The Braves and Phillies will face one another for the 13th time this season on Friday night, the first of what will be seven games in ten days between these two teams. Let’s go right to the Statcast graphic, because there’s a lot to digest here.
:format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24029350/tVVEWVl.png)
For the Braves, the big announcement is that Ozzie Albies is back in the lineup, and he will slide back in hitting eighth. Albies returns to an 89 wRC+ and 1.0 fWAR in 263 PAs; the batting line will likely be a career low for him unless he really rakes over the team’s remaining games. Vaughn Grissom takes a seat in this one, as both Travis d’Arnaud and William Contreras are in the lineup. This will be the first time Albies hits eighth this season; he hasn’t hit eighth since September of 2020.
For the Phillies, this is a bit of a different lineup. Rhys Hoskins has a hand injury, so Alec Bohm slides over to first, clearing the way for the newly-recalled Yairo Munoz to start at third. Dalton Guthrie, a completely unfamiliar name to me, will play in his fifth major league game tonight and hit ninth — Guthrie had a 123 wRC+ in Triple-A this year but isn’t considered a prospect. As a result of these changes, like the Braves, the Phillies are also rolling out a novel lineup and starting nine, even though we’re really late in the year.
Loading comments...