving the current one can hold for a road trip that matters to the standings and, sooner rather than later, to the trade deadline math. For Baltimore, it is another chance to keep pressing after snapping the Red Sox’s 15-game win streak on Wednesday.
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