Freeman returns, Swanson hits leadoff as Donaldson, Albies, and Acuña rest up in Giants finale

Here’s your handy-dandy Statcast graphic for this afternoon’s series finale between the Braves and the Giants.

The Braves are mixing it up from yesterday, splitting their days of rest and corresponding “hangover” lineups over two games. Freddie Freeman returns after an absence in yesterday’s 8-1 victory; Josh Donaldson, Ozzie Albies, and Ronald Acuña Jr. all ride the bench to start this one, with Albies missing his second consecutive contest. Needless to say, this lineup features a lot of relatively rare 2019 occurrences. Dansby Swanson is batting leadoff for the first time all season, Nick Markakis is hitting fourth for the fifth time this year, and this will be Austin Riley’s eighth time batting fifth. Needless to say, the Braves have never rolled out a batting order or defensive alignment like this one so far this year.

The Giants, meanwhile, go with a bit of a mix, lineup-wise, of what they’ve done the past couple of games. Mauricio Dubon, Evan Longoria, and Kevin Pillar are the only players in this lineup that have started each of the last two games; the batting order and defensive arrangement are all new for the Giants as well. As a weird random fact, the only member of the Giants’ lineup that has hit in his spot more than any other player so far this season is Mike Yastrzemski in the two-hole.

As this will be just Logan Webb’s seventh major league start, no Braves have faced him in the majors as of yet. The same can’t be said for the Giants and Dallas Keuchel, as seven position players on their roster, including Crawford, Longoria, Pillar, Rickard, and Slater in today’s lineup, have stood in the box against him. Pillar is the only one to have taken Keuchel deep.