It’s back to facing off against the usual suspects for the Atlanta Braves, as their 2026 train now rolls into familiar territory for the next week of baseball action. This includes four games with the Marlins in Miami and three games at home against the Nationals. This is certainly a golden chance for the Braves to continue to put some serious distance between themselves and their divisional foes but as you can imagine, these two teams aren’t going to just roll over for the Braves and get ran over.
Instead, this’ll probably be (here we go again) tricky for the Braves to navigate. The Marlins and Nationals are both going to provide a unique set of challenges that’ll be tough for the Braves to deal with but at the same time, it also helps that this Braves team has experience and knows what to expect from both Miami and Washington at this point. It’s time to take a further look into what’s in store for the Braves this week.
May 18-21: Miami Marlins
Current Record: 21-26 Projected Record (via FanGraphs): 75-87
The last time the Braves saw the Marlins was around this time last month when Miami made the trip to Cobb County. Miami actually took the first game in convincing 10-4 fashion before the Braves got it in gear and won the next two in order to clinch the series. Ever since then the Marlins have been on a bumpy road. They have series wins over the Cardinals and the Dodgers (in Dodger Stadium, no less) but ever since that run, it’s been pretty rough. They dropped three out of four against the Phillies at home and that began a 2-6 stretch that only abated once they took a series win over the Nationals. Now they’re entering this series with the Braves having dropped two straight series on the road and are essentially limping back home.
As far as their record goes, this isn’t particularly a case of a team that’s playing above or below their weight class. Their Expected W/L record and their Pythagorean W/L are an identical 22-25, which seems to suggest that this is just who the Marlins are at this point. Their pitching staff has a collective 103 ERA- with a 97 FIP-, which seem like totally middle-of-the-road numbers until you break it down by rotation and bullpen. That’s when you see that the starting pitching has actually not been great for Miami at all (118 ERA-, 104 FIP-) while the bullpen has been lights out (81 ERA-, 85 FIP-) when called upon. It’ll likely be crucial for the Braves to do their damage early because if they leave it too late, that late-game magic may be tough to conjure up against this bullpen in particular.
With that being said, it’s pretty difficult to avoid seeing the best of any given pitching staff during a four-game series and the Braves are going to have to deal with Max Meyer, Janson Junk and Sandy Alcantara, who have been Miami’s top starters so far. As far as Miami’s top three hitters go, the three guys to keep an eye on are Otto Lopez, Xavier Edwards and Liam Hicks. If the Braves can avoid getting beat by that trio while taking care of the rest of Miami’s underwhelming lineup (team wRC+ of 97) then this could be a productive four-game series for the Braves. A split is the bare minimum result, here.
Monday, May 18 at 6:40 p.m. ET (BravesVision, Gray TV)
Tuesday, May 19 at 4:10 p.m. ET (BravesVision)
Wednesday, May 20 at 6:40 p.m. ET (BravesVision)
Thursday, May 21 at 6:40 p.m. ET (BravesVision)
May 22-24: Washington Nationals
Current Record: 23-24 Projected Record: 72-90
Well, here we are, a week before Memorial Day and the Nationals are still floating around .500. Washington is also on a bit of a NL East sojourn, themselves, as they’ll be coming to town after having hosted the Mets for four games (and the Marlins will be seeing the Mets while this series is going on, so there will be plenty of intra-NL East action this week). They’re actually having to scrape and claw for second place because the Phillies are proving that simply firing your manager apparently is the key to success and if I’m being honest, it likely won’t be long until the Nationals get left in the dust and have to fight with the Mets and Marlins for third place in the division.
That’s because not a lot has changed for the Nationals since the last time they ran into the Braves. Washington still has a top-10 offense according to team wRC+ (107) but their pitching staff is absolutely dreadful. Cade Cavalli is clearly their best starting pitcher, which is not a position you want to be in. In fact, none of their pitchers have yet to clear the 1.0 fWAR mark. For comparison’s sake, both Bryce Elder and Chris Sale have cleared that mark. Cavalli is at 0.9 fWAR and one he does clear that mark, he’ll likely be alone in that territory for a good, long while. The good news for the Braves is that they’ll likely avoid Cavalli since he’s currently slated to pitch the series finale against the Mets, so that could be good news for the Braves after dealing with Miami’s pitching staff.
Still, the Nationals have to be taken seriously because their lineup is no joke. CJ Abrams and James Wood have proved to be a fairly effective dynamic duo and Daylen Lile is also starting to establish himself as a dangerous big league hitter as well. Joey Weimer and Curtis Mead have also been very reliable for this team when called upon and then dealing with José Tena and Luis García Jr. won’t be a walk in the park either. If this goes how the first series in D.C. went then expect this to be a stressful affair where the Braves are going to have to swing the bat effectively every single night in order to come away with a series win.
Friday, May 22 at 7:15 p.m. ET (BravesVision)
Saturday, May 23 at 4:10 p.m. ET (BravesVision)
Sunday, May 24 at 4:10 p.m. ET (BravesVision)
Read the full article here