Another day, another slightly different Braves lineup. This time, it’s Michael Harris II’s turn to find himself in a relatively new position, as he’s hitting fifth for the first time all season:
Harris hasn’t hit fifth since a few games very early in the 2023 season, but the Braves keep trying to meet their internal requirements of alternating handedness and having someone that isn’t one of the team’s best non-Ronald Acuña Jr. bats bat first. So, we get a new lineup once again — the Braves will have used 29 different batting orders in 41 games when this one begins.
Aside from the fact that Eli White and Alex Verdugo have never faced Irvin, this lineup has a fair bit of experience against the right-hander, given his five starts against the Braves to date. The numbers are not very exciting:
But, as I mentioned in the preview, Irvin isn’t throwing as hard this year as last year, and that could help the Braves a bit. (I really hope Harris hasn’t moved up in the lineup just because of his .340 wOBA belied by a .294 xwOBA in 14 PAs against Irvin, but who knows.)
As for the Nationals, well, you’ve seen this lineup in various bits and pieces before:
They’re actually 2-1 with this lineup so far, but haven’t used it for a while. None of these guys have faced Grant Holmes, though, at least not yet. CJ Abrams and James Wood are crushing the ball, so that’s a tough thing for Holmes to deal with upfront, but the rest of the guys are just doing okay-ish with a lot of inputs underperformance, so there may end up being a pretty clear pattern to this game. Would’ve maybe been a good one for an opener, especially since Abrams and Wood both bat from the left side — and really, so does most of their lineup.