With a right-handed starter on the mound for the New York Mets in Sunday’s 12:30 p.m. ET game, the Atlanta Braves unsurprisingly are pivoting back to a righty-focused batting order.
Drake Baldwin is back in the leadoff spot after Mauricio Dubón led off Saturday night, dropping Dubón into the five-hole. Additionally, Dominic Smith gets the start at designated hitter (batting sixth) and Jim Jarvis is back at shortstop and hitting ninth against Mets starter Nolan McLean (5-5, 3.78 ERA).
Over his two career starts against the Braves, Atlanta’s current hitters are a combined 4-for-23 (.174) against McLean. No one has more than one hit and all of the hits are singles, along with a combined eight strikeouts and three walks.
Smith and Mike Yastrzemski have the lone two RBIs for Braves hitters off McLean.
The Mets are largely keeping the same lineup from Saturday, with Francisco Lindor and Juan Soto in the top two spots, albeit with Soto DHing this time. Luis Torrens replaces Francisco Alvarez behind the plate, and AJ Ewing is in center field, replacing Eric Wagaman, who DHed on Saturday.
Current Mets hitters are a combined 21-for-64 (.328) against Braves starter Martín Pérez (6-5, 3.27). The players you would probably expect are leading that charge. Bo Bichette is 5-for-10 with two doubles, Francisco Lindor is 8-for-19 (.421) with a double, five walks and one strikeout and Juan Soto is 4-for-10 with the only Mets homer off Pérez and three of the four RBIs.
While the Mets have had some success against Pérez, he’s 5-0 with a 2.94 ERA in 11 career appearances (seven starts) against the franchise.
Let’s see if he can keep that rolling and the Braves can inch closer to a Mets mop on a sweltering Sunday afternoon in Atlanta.
