The Braves have managed Ronald Acuña Jr. carefully since his return from a second injured list stint this season due to a left hamstring strain
That plan has included mixing in days for Acuña as designated hitter, a role he will fill for the second time in three days when the Braves continue their three-game series at the Chicago Cubs Tuesday at 7:40 p.m. EDT.
Mauricio Dubón is also back at shortstop and hitting fifth, while Brewer Hicklen makes a somewhat rare start, hitting ninth and playing right
field for Game 2 of the series.
Also of note, Ozzie Albies is down to the eighth spot in the batting order against a right-handed starting pitcher for Chicago.
The Cubs waited until nearly 6 p.m. EDT (over two hours after the Braves’ lineup was posted) to release their lineup.
No major surprises in there. Michael Busch drops from third to sixth against a left-handed starter. Tyrone Taylor, acquired from the Mets in the David Peterson trade, is batting cleanup and playing left field. Matt Shaw replaces Michael Conforto as DH in the seven-hole, and Miguele Amaya replaces at the bottom of the lineup and behind the plate.
The active Braves have a combined 100 career at-bats against Cubs starter Kevin Gausman, hitting .240 against him with just three walks and 22 strikeouts. The slugging percentage, though, is a more respectable. 450.
Of Atlanta’s six all-time homers against the right-hander, Matt Olson (6-for-19) has three of them, making this a possible night for him to hit homer No. 40. Austin Riley (4-for-9, one homer), Dubón (3-for-9, one homer) and Mike Yastrzemski (3-for-9, one homer) have all had success against Gausman as well, while Albies (1-for-7), Michael Harris II (2-for-9) and Ha-Seong Kim (0-for-6) have had less.
Of the Cubs’ hitters 77 all-time at-bats against Braves starter Martín Pérez, Alex Bregman has over half of them (42, to be exact). He’s 10-for-42 (.238) against Pérez with just one extra-base hit (a double) and one RBI. However, he does have a 373 on-base percentage behind nearly twice as many walks (nine) as strikeouts (five).
Overall, Chicago’s hitters are 15-for-77 (.195) against Perez. No one has had much success against him, with Taylor (2-for-7) posting the best batting average against him at .286. The current Cubs have never hit a homer off Pérez and have just four RBIs against him.
