The Atlanta Braves have been one of the best teams since the All-Star break, and also have won the most games against winning teams in MLB. That being said, it has not been because of their underperforming offense.
For the season the Braves have done decent. They have scored the ninth most runs in MLB. However, if you look at the second half, the story is not as bright. Since the break they are seventeenth, and over the last two weeks they are twenty-third in runs scored. They have had some tough
opponents, and are playing through the toughest part of their schedule, but the offense needs to catch a spark.
Today catching spark might be difficult against All-Star Jesús Luzardo in the midst of arguably the best season of his career.
Jesús Luzardo is a lefty, which means the lineup would already look a little different than usual. The main player to get excited about is trade deadline acquisition Lane Thomas. He has faced Jesús Luzardo in twenty-two at-bats and has four HRs, .409 average, and an OPS of 1.503. Unfortunately, outside of Mauricio Dubón’s 1.500 OPS in six at-bats, every other player on the roster has struggled in their career to Luzardo and that includes Albies, Olson, and Riley all having more twenty-two or more at-bats against him.
The question today before the lineup dropped was who was going to be DH and where Dubón was doing to play. An educated guess would be that Baldwin is DH, Murphy is at C, Dubón at SS, and Lane Thomas in LF based purely on the pitching matchup. That being said, we are not privy to conversations behind closed doors. There is also the possibility of Kyle Farmer playing since he historically has done well against lefties, but that would likely mean the red hot Sean Murphy would sit.
We have our answer.
Walt Weiss will be going with a slightly different approach with Ronald Acuña Jr. at DH and back to the leadoff spot. This will put Thomas in RF, and Weiss is starting Ha-Seong Kim, which shifts Dubón to LF. Of note, Weiss is trusting Thomas’ strong history against Luzardo and batting him fifth while also shifting Olson down to fourth.
On the Phillies’ side of things, no player has more than Brandon Marsh’s nine at-bats against Grant Holmes. Marsh has struggled to a .555 OPS against Holmes. Kyle Schwarber only has a .143 average against Holmes in eight at-bats, but has a HR and .904 OPS in that span. Bryce Harper only has four at-bats but has made the most of them with two hits to include a HR and an OPS of 1.964. Trea Turner has also been successful with a HR of his own and an OPS of 1.158 in seven at-bats. No other regular starter has seen much success. Hopefully that means if Holmes can lock in against the heart of the order, he will be okay.
First pitch is at 1:05 EDT.
