Know Your Opponent: Mississippi Braves

The Rocket City Trash Pandas will face the Mississippi Braves in a unique road series at Toyota Field. The two teams will play five games in four days starting on Thursday due to unplayable field conditions in Mississippi.

Rocket City split its last series against Mississippi when the two teams met in early May.

This will be the last meeting between the two teams this season.

Rocket City enters the series having won five of six games at home against the Chattanooga Lookouts, including the final four games of the set.

Who’s Hot:

• Eric Wagaman: Hit 11-for-17 (.647) with two home runs and five RBI in five games last week.
• Gustavo Campero: Hit 8-for-19 (.421) with one home run and two RBI in five games.
• Caden Dana: Recorded career-high eight innings pitched with 10 strikeouts on Friday.

Rocket City Trends:

• Rocket City won five games in a series for the first time since 4/11-16 of 2023 at Birmingham.
• Orlando Martinez is one game away from the Trash Pandas all-time games played record (Bryce Teodosio, 230 games).
• Wagaman, Campero and Denzer Guzman all tie for the longest active hitting streak at seven games.
• Campero, Tyler Payne and Nelson Rada all hit over .300 (minimum 10 at-bats) in the Trash Pandas last series against the Braves.

Braves Last Series: 2-4 @ Pensacola

The Braves won the first two games on the road against the Blue Wahoos, which included a 14-6 win on Wednesday.

Mississippi couldn’t keep it up the rest of the series, dropping the final four contests which featured three losses by one run.

Braves Hitting:

The Braves rank fourth in the Southern League with a .231 average and are one of two teams in the league with over 100 stolen bases.

Nacho Alvarez Jr. is one to watch with a .265 average with 15 RBI and 16 stolen bases. The infielder led the team with four RBI during their last series against the Trash Pandas.

Yolbert Sanchez is the Braves active leader in batting average at .303 while Justin Dean paces the squad with 23 stolen bases.

Braves Pitching:

Sitting sixth in the Southern League with a 3.76 ERA and fourth in strikeouts with 520, Mississippi’s rotation looks a lot different compared to the last time Rocket City saw them.

Ian Mejia still leads the squad with a 5-0 record and a 1.66 ERA but with the promotion of Hurston Waldrep to the Atlanta Braves, that opens the door for a former Los Angeles Angels infielder.

David Fletcher was assigned to the Braves and has made two starts as a knuckleballer. He is set to start against the Trash Pandas this week.

Braves Prospect Watch:

With the Braves losing prospects such as Waldrep and catcher Drake Baldwin to higher levels in recent weeks, Mississippi holds two of the Atlanta Braves top 30 prospects.

Alvarez Jr. is the lone top 10 prospect as he sits at No. 6.

Starting pitcher Luis De Avila is the other ranked prospect at No. 20, he is slated to start on Thursday.