Charlie Morton starts as the Braves begin series against Dodgers

The Atlanta Braves will continue their road trip Friday when they begin a three-game series against the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Braves avoided a sweep with a 5-2 win in Seattle Wednesday. They will send Charlie Morton to the mound Friday for the series opener. The Dodgers will counter with right-hander Gavin Stone.

The Braves enter the series with a 20-9 record and a half game lead in the NL East over the Philadelphia Phillies. After Wednesday’s win, the Braves are hoping that their offensive fortunes are starting to turn. Atlanta still ranks in the top 5 in the majors with 157 runs scored and is tied for third with a 117 wRC+ as a team. They have however struggled over the last few weeks and haven’t homered in their last five games. After leading the majors and tying the major league record with 307 homers last season, the Braves currently rank 20th with just 29.

Ronald Acuña Jr, Austin Riley and Matt Olson combined for five hits and drove in four of Atlanta’s five runs in Wednesday’s win over the Mariners. All three came into the series struggling, but are showing signs of turning things around.

Morton is coming off of his best start of the season where he allowed four hits and struck out six over seven scoreless innings against the Cleveland Guardians. Morton has allowed just two runs combined over his last two starts (13 innings). He did struggle against the Dodgers in two starts last season allowing 13 hits and eight runs in nine innings.

Stone will make his sixth start of the season for the Dodgers in Friday’s opener. He faced the Braves once last season and was tagged for five runs in just four innings of work. Stone is coming off his best outing of the season where he allowed two hits and one run over seven innings against the Blue Jays. Stone has issued seven walks over his last 3 ¹⁄₃ innings, but has only allowed one home run all season.

Monday’s game has the late start time of 10:10 p.m. ET and can be seen on Bally Sports South.

Game Info

Game Date/Time: Friday, May 3, 10:10 p.m. ET

Location: Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles, California

TV: Bally Sports South, MLB Network

Streaming: MLB.tv

Radio: 680 AM / 93.7 FM The Fan