After a couple of feel-good wins in Miami, the Braves can take the four-game set with another victory on Thursday night. Ha-Seong Kim returns to the lineup, and Chadwick Tromp will make his first start of the year as the Braves take aim at Sandy Alcantara.
For the Marlins, it’s mostly a familiar set of faces at this point. Owen Caissie is still in the lineup after getting shaken up on Dominic Smith’s “triple” last night, so that’s good to see. This lineup is somewhat similar to the one the Marlins used
when clobbering the Braves on Monday, though it features Christopher Morel over Connor Norby at first base, and has Caissie dropped down to seventh.
For both the Marlins (44 batting orders in 50 games coming into this one) and the Braves (37 in 50), this will be a novel lineup.
Only the first five guys in Miami’s order have ever faced Spencer Strider, and all have either two or three PAs against him. The combined line is a .212 wOBA and .287 xwOBA in 14 PAs, with all the good stuff coming from Xavier Edwards and Otto Lopez, and everyone else not having anything positive to speak of yet.
For the Braves, it’s a completely different story given Alcantara’s durability and tenure. Everyone but Tromp has faced him at least once, with the head-to-head matchups ranging from 16 (Kim) to 51 (Ozzie Albies). It’s definitely kind of a mixed bag of performances, led by Ronald Acuña Jr. and Michael Harris, without a lot of other positives (though at least Albies has good results). Collectively, it’s a whopping 243 career PAs between this octet and Alcantara, with a collective .317 wOBA (eh) but a .281 xwOBA (bleh).
We’ll see what happens.
