Braves look to even the series with AJ Smith-Shawver starting against Rays

Following a tough Friday that saw them begin it with a walk-off straight onto a plane Atlanta and end it with a loss in Tampa, the Atlanta Braves are now attempting to bounce back in the middle game of this three-game series with the Rays.

AJ Smith-Shawver will be getting the ball to start tonight’s game and it’s clear that the Braves are surely hoping that this’ll be the night where he puts together something resembling a complete start. He’s made a couple of starts so far this year and in both of them, he’s had plenty of traffic to deal with on the basepaths as he gave up six hits in his season debut and then seven in his most recent appearance, with three walks in each of those outings. As a result, he still has yet to make it through five innings so far.

With that being said, one thing that Smith-Shawver has going for him is that he has been inducing a lot of whiffs so far. Hopefully he’ll be able to turn those whiffs into more strikeouts, as he went from four in his season debut to six in his most recent outing. This may not be the most ideal situation to try to go for strikeouts, as the Rays are entering this game with only a 19.9 percent strikeout rate. With that being said, that’s certainly not going to stop AJSS from trying and if he can continue to ramp up his strikeout numbers then this could be the moment where he finally gets a quality start under his belt.

Meanwhile, Drew Rasmussen is getting the ball for the Rays and he’s gotten off to a very solid start to the season for the Rays so far. He’s thrown 10 innings over two starts and gone five innings in each of those starts with four strikeouts and just one walk so far. It took everything the Rangers had just to scratch a run past him during his last outing and Texas had to win it in walk-off fashion once Rasmussen was gone from the game.

Rasmussen has a five-pitch arsenal but he’ll be leaning on his cutter while occasionally going to a four-seamer and sinker while rarely breaking out the sweeper and curveball. He’s done a good job of avoiding getting barreled up so far and as I mentioned in the previous article, he’s largely avoided giving out free passes and that’s part of the reason why he’s gotten off to such a solid start for the Rays so far. He’s also avoided giving up a homer as well. Rasmussen appears likely to deliver a tough challenge to the Braves tonight but what else is new as far as this season goes for Atlanta?

Sometimes I like to look at the FanGraphs live scoreboard before the games start since they usually give an analytical prediction on how the game goes. Usually, the Braves have had the higher odds of victory — today is not one of those days, as FanGraphs is giving the Rays a 57 percent shot to win this one. If we’re being completely honest, the pitching matchup certainly tilts in favor of the Rays and the Braves are still trying to figure out a way to get into a good run of consistency here in 2025.

With that being said, this is still baseball — you still have to go out there on the diamond and make it happen. Hopefully the Braves will be able to figure it out today and play a complete game, themselves. If that happens, this team still has the talent to play with anybody on any given day. Hopefully today’s one of those days!

Game Info

Game Date/Time: Saturday, April 12, 4:10 p.m. EDT

Location: George M. Steinbrenner Field, Tampa, FL

TV: FanDuel Sports South/Southeast

Streaming: MLB.tv

Radio: 680 AM / 93.7 FM The Fan