JR Ritchie is back and he is making the start against the Cubs

The Atlanta Braves are inching closer to clinching the division with their magic number at five with their win last night against the Chicago Cubs .

It appears that the Braves will not catch the Dodgers for the second seed and first round bye, which is likely why the decision was made to bring up JR Ritchie to pitch this evening in the spot where Chris Sale was originally supposed to start to keep him rested. The last thing the Braves need right now is a fatigued or injured Chris Sale.

Ritchie has appeared in fourteen games so far this season to include eight starts. He pitched 58.0 innings of 4.50 ERA ball. This led to him getting sent back down in early August, but he has been fantastic in AAA as of late. Two starts ago for the Stripers he went 6.2 innings and amassed fifteen strikeouts to one walk. In his last start he went 6.0 innings where he struck out nine to one walk. He still struggles with the long ball, giving up three in his last two starts.

Of the eight starts at the MLB level Ritchie made this year, one of them was against the Cubs way back in May. It was arguably one of his best starts. He only went 4.1 innings, but he held the Cubs to two hits and one earned run, but he walked three.

It will be interesting to see how many innings he goes this evening because outside of his seven-inning debut, he never pitched more than 5.1 innings with three of his starts not even reaching 5.0. However, in the minors he has been working on longer starts pitching between 5.1 to 6.2 in his last four starts for the Stripers.

Since the Cubs have only faced Ritchie once in a short start, no player has more than two at-bats against him. The two players who were able to get a hit off him were Alex Bregman and Carson Kelly .

Shota Imanaga will be taking the mound for the Cubs and he is having a solid year. It has not been as great as his rookie campaign but is right on par with his performance last season in terms of ERA+ and FIP. He has pitched 162.1 innings and is on pace to pas his career high of 173.1 if he gets two more starts in. He holds an ERA of 3.88 and a WHIP of 1.121.

Imanaga had a rough first half in terms of ERA. Through his first thirteen starts his ERA was up to 4.74. Since then, he has settled down and carries an ERA of 3.13 over sixteen starts. He did pitch against the Braves and JR Ritchie in May where he gave up two earned runs on five hits over 7.0 innings. The Braves won that game 4-1.

Ozzie Albies leads the Braves in at-bats against Imanaga with twelve, and it is no surprise that he has been successful with a 1.334 OPS since Imanaga is a LHP. Matt Olson has eleven at-bats against Imanaga and carries a .455 average and 1.136 OPS in that span. Drake Baldwin has also been successful in six at-bats holding a 1.333 OPS to include a HR. The rest of the team has either not faced Imanaga before or has struggled.

Last night the Braves exposed that the Cubs' bullpen has been one of the luckiest in MLB this season if we look at their ERA against their expected ERA (xERA). Their season xERA is in the bottom four in MLB, while their actual ERA is in the best twelve.

If the Braves can get to the bullpen early, that is where they can do the most damage. It seems that all season long, the bullpen is there the Braves make most of their offense happen in general, but against the Cubs, it is especially true.

Game Time: Wednesday, September 16th, 7:40 pm EDT