GDW Analysis:
BRISTOL, Tennessee: Despite having a season of "underachieving," the Atlanta Braves will be part of history Saturday evening.
The Braves and Cincinnati Reds will meet in the MLB Speedway Classic from legendary Bristol Motor Speedway.
A report through MLB has it that 85,000 tickets have been sold and will set a new record for attendance in seeing professional baseball.
MLB has to be grateful in that fact, for the Braves are not playing to their normal standards, enroute of having a losing season for the first time since 2017.
The Braves went to Cincinnati for 2 games with the Reds before the Speedway Classic at 45 & 62.
The Braves have lost 8 of their last 10 games, falling Wednesday to the Kansas City Royals 1 to 0 in 10 innings.
Cincinnati is 57 & 52, 2nd in the NL Central to the Cubs who were 63 & 45 as of Thursday.
The Reds are currently 1st in the NL Wild Card standings, 2 games ahead of the St. Louis Cardinals and 3 up on the San Francisco Giants.
To make it worthwhile for the Braves, they will send Spencer Strider to the mound for the classic.
Strider is performing much better than earlier in the season. The right hander is 5 & 8 with an ERA of 3.71. Strider has walked 32 batters, struck out 92 with the opposition hitting just .222 against him.
The Braves now have a pitching staff with no one in the regular rotation when the season started for all of them are on the disabled list.
All Star outfielder Ronald Acuna Jr is hitting with 14 home runs and 26 RBIs.
Standout 1B Matt Olson has a team high 18 home runs, 67 runs batted in.
The Braves have gone through inconsistency since the start of the 2nd half as several everyday starters have experienced battling slumps.
Tickets remain available as MLB reports the temporary site for the game can hold 90,000.
For those from this area that may want to be in person to see this historic event, it will take 5 hours and 46 minutes to travel, a distance of 346 miles from Cullman to the speedway.
The game will be at 6:15 p.m. Saturday and will be carried live on your home for the Braves, WKUL FM (92.1).
Photo of the setup for Major League Baseball to be played between the Braves and Reds Saturday at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Photo courtesy of CNBC.
