The Atlanta Braves had a roller coaster ride of offense in Arizona, scoring seventeen runs in one game, but in the other two it was basically what seemed to be just Drake Baldwin carrying them.
The offense is going to try and kick it back into gear against the Angels in another late game but may have a tough time against José Soriano. Soriano has yet to give up a run in his twelve innings of work thus far, and his underlying metrics show that he has been borderline elite.
Now that Austin Riley had
a game off and Ronald Acuña was able to give his legs some rest by DHing, hopefully the offense can get things going like many were hoping they would. Michael Harris has also been extremely unlucky. He has a weighted OBA (wOBA) of .255, but his expected wOBA (xwOBA) is .395, which is good for top 16.0 percent of all MLB hitters. It is only a matter of time before he breaks out if he keeps swinging the bat like he is right now.
One question for the lineup today was whether Jonah Heim would be in the lineup. He leads the team in times he has seen Soriano with twelve at-bats, but he has struggled to a .083 average against him. Dominic Smith has been on fire to start the year and since Soriano is a righty it makes a ton of sense for Smith to be in at DH and Baldwin to catch.
The lineup that made the most sense in the scenario above prevailed and we are get Dominic Smith in the lineup as DH and Drake Baldwin at catcher. With how well Chris Sale talks of Baldwin, it makes sense.
On the flip side of the coin the biggest question mark for the Angels was if Mike Trout was going to start. He was hit in the hand with a pitch and is day-to-day. Luckily, the x-rays came back negative. He has seen Sale the most with twenty at-bats and has been very good against him with a .300 average and .940 OPS to include a HR.
Unfortunately for Angels fans, Trout is out today.
The only other player to face Sale a notable amount of times is 2021 World Series hero Jorge Soler with fourteen at-bats, but he has struggled with a .143 average and .536 OPS.
First pitch is at 9:38 PM EDT
