The Atlanta Braves will be facing the Washington Nationals this evening and it will be a clash between two teams that are in the top three in runs scored for the month of July.
A lot has gone wrong with star players for the Braves this year, and the month of June as atrocious, but overall the Braves’ offense has been one of the best in MLB, even factoring in injuries and underperformance from players like Austin Riley and Mike Yastrzemski.
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The Braves’ lineup is now as healthy as it has been all season. Of course some players are on the IL, but there was never a time this season where everyone was healthy. The biggest question recently before the lineup drops is now typically if Drake Baldwin will be the DH, and who will play LF. This late in the season, and before the trade deadline, lineups get pretty predictable.
That is not the case today. Austin Riley is getting a much needed night off with Mauricio Dubón playing 3B.
The Braves lineup will be facing Jake Irvin who handled them with ease in May. In that game Irvin limited the Braves to one hit and zero runs over 5.0 innings of work. That being said there are a couple of players who have had success against him in the past. Michael Harris has twenty-two at-bats against Irvin and has maintained a .318 average, and Matt Olson has a .812 OPS in nineteen at-bats. It is interesting to see Albies hitting so high in the lineup since he has been in a bit of a slump since the All-Star break with a wRC+ forty-two percent below average against righties and has also struggled to an OPS of .435 against Irvin in fifteen career at-bats.
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To likely the surprise of many, the National are easily MLB’s best offense this season. They have continued that throughout July as well, having scored the most runs yet again. Grant Holmes was able to pitch well against them in May when he held them to two earned runs while striking out ten in five innings of work.
No one on the Nationals has more than seven at-bats against Holmes, but a few have had success in their limited sample size. James Wood has a HR and an OPS of 1.500 in four ABs, Jorbit Vivas has a HR and 1.850 OPS in four ABs, and Dylan Crews has a HR and 1.833 OPS in three ABs.
Holmes has his work cut out for him today. Hopefully he can get more run support than the offense provided those that pitched in New York recently.
First pitch is at 7:15 EDT.
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