Mariners welcome Jarred Kelenic and the Braves to town for battle of division leaders

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The Mariners are set to welcome the Braves to town for a battle of the division leaders, with the Braves coming to Seattle with the best record in baseball. This can be one of those situations where it's hard for some of us to admit, but winning a single game in this series and seeing the Braves leave town with a 2-1 series win would probably feel like a win in the grand scheme of things for the Mariners.

The Mariners have been hot lately, playing some of the best ball in the majors. They are 9-3 in their last 12, having outscored opponents 55-22 over that time frame. A ton has been going around about how well the Mariners starting pitchers have been doing, allowing just 17 earned runs in their last 16 starts. That's going to be challenged more than ever with the top offense in baseball coming to town.

So far, the Braves are hitting a ridiculous .277/.348/.453 on the year, good for a team OPS+ of .801. An OPS+ of .800 lets you know that a hitter is having a great season. That's what their lineup is doing as a whole!

With their biggest challenge of 2024 to date, let's jump into the series for the who and what that the Mariners will be facing in their 3-game series against the Braves.

Mariners vs Braves: Pitching Matchups

Monday, April 29th @ 6:40PM - Bryce Miller vs Max Fried
Tuesday, April 30th @ 6:40 PM - Luis Castillo vs Reynaldo Lopez
Wednesday, May 1st @ 12:40 PM - Emerson Hancock vs Chris Sale

After a rough start to the season, Fried has turned it around in his last few outings. He's coming off not just his best start of the season, but one of the best outings we've seen in the majors this year. His 87 game score was the 3rd best start by any pitcher this season, trailing Ronel Blanco's no-hitter and Tanner Houck's nearly identical outing to Frieds, where Houck struck out 3 more batters.

Reynaldo Lopez is actually the pitcher that we need to be worried about most this series, as he has been one of the best in baseball this season. We've talked about the Mariners pitching a lot over the last few weeks, and rightfully so. Lopez has actually done better than all of them, allowing just two earned runs through his four outings this year. He's gone 6+ IP in all of them, with just 14 hits allowed.

The Braves will throw Chris Sale in the series finale, who is starting to look like the Sale of old. He's gone 7 IP in each of his last three outings, just chewing up and spitting out hitters as he's averaged 95 pitchers per outing over that stretch. He's throwing a ton of strikes (71%), which is something that the Mariners need to be wary of to not fall behind in the count early.

Mariners vs Braves: Hitters to Watch

Is the easy answer here to just say "all of them"? That's what it seems like with how good they've been doing. The wild part of this, and what makes it incredibly scary, is that the two best hitters on the Braves have been underperforming, with Matt Olson and Ronald Acuna Jr "struggling" this season.

Let's pick some of the hitters who have been raking for the Braves, starting with Marcell Ozuna. He's hitting a ridiculous .340/.416/.670 with nine homers and 31 RBI this season, leading the league in SLG, HR, and RBI. If the Mariners can limit the damage he does, it will be huge in determining their success this series.

Let's go with Ozzie Albies next, as he just came off of the IL without skipping a beat. He's hitting .329/.393/.523 this season with eight doubles so far. He's a massive table setter for them, and a big part of why they have scored so many runs.

Last, it's the Braves backstop who is coming off one of the hottest stretches by a catcher in a while. Travis d'Arnaud went 6-10 with 5 HR and 10 RBI earlier this month, and it's a big part of his .292/.365/.631 line on the season. You can see why the Braves are so dangerous, as the lineup top to bottom is hard to deal with.

Mariners vs Braves: Final Thoughts

You've probably noticed that one name has been absent so far while talking about the Braves, and it's one that I wanted to leave until the end so we could spend a bit of time focusing on him. It's Jarred Kelenic, the argument starting OF that the Mariners sent to the Braves in the offseason.

Kelenic started off HOT for the Braves, 11-19 to start the season with a .579/.619/.737 slash line through his first 8 games. Since then, it's been a complete 180 in which Kelenic has gone just 7-40, hitting .175/.250/.200 with 18 strikeouts. He has yet to homer for the Braves this season, and looks to be showing more of the same that we saw with the Mariners last year with his streakiness.

The big question I have, and I'm sure many a Mariners fan will be pondering it on the way to the games this week, is how to treat Kelenic. Are you going to boo him? Cheer for him? Or straight up ignore him?

I can't lie. If I was at the game, I would probably boo him. I really don't like how he left the team, and it left a sour taste with how he left along with the comments he made.

However, the Mariners can't let petty squabbles get in the way of the biggest test they will have faced this season. The Braves are likely the best team in baseball, even without Spencer Strider. If the Mariners can get out of this series with a single win, and sit at 16-15 after the series, I think we can all be happy enough with that outcome.

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