Two teams streaking in opposite directions will wrap up a tightly contested three-game series on Sunday afternoon when the San Francisco Giants go for a sweep of the visiting Atlanta Braves.
The Giants have won the first two games of the series in dramatically different walk-off fashions. They followed Friday’s 5-4, 10-inning victory that ended on a wild pitch with Matt Chapman’s two-out, two-run homer for a 3-2 triumph on Saturday.
The wins were the third and fourth in a row for the Giants, whose walk-offs were their seventh and major-league-leading eighth of the season.
Meanwhile, the Braves, who wrapped up a recent homestand with 2-1 and 11-10 losses to the Arizona Diamondbacks, have lost six games in a row — the last four by a total of four runs.
“They all come down to the last inning. Seems like every game,” Giants manager Bob Melvin said after Saturday’s dramatic finish. “We’re used to these types of games. It feels like as many as we’ve had like this, we’re battle-tested. Until the last out, we have a chance.”
The walk-off loss was the Braves’ sixth of the season and came after starting pitcher Bryce Elder retired the last 15 batters he faced, only to be pulled after eight innings.
It was a spot in which Braves manager Brian Snitker, likely calling the shots from the clubhouse after an earlier ejection, normally would have gone to Raisel Iglesias to close the win. Instead, the call went for Pierce Johnson, who served up a one-out single to Heliot Ramos ahead of Chapman’s two-out homer.
Acting manager Walt Weiss made the move from the dugout, but it was consistent with what Snitker disclosed earlier in the week when he announced that the struggling Iglesias no longer would be the team’s primary closer.
“We’re just going to mix-and-match and see where the matchups are,” Snitker said of his late-game reliever alignment.
The veteran manager went on to say, “We want to get a look at him,” a reference to Craig Kimbrel, who was promoted from the minors this week and made his 2025 big-league debut with a shaky, albeit scoreless, inning in Friday’s loss. Kimbrel then was abruptly designated for assignment Saturday, giving Weiss one fewer option.
While who might pitch the ninth inning remains a mystery, the Braves announced that right-hander Spencer Strider (0-4, 5.68 ERA) will start in the series finale.
Strider has struggled in two of his three starts since returning from the injured list on May 20 after suffering a strained hamstring in his first start of the season in April. He allowed five runs in five innings in an 8-3 home loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks on Tuesday.
The 26-year-old has gone 2-1 with a 3.57 ERA in four career starts against the Giants.
Right-hander Landen Roupp (3-4, 3.18), who will start for San Francisco on Sunday, threw 6 1/3 innings of shutout ball Tuesday in a no-decision in his most recent appearance as the Giants fell 3-2 in 10 innings to the San Diego Padres.
Roupp, 26, will make his first lifetime start against the Braves. He’s 0-0 with a 2.45 ERA against them in two relief appearances.
–Field Level Media
