Michael Harris II returns, hitting ninth, for first game against the Mets

Michael Harris II is back, folks. He’s also hitting ninth with a lefty starter on the hill for New York.

This is definitely a novel lineup and defensive arrangement for the Braves, and one that reunites the troublemakers (Harris and Vaughn Grissom) on the same field. Eddie Rosario is also apparently a full-time player now, platoon advantage be damned.

The Mets, meanwhile, will throw this at Max Fried:

This is also a novel lineup and defensive arrangement for the Mets, given the bottom of their lineup.

I guess we can do some batter vs. pitcher stuff here. Let’s see. Here’s the Braves against Peterson:

Albies’ line there is maybe a little surprising, but then again, it’s literally ten PAs.

And now, the Mets against Fried:

If you’re inclined to think of these things as predictive (which they aren’t, really), then Fried having managed Brandon Nimmo well in his career is a good thing. Nimmo is currently second (behind Ronald Acuña Jr.) in fWAR among position players, and has a 163 wRC+ and .400+ xwOBA on the year. On the flip side, Pete Alonso has not been fazed by Fried at all, and has 10 of the Mets’ 27 homers on the year, so... we’ll see.

First pitch is theoretically at 7:10 pm ET, but we’ll see. It’s rainy out there.