SAN FRANCISCO — One of baseball’s best collections of young hitters goes head-to-head with one of the National League’s best young starting
pitchers when the Atlanta Braves and San Francisco Giants begin a three-game
series Monday night.The Braves flew into San Francisco on Sunday night on a
high
Enos Slaughter Jersey , having rallied for six runs in the top of the ninth inning to beat Arizona 9-5 and take three of four in a battle of playoff
hopefuls.The win allowed Atlanta (79-64) to move 4 1/2 games ahead of
Philadelphia (74-68) in the National League East. Those two still have seven
head-to-head meetings remaining.Article continues below ...While the Braves
continue a seven-game trip with three in San Francisco, the Phillies will be
hosting the Washington Nationals for three games.Thanks in large part to
20-year-olds Ronald Acuna Jr. and Ozzie Albies, the Braves will take the field
Monday as the second-ranked team in the NL in scoring and batting average.They
will be up against Giants 26-year-old Dereck Rodriguez (6-2, 2.41), who ranks
fifth in the NL among all pitchers with 15 or more starts in ERA (2.41) and tied
for sixth in winning percentage (6-2, .750).Like the Giants, who have lost eight
in a row, Rodriguez has had a tough time getting wins of late. He has one loss
and two no-decisions to show for his last three starts, during which he has
given up just six runs and 14 hits in 17 innings against Texas, Arizona and
Colorado.San Francisco’s losing streak is its longest since another eight-game
skid in April 2015.Things were different in early May, when the Giants won three
straight games at Atlanta. Brandon Crawford, Evan Longoria and Alen Hanson
contributed home runs to the 9-4, 11-2 and 4-3 victories.Rodriguez, a rookie,
did not pitch in the series and has never faced the Braves.Left-hander Sean
Newcomb (11-8, 3.92) is scheduled to oppose Rodriguez in the series opener. He
also did not pitch in the games in Atlanta.The 25-year-old has struggled of
late, getting roughed up for 35 hits and 21 runs in 23 2/3 innings in his last
five starts. He’s 1-3 in those games and the Braves are 2-3.Newcomb has faced
the Giants just once in his career, posting a no-decision in a 5-3 win last June
in which he limited the Giants to one run and three hits for six innings.He will
be seeing a Giants team this time around that suffered the unfortunate
distinction of getting swept in Milwaukee despite out-hitting the Brewers in all
three games. That hadn’t happened to the Giants since a 2009 series against San
Diego.The Braves
http://www.stlouiscardinalsteamshop.com/authentic-chris-carpenter-jersey , meanwhile, have gone 4-0-2 in their last six road series.They managed to avoid
splitting four at Arizona by virtue of their six-run ninth, which featured a
go-ahead home run by Ender Inciarte and lead-padding homers by Lucas Duda and
Johan Camargo.The home run by the 24-year-old Camargo was his 18th of the
season, and Acuna earlier hit his 25th.The homers were the 78th and 79th of the
season by Braves players 25-and-under. The Giants have 16. NEW YORK (AP) — The
big league batting average dropped to its lowest level since 1972, strikeouts
topped hits for the first time and defensive shifts increased by another 30
percent while innings and pitches per starting pitcher dropped again in a
another baseball season of rapid change.The batting average fell seven points to
.248 in the regular season that ended Monday, down from a Steroids Era peak of
.271 in 1999.Strikeouts set a record for the 11th straight year, increasing by
1,103 to 41,207, and topped hits (41,019) for the first time in big league
history. Hits led by 2,111 last year and by 13,418 in 2006.Home runs dropped
from a record 6,105 to 5,585 but was the fourth-highest total behind last year,
2000 and 2016.In a game transformed by teams’ use of advanced analytics,
defensive shifts on balls in play rose to 34,673 from 26
Kolten Wong Jersey ,705, according to Sports Info Solutions. There were just 6,882 as recently as 2013 and 17,826 in 2015.Twenty-six of the 30 teams
increased use of shifts, with Detroit, Kansas City, the New York Mets,
Philadelphia and St. Louis doubling. Only the Los Angeles Angels, Milwaukee,
Texas and San Diego declined, but the Brewers had the fifth highest overall
total.Innings per starting pitcher dropped to 5.36 from 5.51 last year and 5.89
in 2012, and average pitches per start fell to 88 from 92 in 2017 and 95 in
2012. Relievers per team per game rose to 3.4 from 3.2 last year and 3.0 in
2012.As a result, complete games set a record low for the fourth straight year
at 42, down from 59 last season and 104 in 2015. Complete game shutouts dropped
from 27 to 19, the fewest since 1874, when there were just eight teams. There
were 65 shutouts as recently as 2014.There were 95 starts of one inning or
fewer, more than double the 38 in 2017, and 244 of two innings or
fewer
Trevor Rosenthal Jersey , up from 133. Use of an “opener” reliever instead of a starter by Tampa Bay in many games was a factor, and some other teams
started to copy the innovation.Sacrifice bunts dropped from 925 to 823, the
fewest since a record-low 806 in 1900, the last season with eight teams. Toronto
had a record-low five, while Oakland and the Los Angeles Angels had six apiece
and Boston seven. There were 1,667 as recently as 2011 and no club dropped below
double digits until Texas had nine in 2005. No team had fewer than 50 in
1972.Nine-inning games averaged 3:00:44, down from 3:05:11 for last season,
helped by new restrictions that cut mound visits without pitching changes to an
average of 4.01 from 7.41.There were 1,400 video reviews, an increase of four,
and overturned calls rose by six, from 47.3 percent to 47.6 percent, and the
average time of reviews dropped five seconds to 1:23.Disabled list placements
rose from 702 to 737. There were 563 in 2016, the last season before the primary
disabled list switched from 15 days to 10.
