RESOLVING THE LEDGER
This is one outlet's own report from Yahoo Sports — the article as it was filed. Other outlets are covering the same event; open the full story to compare every source side by side.
See the full story · 2 sourcesCINCINNATI, OH - MAY 31: Reynaldo López #40 of the Atlanta Braves pitches during the game between the Atlanta Braves and the Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ball Park on Sunday, May 31, 2026 in Cincinnati, Ohio. (Photo by Colten Strauss/MLB Photos via Getty Images) | MLB Photos via Getty Images
A closely-fought series between the NL East-leading Atlanta Braves and the currently-hot Baltimore Orioles will come down to the Sunday matinee game, as Reynaldo López will be looking to make a bounce-back start in order to help potentially push the Braves to another series win.
López will be entering this game fresh off the heels of one of his worst starts of the season so far, which is when he got tagged for five runs over 4.1 innings against the Padres. It would be easy to chalk it up to it simply being a case of the Padres playing the Braves tough as usual but that start came ten days after López got hit hard by the Cardinals for four runs over five innings, so it could be a case of López running into a real rough patch.
With that being said, one thing that appears to be aberrant when comparing López’s most recent start to the past is the fact that he walked three batters against the Padres. That was his season-high for walks and when you consider that he’s got a 3.45 BB/9 so far this season, that could be an indication that we’re not going to see Reynaldo walk as many batters this time around.
Then again, the Orioles are one of the best teams in baseball when it comes to coaxing walks out of opposing pitchers (their 10.2 percent walk rate leads the American League and is tired for third place in all of baseball with the Dodgers) and they’ve been especially good at it during this successful month for them so far, as they have the best walk rate in all of baseball (11.4 percent) during the month of June. If the last start was an aberration for López then he’ll certainly have his work cut out for him trying to prove it against this particular lineup.
Conversely, the Orioles will be starting Shane Baz, who hasn’t walked a guy since the fifth inning of his start on July 7 against the Cubs. Ever since then, he’s thrown 10.2 innings and struck out 15 batters while only giving up six hits and three runs. With that being said, his defense did let him down a bit in their showdown earlier this week against the Red Sox, which is when Baz only gave up one earned run but ended up seeing four Red Sox base runners cross home plate while he was on the mound after the O’s committed three errors during his appearance.
Those errors proved costly as the Red Sox ended up winning that game by one run and the Braves know all-too-well what effect defensive gaffes can have on a game after what happened last night, so maybe defense will be a priority during today’s game as well.
Despite Baltimore’s current overall record, a win for the Braves today would be pretty big in terms of recent performances. Atlanta’s coming off of a successful homestand to start the second half and could get their first road trip of this crucial portion of the season off to a good start with a win against an Orioles squad that has been playing a lot better lately than what their overall record indicates. The offense will have to figure out a way to get Shane Baz to crack and Reynaldo López will have to figure out a way to keep the Orioles from walking their way into dangerous situations against Atlanta, so this’ll certainly be an intriguing game to watch with the series on the line. Let’s see what happens, folks.
Game Info
Game Date/Time: Sunday, July 26, 1:35 pm ET
Location: Camden Yards, Baltimore, MD
TV: BravesVision
Streaming: MLB.tv
Radio: 680 AM / 93.7 FM The Fan
AIPROPX is an independent multi-source news index — we track, compare, and connect coverage from across the web into one place you won't find anywhere else.