The Atlanta Braves and their red hot offense will be looking to outscore the White Sox yet again.
The Braves have scored twenty runs in their last two games, and it does not seem to be a fluke that the Braves are suddenly proficient at runners crossing the plate. The Braves have been one of the hottest position player groups in MLB since the All-Star break. The Braves are fourth among all MLB teams in terms of fWAR with 6.0.
Of course, fWAR factors in defense as well so how about wRC+? Since the break,
the Braves are sixth in MLB. If we look at total runs scored the Braves are third with only the Brewers and Blue Jays scoring more. If we look at total hits the Braves are seventh in that timeframe. It is clear, the Braves’ bats are hot.
It appears that Marcell Ozuna has earned his spot back as the everyday DH, so the daily question has turned to who the starting catcher will be. The other question would be where Ozzie Albies will be hitting in the lineup against a lefty SP.
Sean Murphy will be getting the start tonight and Ozuna will stay at DH and hit cleanup. Ozzie Albies will be in the sixth spot tonight, which is good since he has had success against Martín Pérez.
No Braves player has a large sample of at-bats against Martín Pérez. Matt Olson leads the team with thirteen at-bats but has struggled. He only has a .385 OPS. Ozzie Albies has crushed him. Albies has a .778 average and 2.445 OPS. Albies only has nine at-bats, but even in a down year for him, it would be a safe assumption that Pérez is aware that Albies has been his Achilles when he faces him. Ozuna has also seen success in five at-bats with a .600 average and 1.750 OPS. A fun piece of trivia is that Nick Allen has the third best OPS against Pérez with a .777.
No White Sox player has ever faced Hurston Waldrep before at the MLB level. Waldrep has been on a role since he has been called up. He has pitched 17.2 innings while maintaining a 1.02 ERA, 0.792 WHIP, and a 3.40 SO/BB ratio. His expected ERA (xERA) has also been very good at 2.90 showing that even with some regression to the mean, he will still be a very good pitcher if he pitches like he has been.
First pitch is at 7:15 EDT.
