While the Braves are taking a very passive approach to their pitching this weekend in order to best align for next week’s wild-card series at Truist Park, the lineup is being kept in top condition.
For Game 1 of its final regular-season series at Miami (Friday at 7:10 EDT), Atlanta is using a lineup that could very resemble the one it opens the postseason with next Tuesday.
Drake Baldwin leads off and will be the designated hitter against a right-handed starter, while Ronald Acuña Jr., Matt Olson and Michael
Harris II round out the top four in the order. Mauricio Dubón will hit fifth and play shortstop, while Sean Murphy is catching and hitting ninth.
No real surprises in the lineup for the Marlins, who were only eliminated from playoff contention last Friday.
No one on the Marlins’ active roster has ever faced Braves starter Ray Kerr. But that shouldn’t matter a ton as he’s unlikely to go much past one time through the order before the bullpen game continues with a variety of arms in use.
The Braves have had quite a bit of success against Marlins starter Eury Pérez. They’re a combined 27-for-71 (.380) against the right-hander with four homers, six doubles and 15 RBIs, walking six times and striking out 16.
Ronald Acuña Jr., Drake Baldwin, Michael Harris II, Austin Riley and Dominic Smith are all hitting over .400 against Pérez in a small sample size of nine or fewer at-bats. Baldwin has two of the four Braves’ homers off of Pérez with a sterling 1.111 slugging percentage in the matchup.
