Los Angeles Angels manager Ron Washington will spend the rest of the season looking at the youngsters, determining how they fit into the franchise’s future.
Atlanta Braves manager Brian Snitker already knows he’s got a great fit with 23-year-old Michael Harris II in his outfield. Harris likely will start Sunday when the Braves meet the Angels in the final contest of their three-game series in Anaheim, Calif.
The teams split the first two games, the Angels winning 3-2 on Friday and the Braves taking an 11-3 victory on Saturday.
Harris is in his third major league season, debuting in 2022 when he won the National League Rookie of the Year award and ranked 13th in the NL MVP voting.
His numbers are slightly down from his first two big league seasons, a big part of that the result of a strained left hamstring that kept him out for two months before returning earlier this week on Wednesday.
Harris has the Braves’ training and coaching staffs to help him handle the everyday stuff, but the outfielder credits Marquis Grissom, who played 17 seasons in the majors, including two with the Braves, for helping his career progress.
After Grissom retired in 2005, a decade after winning the World Series with the Braves, he founded the Marquis Grissom Baseball Association in the Atlanta area, aiming to coach and mentor kids in underserved areas. One of those young people was Harris, who was 15 when he met Grissom.
“I would say he is a big reason why I know a lot of stuff,” Harris said. “He helped me learn how to prepare for games. When certain situations come up, I’m ready because he has told me some of his stories and how he has handled things. He’s won multiple Gold Gloves and that’s something I want to do. So, just listening to him has been huge for me at the start of my career.”
Harris went 3-for-5 with a double and two runs on Saturday.
Right-hander Charlie Morton (6-7, 4.40 ERA) is scheduled to start Sunday for Atlanta, coming off a no-decision against the San Francisco Giants after allowing two runs in six innings in a game the Braves won in extra innings.
He is 4-2 with a 3.90 ERA in 11 career starts against the Angels.
Right-hander Jack Kochanowicz (1-2, 7.98) will make his fourth start of the season for the Angels, coming off his only victory of the year in his most recent start. That came Aug. 11 when he gave up two runs in 7 2/3 innings to the Washington Nationals.
Kochanowicz has never faced the Braves.
The Angels traded their top two relievers in Carlos Estevez and Luis Garcia at the trade deadline, leaving manager Washington to mix and match for the remainder of the season.
The club went outside the organization to get some help on Wednesday, claiming Brock Burke off waivers from the Texas Rangers. Burke had a 1.97 ERA in 2022 for Texas, but has not been able to repeat the feat. This year he posted a 9.22 ERA for the Rangers and also had to deal with a fractured right hand that cost him two months of the season.
But in his Angels debut on Friday, he threw 1 2/3 scoreless innings, including escaping a bases-loaded, one-out situation.
“I just think I need to get out there and pitch,” Burke said. “I haven’t really had much consistency of pitching a lot this year. I haven’t really gotten on a roll. Once I feel good and get on a roll, I think the rest will be history.”
–Field Level Media
