The Atlanta Braves have had one of the best offenses in MLB, and they will need to lean on it tonight with Grant Holmes struggling as of late.
The Braves are third in MLB in barrel percentage, and batted ball events. When you hit the ball with quality combined with hitting it often, it generally has positive results. It should be no shock that the Braves are second only behind the Yankees in HRs, fourth in doubles, and first in slugging. This has resulted in the Braves being first in MLB in both OPS
and runs scored.
The Braves are on pace for nine-hundred runs scored. This would give them them their most since 2023 and third most since 1897. 2003 was the other season where the offense stuck out with nine-hundred-seven runs.
The lineup should only get better starting with tonight now that Ha-Seong Kim is back, and a Ronald Acuña return right around the corner.
The biggest question going into the lineup tonight was how Kim returning would shake everything up. Yastrzemski has struggled to put things lightly, but has a strong history of being successful against the Cubs’ starter Colin Rea (two HRs and a 1.625 OPS). Dubón has been extremely clutch this season and needs to stay in the lineup if possible. LF makes the most sense for him to play. Without seeing the lineup card, ahead of time the best estimate would be Kim at SS, Dubón in LF, and Yastrzemski in RF.
As can be seen above, these are good problems to have. The Braves have not been this deep in years even with Murphy out again, and it makes it a lot of fun to try and guess which lineup card will be handed in. As it turns out, Weiss went with the following:
Weiss did in fact go with the most logical lineup in terms of who was starting where after all. With Murphy being on the IL now, it also makes sense that Smith would get the start at DH. Ozzie Albies turning things around this season has been huge. The simple fact that Weiss has the confidence to have him batting second against a RHP is telling, in a good way.
Kim will make his debut hitting eighth and playing SS.
Austin Riley has been heating in May with a .294/.314/.500 slash line and it may continue tonight with him having a .958 OPS against Rea in eight at-bats. Matt Olson, who has been the best hitter MLB as of late, has an OPS of 1.681 against Rea in eight at-bats of his own.
The Cubs have been an offensive force in their own right. They have scored the fourth most runs in MLB, fourth in OPS, sixth in HRs, all while leading MLB in walks. This could be a huge issue for Holmes who has struggled with walks this season.
Only Bregman and Conforto are the only players to face Holmes before. Bregman is hitless in two at-bats, and Conforto has a 1.550 OPS in five at-bats.
First pitch is at 7:15 EDT.
