It was a win-win for Michael Harris as he was on paternity leave to be with his family, and the Atlanta Braves were able to score a large number of runs while he was out. The Braves’ offense now averages 5.62 runs per game behind only three other teams after the massive 13-1 blowout yesterday.
With the announcement of Harris coming back we could assume already that he would be back in the lineup, which means that Mauricio Dubón’s stint at CF is done for the moment. The Dubón trade may go down as the best
offseason addition by Alex Anthopoulos in a landslide not only for the offensive upgrade, but the versatility he has already brought this team.
The 5.62 runs per game has been impressive, especially considering the Braves are down Sean Murphy, and Ha-Seong Kim, plus Ronald Acuña and Austin Riley have had slow starts.
Today the offense will be facing Eury Pérez who is a righty, and Weiss has been pretty consistent in his lineups when facing them, at least in terms of who is drawing the start. No Braves player has faced Pérez in more than six at-bats, but Dominic Smith, who typically only starts against righties is one of two players to do so with Matt Olson being the other. Smith has been successful in those at-bats with an .833 OPS.
Drake Baldwin has two HRs in only four at-bats against Pérez, and Ozzie Albies and Ronald Acuña both have a HR against him as well. Considering the Braves are second behind only the mighty Dodgers in HRs this season, we may be in store for a HR happy evening.
In his return, Harris will be batting eighth. Maybe with his time out, his luck has flipped. His BABIP has been terrible at .256 and his xwOBA is on the top 9.0 of MLB. He has a wOBA of .287, yet his xwOBA is .401. He has arguably been the unluckiest hitter in the sport. Dubón will no be back at SS, and batting ninth.
The Miami Marlins only have five players who have faced Grant Holmes before, and three have struggled in limited action. Xavier Edwards has a .393 OPS in seven at-bats, while Connor Norby and Agustín Ramírez are both hitless so far in four and three at-bats respectively. Otto Lopez and Liam Hicks both have a hit in their two at-bats.
Surprisingly, the Marlins offense is scoring 4.38 runs per game which is in the top half of MLB. Grant Holmes is not going to have a walk in the park so to speak as some may assume.
First pitch is at 7:15 EDT.
