Braves are back home Friday night to take on Seattle and are giving their slumping superstar a night off against tough right-handed starter Logan Gilbert.
With Profar back from the paternity list he moves back to his customary lead off spot with Ozzie Albies taking over the 3-hole in Acuña’s absence. Drake Baldwin gets a start at catcher, which has become a nightly update, and new shortstop Ha-Seong Kim getting up as high as fifth in the lineup
with slumping Marcell Ozuna all the way down to seventh. Jake Fraley takes over for Acuña in right field with a RHP on the mound with Nacho Alvarez rounding out the lineup.
Seattle comes in having lost 14 out of their last 21 games and is danger of falling out of a playoff spot if they have a bad weekend in Atlanta. Facing off against Chris Sale certainly isn’t ideal for them.
Seattle stacks a pretty formidable top 5 with Randy Arozarena, Cal Raleigh, Julio Rodriguez, Eugenio Suarez, and Jorge Polanco, especially with a LHP on the mound as 3 of 4 are right-handed and Raleigh and Polanco are switch hitters. Those 5 have combined to hit 170 homers this season. The Braves entire team has hit 158 homers this season.
