Lineup-wise, Braves don’t change a thing for Michael Soroka Day

Here’s how the Braves will line up in support of Mike Soroka. Spoiler alert: it’s the same lineup.

For those of you keeping score at home, this will be the time (and in a row) that the Braves use this lineup, where it will become tied for the most common lineup used this year by a few others. Defensive arrangement-wise, this is the team’s most common starting nine already, and will be used for a ninth time in this game. The Braves are 4-4 in those eight games so far.

Meanwhile, the Oakland Athletics are giving a rest to Brent Rooker, and starting Jonah Bride in his 2023 debut.

Bride has raked at Triple-A with some regularity now. In 2022, he had a 149 wRC+ in Double-A (87 PAs) and a 188 wRC+ in Triple-A (78 PAs), but faceplanted with a .282 xwOBA and an even worse set of outputs in 187 big league PAs in his debut season. He started this season back at Triple-A and has put up a 137 wRC+ in 186 PAs so far, so the Athletics are hoping he provides the kind of offensive spark that eluded him last year, and has eluded much of their lineup so far this year.

Rooker’s absence is a boon for Soroka in his debut, as that leaves only Ryan Noda and Seth Brown as guys in the lineup with an xwOBA above .300. (Really, above .290.) This will be Aledmys Diaz’ first time hitting cleanup to start a game this year — he last appeared as the cleanup batter in a starting lineup a few times for the Astros over the course of the 2022 season. The rest of the lineup largely features guys in familiar places for Oakland, excepting Bride, of course.