The Atlanta Braves are back from their quick road trip to Washington DC, where they earned a split against the Nationals. In order to keep pace with the Mets and the two wild card candidates from the NL West, they will have to find a way to trip up the current leaders of the NL West: the Los Angeles Dodgers.

We have a very interesting pitching matchup for tonight’s game as we see two rookies go head to head. Atlanta’s rookie of choice for tonight is Spencer Schwellenbach, who will look to bounce back after struggling a bit last time out against the Blue Jays. The good news is that, aside from his first full month as a major league starter, Schwellenbach has done a pretty good job of not turning one bad start into two.

That said, this is shaping up to be a pretty tough test for Schwellenbach. The Dodgers enter this game with a combined wRC+ of 115, which is just one point behind the Yankees for first place in all of baseball and tied with the Diamondbacks for the lead in the NL. If Schwellenbach can keep this lineup quiet tonight, it’ll be a pretty big feather in his cap as far as his rookie season goes.

Meanwhile, the Braves are set to make a deal with a rookie from Los Angeles, as the Dodgers go with Landon Knack for tonight’s game. Knack has been under pressure as LA’s 2024 starting rotation has been plagued by injuries, and so far he’s performed exactly as you’d imagine a Dodgers spot starter to perform. Which is to say he’s gotten on the field, made it to the fifth inning and sometimes six innings and done just enough to keep the Dodgers offense in the thick of things.

Knack’s worst start came on July 4, when he gave up four runs in just 4.1 innings against the Diamondbacks, but he’s been on a roll since then. He’s given up just four runs in his last 15 innings in three starts — including 16 strikeouts and just three walks. Like Schwellenbach, Knack being a rookie doesn’t mean this will be an easy day at the plate for the Braves. In fact, there have been few easy days for Atlanta at the plate, no matter who the opponent is. We can only hope that today is one of those days where the lineup wakes up and plays.

That’s probably something we can count on the Braves to do. One of the things that’s consistent about this team outside of the pitching and the injuries is the fact that this team is usually up or down relative to its competition. The Braves are 46-37 against teams above .500 — only 3 teams have a better record against teams with winning records than the Braves. Unfortunately, one of those teams is actually the Dodgers, who are 47-38 against teams with winning records in 2024.

So yeah, this is shaping up to be a nail-biter, and we’ll likely only have more nail-biters ahead of us as long as the Braves continue to fight for a Wild Card spot. The Padres play the Giants and should take care of business there, but the Diamondbacks host the Brewers and the Phillies host the Mets. There’s potential for the Braves to have a few teams give them a few solid games tonight (and the rest of the weekend), but none of that will matter unless the Braves can beat the Dodgers tonight. It’s a tall order, but it’s not an impossible mission.

Game info

Date/time of the match: Friday, September 12, 7:20 PM ET

Location: Truist Park, Atlanta, GA

TV: NO

Streaming: Apple TV+

Radio: 680 AM / 93.7 FM The Fan