The Braves are exiting a June that was absolutely miserable, but they finally hit a handful of homers on Friday night, hosting the Mets. They’ve got another favorable matchup here, with Chris Sale on the mound and facing the imminently hittable Sean Manaea for New York. We’ve got a national TV matchup on the 250th anniversary of this great country’s founding. The Braves have lived up to expectations, despite their horrid June, but FOX will be a bit disappointed in the Mets, relative to what they expected before the season when this matchup was scheduled.

Chris Sale has been brilliant of late, and really all year, but the struggles of Atlanta’s offense have prevented the team from capitalizing on that in the form of wins since May. One would think that this would be a game that the Braves could put some runs up against Manaea at home, perhaps building on the power they showed Friday, but this is the type of game they have frequently been losing lately. Sale may figure out a way to score a run off the pitching mound out of pure fury if he doesn’t get any run support today.

Manaea has been ever so slightly above average in most things other than ERA this year, getting the opener treatment frequently and starting only 4 games. His elite extension props up a pretty uninspiring arsenal of primarily a four-seamer, sinker, and sweeper, with a cutter and changeup sprinkled in. His four-seamer and sinker have a lot of arm-side run, while the rest of his pitches have quite average movement with well-below-average velocity. He’s perhaps been getting some HR/FB rate luck this season, so hopefully he gets some regression in favor of Atlanta’s bats.

Game Date/Time: Saturday, July 4, 8:08 p.m. ET

Location: Truist Park, Atlanta, GA

Radio: 680 AM / 93.7 FM The Fan

Can you believe it? After what has been the most successful lottery and draft in Utah Jazz history, Jazz fans will get to watch prized prospect Darryn Peterson take the floor for the first time.

Peterson was the talk of draft night, with questions about whether he would actually be the #1 pick. After a month of speculation, the Washington Wizards ultimately went with AJ Dybantsa. Utah came away with the player they wanted all along, and now we get to see just how good Peterson is going to be. Yes, you have to take the summer league with a grain of salt. If a player plays great, you can’t take too much from it. If a player plays badly, it’s time to be concerned. But would argue it’s time to ignore that because it’s hard to exaggerate how good Peterson can be, and it’s just as hard to see him not playing well in his first summer league. This is a new era of Jazz basketball, and this first summer league with Peterson is a prologue to what should be the most successful chapter in Jazz basketball history.

The best part of all of this is I hardly feel any pressure or anxiety, I’m just excited to watch this new prospect be unleashed. There have been prospects in Jazz history whose futures you didn’t quite know. With Peterson, the question is just how good he’s going to be. Tomorrow we find out, and I personally can’t wait.

How to watch the Salt Lake City Summer League?

Who: Utah Jazz vs Atlanta Hawks

When: Saturday, July 4, 2026 | 3:00 MT

Where: Jon M. Huntsman Center, Salt Lake City, UT

How to watch: Prime Video, ESPNU, League Pass, KJZZ, Jazz+

This goes without saying. The most important thing in this game is to see how healthy Peterson looks. Does he have his burst back? How does the playmaking work? How well does he score the ball? Basically, all eyes will be on Darryn Peterson and how he looks in his debut. From the moment the Jazz run onto the floor and warm up to the time the game starts, you can bet that his every move will be the prime attraction.

Just like last season, Bailey will be another player to watch in this summer league. He showed fantastic signs this season, and this summer league is an opportunity to show his improvement. Bailey scored and rebounded last summer league without a single play run for him. Now that he understands the offense much better, he should have a nice game.

The other interesting element will be how he plays with Peterson. What does the chemistry look like? They’ve only been together for a short amount of time, but we’ll see if they are playing well together starting in Game 1.