Cincinnati’s Matt Harvey will try to build on the momentum from his last start Nate Davis Jersey , but he’ll have to do it against a team that has handled the right-hander, even when he was in his top form.
Harvey (2-5, 5.66 ERA) will start the second game of a three-game series against the Atlanta Braves on Tuesday. The Braves will counter with veteran Anibal Sanchez (3-1, 2.55).
The Braves won the series opener 5-4 in 11 innings on Monday to end Cincinnati’s seven-game winning streak. Atlanta leads the season series 3-2.
“It’s starting to come around,” Harvey said. “We have been watching a lot of video, making sure everything stays the same throughout the start.”
Harvey defeated the Chicago Cubs 6-2 in his last start and allowed two runs in six innings, striking out six. That broke a three-game losing streak and improved his record to 2-3 with Cincinnati, which he joined on April 8 in a trade that sent catcher Devin Mesoraco to the New York Mets.
“(The Cubs game) was a lot closer,” Harvey said. “It’s trusting your mechanics and the work that goes in between starts.”
But in 13 career starts against Atlanta, Harvey is 3-7 with a 5.27 ERA. He appeared in two games against the Braves while with the Mets and went 0-1 with a 12.37 ERA. In his only start against Atlanta in 2018, Harvey allowed six runs in six innings.
Sanchez has been the biggest surprise of the season for Atlanta. Picked up late in spring training, the right-hander has provided consistency in the back end of the rotation. After missing a month with a hamstring injury, Sanchez has made five starts and gone 2-1 with a 3.18 ERA.
He was roughed up a bit at Toronto in last start, giving up four runs on five hits and four walks in five innings.
Sanchez has not faced the Reds this season. In four career starts against Cincinnati, Sanchez is 2-2 with a 2.52 ERA. He threw a two-hit shutout against the Reds in 2015, the last time he’s defeated them.
Atlanta continues to show the ability to produce in the late innings and lead the National League with 141 runs in the seventh or later. On Monday the Braves scored the tying run in the seventh and won it in the 11th when second baseman Ozzie Albies delivered the game-winning homer.
It was the 17th homer for Albies and the first walkoff homer of his career.
Albies is batting .545 (12-for-22) during the four games of the current homestand. He had two doubles to go with his homer on Tuesday and leads the league with 44 extra-base hits.
“He’s starting to swing the bat,” manager Brian Snitker said. “He’s been a real stellar guy for us. No doubt he’s aggressive. That makes him what he is. He’s having a heckuva year.”
Cincinnati right fielder Scott Schebler had a double and a homer in the series opener. He has hit safely in eight of his last nine games and 17 of his last 18. Schebler missed three games in the last series while on the bereavement list.
The list of players sitting out this weekend’s conference championships is almost as impressive as the starting lineups: Julian Edelman. Carson Wentz. Dalvin Cook. Dont’a Hightower. Allen Robinson. Sam Bradford.
Following the NFL’s season of carnage that claimed the likes of, among others, Aaron Rodgers, Richard Sherman Tytus Howard Jersey , Kam Chancellor, J.J. Watt, DeShaun Watson, Odell Beckham Jr. and Joe Thomas, this year’s final four all overcame not only the odds – ”Minneapolis Miracle , anyone?” – but devastating injuries to key starters.
”We have a tough and resilient team,” Philadelphia Eagles defensive end Chris Long said of the NFC’s top seed , which is missing its second-year QB in Wentz, an MVP hopeful when he blew out a knee in December.
Even before Wentz’s injury thrust backup Nick Foles into the starting job for the playoffs, the Eagles lost nine-time Pro Bowl left tackle Jason Peters, playmaking middle linebacker Jordan Hicks, versatile return specialist Darren Sproles, and special teams captain Chris Maragos.
Yet, here they are, 60 minutes from Minneapolis and Super Bowl 52.
”I think that starts at the top with Doug, because he sets the tone for being resilient and even keeled,” Long said of his coach, Doug Pederson. ”At the end of the day, we have a tough group of guys.”
So do the Minnesota Vikings, who are trying to reach their first Super Bowl in more than four decades and fulfill mantra to ”Bring it Home” and become the first NFL team to play the title game in its own stadium.
And they’re doing so behind Case Keenum Gary Jennings Jr. Jersey , who crashed Tom Brady’s playoff party along with fellow perennial backup Foles and Jacksonville Jaguars QB Blake Bortles.
Together, the four quarterbacks left standing have a combined five Super Bowl rings, two NFL MVP awards and four Super Bowl MVP trophies. Brady, of course, owns all of that hardware himself.
Such is the panorama of these playoffs following a season of pain in which so many superstars were rendered sideline spectators with broken bones, snapped ligaments, torn muscles.
Keenum replaced an injured Bradford, who had replaced an injured Teddy Bridgewater. Bradford, now back in uniform as Keenum’s backup, blew out a knee in the first month of the season, as did rookie running back in Cook, who needed reconstructive surgery to repair a torn ACL.
Behind resilient coach Mike Zimmer , who resisted the urge to quit just before he got the Vikings’ head coaching gig in 2014, Minnesota rolled right along. Keenum deftly took over for Bradford, and Jerick McKinnon and Latavius Murray became a productive backfield tandem.
”We’ve got a bunch of fighters on this team,” Zimmer said. ”They’ve been a resilient bunch all year long. I expect it to continue to be that way.”
The Patriots are also a bunch of fighters; they reached their seventh straight AFC title game despite losing Edelman, Brady’s top target, to a torn ACL in the preseason, and Hightower to a torn chest muscle in November.
Play caller Josh McDaniels and Brady, who led New England to a fifth Super Bowl title last year despite the absence of Rob Gronkowski Ugo Amadi Jersey , adjusted accordingly to Edelman’s absence with another terrific year.
Linebacker Kyle Van Noy stepped in for Hightower and ranked third on the team with 73 tackles and second with 5+ sacks despite missing three of the final five games with a calf injury.
Van Noy’s sack total was just a half-sack shy of Hightower’s career high set in 2014.
”The thing about K.V. is he’s very versatile,” said Patriots safety and defensive captain Devin McCourty. ”So we’ve used him a bunch of different ways. … He’s been a big asset to our team.”
The Jaguars are the healthiest of the remaining playoff teams. They have only one opening-day starter on injured reserve: former Pro Bowl receiver Robinson, who tore his left ACL on Jacksonville’s opener.
Four months removed from reconstructive surgery, Robinson is now traveling with the team, so he’ll be on the sideline Sunday at New England, serving as a mentor to a raw receiving corps.
”Every person in this locker room put in a lot of work to get to this point, with me being one of them,” said Robinson, who was poised for another big year after dominating the league’s best secondary in training camp.
His injury on Jacksonville’s third offensive snap created a huge void for the offense. Marqise Lee and Allen Hurns tried to pick up the slack, but they ended up on the sideline at one point with injuries, too, leaving rookies Keelan Cole and Dede Westbrook to assume bigger roles.
Cole, an undrafted rookie from tiny Kentucky Wesleyan, had 42 catches for 748 yards and three scores in the regular season. He added a clutch 45-yard catch that set up a late TD in Jacksonville’s 45-42 stunner at Pittsburgh last week.
”I wish I could just wake up tomorrow and feel like I did Sept. 9,” Robinson said, ”but I understand it’s going to be a process. I know I’ll be back to that point and better.”
Like so many other stars, Robinson will be in street clothes Sunday, cheering on his teammates in hopes of getting a sideline pass to the Super Bowl.