Pittsburgh @ Atlanta preview
Turner Field
Last Meeting ( May 29, 2010 ) Pittsburgh 3, Atlanta 6
It's becoming more and more clear that as leadoff hitter Martin Prado goes, so go the Atlanta Braves.
And lately, things are going awfully well on both sides of the equation.
The surging Braves, riding a four-game winning streak and having won nine of 11, look to finish a three-game sweep of the Pittsburgh Pirates this afternoon at Turner Field.
Prado's hot bat is a big reason for the recent success. The 26-year-old second baseman has four multi-hit efforts in the last five games, hitting .458 with six RBIs over that span. He leads the National League in hits (67) and multi-hit games (22).
And Prado's big days more often than not have coincided with Braves victories. Atlanta is 16-6 when Prado has two or more hits and 13-2 when he drives in at least one run.
The Braves have been especially good since Prado moved to the leadoff spot May 14. Since then, they're 11-3 when he has hit first and lost the only game in which he wasn't at the top of the lineup. Prado is hitting .377 when slotted first on the lineup card.
That's presumably where he'll be today against Pirates starter Paul Maholm, against whom he is 1-for-3 lifetime.
Not many Atlanta players have been successful against Maholm. The 28-year-old left-hander is 1-1 with a 1.33 ERA in four career starts against the Braves, and he hasn't allowed an earned run in his last 14 innings against them.
The only current Braves players who have hit Maholm well did so for other teams - Troy Glaus is 4-for-11 with a homer and David Ross is 6-for-20 with two homers.
Maholm (3-4, 3.98 ERA) is coming off his best outing of the season. He allowed six hits and two walks in seven scoreless innings Tuesday at Cincinnati, but he didn't factor in the decision in the Pirates' 2-1 win.
A solid outing, but no victory to show for it - that's a common occurrence for Braves starter Kenshin Kawakami this year.
Kawakami (0-7, 4.93 ERA) hasn't been as bad as his record suggests, especially recently. He has put together quality starts his last two times out, throwing six scoreless innings against the Reds on May 19 and allowing three runs on seven hits over six innings in a 6-4 loss Tuesday at Florida.
The Braves have averaged only 2.92 runs in the 35-year-old right-hander's nine starts. Atlanta hasn't had trouble topping that run total lately, though, having scored six or more runs in each of its past four games.
Atlanta is 19-8 since enduring a nine-game losing streak that ended April 30, and the Braves are 15-6 at Turner Field. Pittsburgh is fighting opposite trends in both regards. The Pirates are 10-18 since April 30 and they're 9-18 on the road.