GameThread, 8/26/2022: Braves @ Cardinals

The Braves and Cardinals are set to tangle at 8:15 pm EDT. Here are the lineups for the respective teams.

For the Braves, it’s a business-as-usual lineup that they’ve used once before, and they’re undefeated with this starting nine so far in two games.

For the Cardinals, things are reshuffled fairly oddly, given the paternity leave-related absence of Nolan Arenado, which is a pretty big boon to the Braves (but also to the Arenados!). Corey Dickerson, who has a .308 xwOBA on the year and hasn’t actually hit well since 2019, is randomly batting cleanup, followed by Albert Pujols at DH. The result is a novel lineup and defensive arrangement — all of these names are familiar but putting Brendan Donovan at third creates an interesting scenario that the Braves probably didn’t expect when thinking about this series a week ago.

Stay tuned, it should be a good one.