The Atlanta Braves have fortunately gotten to a point in the season where they don’t have to go all out if they choose in terms of roster moves and lineups. The odds of getting the second seed has significantly dwindled and they have already clinched their division.
Because of this, and add in that Ronald Acuña just fouled a ball off his leg, there was no telling what the lineup was going to be before we saw it. Not knowing can make waiting for it fun in a way for some. Rather than assuming what the lineup will
be based on matchups or other ideas, we are at the part of the season where some players may get rest to get ready for the postseason which can result in lineups that almost look random sometimes.
Today’s lineup, which is responsible for putting up runs for Chris Sale, will not have Ronald Acuña as many likely expected and he will be replaced by Brewer Hicklen. With Abbott being a lefty, that moves Mauricio Dubón to LF batting second.
The Reds have been terrible offensively. In fact, they have five of the bottom nine hitters in wRC+ of hitters with at least one-hundred-fifty at bats. Only three teams have scored fewer runs than the Reds. They have not been much better in the month of September with only five teams scoring fewer runs.
The one bright spot for the Reds has been Sal Stewart, the front runner for the ROY award. Somehow, with a team scoring so few runs, he has been responsible for one-hundred-ten RBI. RBI by itself can usually be argued to be an overrated stat, but when your teams is in the bottom four in runs, yet you are on the leaderboards in RBI, you can make a good argument for being clutch. He also has a wRC+ sixteen percent higher than league average. Only fifty-one qualified hitters have been better than him.
First pitch is at 7:15 EDT
