Hey, y’all. I’m back from vacation.
And if that’s not enough bad news for you: Braves third baseman Austin Riley just joined the 10-day injured list again, after reaggravating his abdominal injury while diving to tag the Reds’ Elly De La Cruz at home Sunday.
Just 52 games to go!
THE SERIES AHEAD
More on the Speedway Classic, Hurston Waldrep and Eli White momentarily. But first: a look at the looming matchup with the Brewers, who saunter into Truist Park tonight.
📺 How to watch: Tonight, Tuesday and Wednesday games all start at 7:15 p.m. on FanDuel Sports.
- The first 15,000 fans at Truist Park tonight get a Reynaldo Lopez bobblehead. Remember him?
- Wednesday is Ronald Acuña Jr. Funko Pop night. A Funko Pop is a little figurine with a big head.
⚾ The pitching matchups: In chronological order …
- Erick Fedde (3-11, 5.33) vs. Quinn Priester (10-2, 3.27)
- Joey Wentz (2-2, 5.02) vs. Freddy Peralta (12-5, 3.08)
- Spencer Strider (5-8, 3.71) vs. Jose Quintana (8-4, 3.50)
Jacob Misiorowski, Milwaukee’s young fireballer and prime Drake Baldwin competition for National League Rookie of the Year, is injured and won’t pitch.
📝 The scouting report: The Brewers (67-44) just finished a sweep of the Nationals and have been one of baseball’s best teams since July 1. The Braves took two out of three from them in June, though. So that’s something?
HURSTON HURLS A GEM
Credit: George Walker IV/AP
Hurston Waldrep is back with Triple-A Gwinnett today.
But the youngster’s 5⅔ innings of one-run ball in Sunday’s emergency “start” for the big-league Braves might earn him a return ticket sooner rather than later.
Minus the last-minute, five-hour drive up to Tennessee.
“You didn’t really have time to sit here and think about how it all happened,” Waldrep, 23, said. “Definitely not how you draw it up. But nothing about this game is how you draw it up.”
As columnist Michael Cunningham points out, that applies to Waldrep’s unpretty two-start stint in the majors last season. And nobody should declare him “ready” after a single 2025 appearance.
But with the current state of the Braves rotation, it sure seems he’s due for another shot.
- Gaurav Vedak works at Baseball Prospectus and is an avid watcher of the Atlanta farm system. I thought his recent X post about Waldrep’s willingness to adapt particularly insightful: “The significant changes to Waldrep’s delivery have made significant changes to how he pitches. He’s able to land his FB more in the zone (consistently), which opens up his breaking pitches more versus relying on the splitter to get back into counts. No longer working from behind.”
FB meaning fastball in this case.
To be clear: Waldrep hasn’t been perfect in Triple-A this year, posting a 4.42 ERA. But he’s held opponents to one earned run or less in four straight starts there — so why not see if he can keep it rolling for Atlanta?
Saturday’s doubleheader against Miami seems like a logical spot to give it another go.
ELI’S IMMORTALITY
Credit: AP
Eli White hit two home runs in the Sunday installment of the Speedway Classic and waltzed right into the record books: For now, he’s the only person to ever go deep in a major league game in Tennessee.
But as our friend Gabe Burns reports, it’s probably only a matter of time before many more people join that group. MLB expansion is afoot, and Nashville’s front and center.
📈 Bonus stat: White certainly cooled off after his hot start to the season. For what it’s worth, he’s now 4-for-15 in four games since Acuña went down with a calf strain.
ONE MORE THOUGHT
Did the weather mess things up mightily? Yep.
Should the folks in charge have been more prepared to provide food and drink to a record-breaking crowd that arrived early and sat through an hourslong rain delay? Absolutely. (One guy called the scene an “MLB version of Fyre Fest.”)
But let’s not fault MLB for trying something different.
Playing at a racetrack, and that one in particular, was a great idea. The type of thinking baseball needs these days.
Because spectacles are good for the game — this one just happened to be plagued by a summer deluge and absent stars (not to mention the Braves’ abysmal season).
Keep the pedal to the metal.
PHOTO OF THE DAY
Credit: AP
The ill-fated Austin Riley play. Got him, though.
Thanks for reading Braves Report. Tell a friend — and maybe give the AJC’s Sports Daily newsletter a shot, too.
Until next time.
About the Author
Before taking over the AJC's Sports Daily newsletter, Tyler Estep spent two years writing the A.M. ATL newsletter. A Gwinnett County native and University of Georgia graduate, he has been with the AJC since 2015 and previously worked as a reporter on the breaking news, hyperlocal and local government teams.
