The Atlanta Braves have the hottest offense in MLB since the start of July. No team has scored more runs than them, and they currently are third in wRC+.
Of course Drake Baldwin and Austin Riley coming out of the All-Star break on fire has helped, but that has only been a small part of the success. The Braves had twelve different players in the month of July with a wRC+ of league average or better. Of course, of those was a pitcher with one at-bat, but it still counts!
Walt Weiss has been able to throw
lineups out there to meet the matchup that puts his players in the best position to succeed and there is no doubt that on paper he did again today against a lefty starter. Before the lineup drops there are always questions to ponder. Questions like if Kyle Farmer will get the start at DH having success against JP Sears in his career and Dominic Smith struggling. We always have the question if Baldwin will DH and have Joey Bart start, and also the question that we hopefully have a consistent answer now as to who would be the starting shortstop.
Weiss decided to go with Baldwin as the DH and have Bart catch.
Mauricio Dubón leads the team with twenty at-bats against Sears and has had great success with an OPS of .900 and a HR. All the other Braves starters to have at least ten at-bats have struggled. This list includes Austin Riley with a .633 OPS, Matt Olson with a .573 OPS, Michael Harris with a .400 OPS, and Ozzie Albies with a .282 OPS.
Good news is that Drake Baldwin has not struggled, but that is because even though Sears faced the Braves in June, Baldwin was not in the lineup. Jim Jarvis has also not faced Sears either.
For the Padres, they have been hot as well offensively. They are eighth in runs scored since the start of July and tenth in wRC+. They also have eleven position players who have a wRC+ of league average or better with Luis Campusano and Ty France being the leading forces of the squad.
No player on the Padres has more than five at-bats against Elder, who did not face the Padres in the last series this season. The player with the most career success against Elder is arguably Jake Cronenworth with a three-run HR in three at-bats. Jackson Merrill is one for two, and Fernando Tatis Jr. has two RBI in three at-bats.
Two top ten offenses face off against two underperforming SPs. This could be a shootout. First pitch is at 7:15 EDT.
