The Braves face the Phillies to close out the season’s opening series at 7 p.m. Sunday.
1. Kyle Wright makes his first MLB start on Sunday night baseball. He'll be the first Braves pitcher to make his first career start within the team's first three games since Horacio Ramirez in 2003. Wright already became the first member of his 2017 draft class to debut last season, when he made four relief appearances.
2. Regardless of Sunday's result, the Braves have lost this opening series to the Phillies. Some good news: The last time that happened, the Braves won 91 games and the National League pennant (in 1948). The Braves and Phillies have opened against each other 10 times in that span, with the Braves going 8-0-2.
3. First baseman Freddie Freeman is off to a hot start. He went 4-for-5 with two doubles and two RBIs on Saturday. He's 5-for-8 on the young season. Freeman now has 103 games with at least three hits since 2011. That's the highest total in the National League in that time.
4. The Braves' offense has been solid despite their pitching woes. Like last year, they've done plenty in the later innings, scoring half their runs (five) after the sixth. In 2018, the Braves led the NL with 278 such runs and finished with an NL-high 20 last at-bat wins.
5. Philadelphia has crushed the Braves with the long ball. They've scored 18 runs, with 13 (72 percent) coming via homer. Their six homers through two games are tied for the most a Braves team has allowed in the Atlanta era – and that's after permitting just 153 last season, the third fewest in baseball.
