Braves vs – After a 1-6 stretch dropped Atlanta from baseball’s best-record race, the Braves host the Brewers on Friday, June 19, with Martin Perez expected to face Jacob Misiorowski—an inhuman 2026 run that has made the left-hander the Mets? no, the story—MLB’s top pitch
The Braves have been sliding for long enough that it stopped feeling like a normal dip and started feeling like a lost grip.
Over their last seven games. they went 1-6. and they’ve now collected three straight series losses—two of them shortened by rain. The fallout is tangible: Atlanta is a full game behind the Dodgers in the best record race. and it’s sitting just a half-game ahead of the Brewers. For a holiday weekend series that could have reset the temperature, the schedule doesn’t offer much mercy.
Friday night at Truist Park, the matchup is the kind that turns a slump into a test. Atlanta will host the Brewers, with first pitch set for 7:15 p.m. EDT at Truist Park in Atlanta, Georgia. The radio broadcast will air on 680 AM / 93.7 FM The Fan.
On the mound, Martin Perez gets the start for the Braves. The plan wasn’t always framed this way—Perez had once been discussed as a Chris Sale-Miz matchup placeholder—but Atlanta isn’t in the business of handing out extra starts to stars. Perez it is.
Perez, to his credit, has taken over an “unexpectedly pretty good starter” role from Bryce Elder. Through the season, Perez has a 0.8 fWAR with a 70/93/94 line across 62 total innings. It’s not the kind of track record you can count on to erase everything in a single night. especially with how Atlanta’s offense has to work around the unknowns of Perez’s style. The expectation coming in is modest: keep the score fairly close if he can manage a relatively short outing.
The harder question belongs to Atlanta’s hitters.
Jacob Misiorowski—the Miz—has been dismantling major-league batters. His debut in 2025 was already strong, with 1.2 fWAR and a 104/88/89 line (ERA-/FIP-/xFIP-) in 15 appearances, including 14 starts. But 2026 has been a different sport.
Through 14 starts this season, Misiorowski has completed 87 innings with a 33/40/49 line. His production is so eye-popping it’s led to him placing near the top of multiple pitching measures at once: he has 3.9 fWAR and leads MLB in pitching fWAR. FIP-. and xFIP-. while sitting second by a smidge in ERA-.
April was very good. Then May arrived, and the numbers shifted again.
In his last eight starts, Misiorowski has an 80/9 K/BB ratio and a 4/18/38 line. It’s the kind of stretch that doesn’t just suppress runs—it turns every at-bat into a fight for contact and timing.
He’s also coming off one of the most dominant outings fans have seen in a long time: a near-perfect game where he faced the minimum. threw just 95 pitches. and struck out 15 Phillies. The Phillies weren’t even in a prolonged offensive slump when it happened—Atlanta is dealing with the reality that Misiorowski can carve through teams that can still hit.
For the Braves, the stakes are clear even if the margin feels small. They’re trying to arrest a slide that has already cost them ground in the best-record chase. and they can’t afford to let this series drift further into the kind of weekend where rain shortened games turn into momentum for the other side.
And as Atlanta walks into Friday night at Truist Park, with Misiorowski lined up and Perez tasked with weathering whatever comes first, the story isn’t just about who wins a matchup.
It’s about whether a struggling team can slow down a pitcher who seems to be turning every start into something closer to a statement than a performance.
Braves Brewers Martin Perez Jacob Misiorowski Truist Park MLB June 19 7:15 p.m. EDT 680 AM 93.7 FM The Fan MLB pitching