GameThread, 5/13/2022: Padres @ Braves

There’s a lot to talk about in terms of the lineup the Braves are running out there tonight against Yu Darvish:

Ronald Acuña Jr., of course, will miss his second consecutive game with a sore groin. Yet, Wednesday night’s walkoff hero, Orlando Arcia, returns to the bench, as Travis Demeritte draws the start in right field, and William Contreras will bat as the designated hitter. Notable aspects include:

• Demeritte moves up to leadoff, a game after Dansby Swanson appeared there. From a process perspective, not sure why Swanson made sense to hit leadoff once, and now Demeritte makes sense, but it is what it is.
• Marcell Ozuna was dropped in the lineup for all of one game. He did barrel a ball in that game, and now he’s back at cleanup. Austin Riley remains third for some reason.
• William Contreras’ presence in the lineup reflects the rare case where the Braves use both rostered catchers in the same lineup.

This is a novel lineup and defensive arrangement for the Braves, so we’ll see what happens.

The Padres will run out this assortment of names:

Luke Voit returns to the fifth spot for the first time since the Braves were in San Diego last month. The Padres have yet to use a lineup exactly like this, but this starting nine, including Jose Azocar in place of Trent Grisham, has been used twice by San Diego before, with them winning both games.

Statcast graphic? Statcast graphic!