The Braves have been good so far, but they’re also keeping it interesting as they navigate injuries and the inexorable grind of the season. Tonight’s bit of intrigue: Michael Harris II is back, but… he’s in left field! I guess that gives his ailing quad muscle a bit of a break relative to center field, where Mauricio Dubon will continue to flag balls down, and Mike Yastrzemski shifts to right.
So, Drake Baldwin remains at leadoff, but Harris returns to the starting lineup and hits cleanup. Dominic Smith also makes his return at DH, as Sean Murphy sits a day after being activated from the Injured List. Someone asked earlier, and I looked it up — the Braves haven’t had someone listed at catcher hit leadoff since 1973.
I still think it’s kind of weird that the Braves deliberately going with three blocks of the same handedness rather than alternating them, but that may not have a huge effect. It’s just somewhat contrary to usual practice.
For the Mariners, Cal “Big Dumper” Raleigh returns to the lineup, though he’s ensconced at DH for now. That means no Dominic Canzone in this one.
Batter-versus-pitcher stuff is very limited. Everyone in the Braves’ lineup sans Baldwin has faced George Kirby before, but only Jorge Mateo has double-digit PAs. The collective line is a very sad .238 wOBA and .234 xwOBA in 49 PAs; the Braves probably can’t afford that level of performance if they want to extend their no-series-losses streak.
There’s even less exposure in terms of Bryce Elder versus the Mariners — no one has more than six PAs, and the last three in the lineup haven’t faced Elder at all. The total line comes in just 18 PAs and is a pretty scary .363 wOBA / .377 xwOBA. Not that that’s predictive, but it’s also not exciting.