Braves deploy Murphy variant of usual lineup in opener against Rays

I am running out of ways to talk about this lineup!

After tonight’s game, this will become the sole most-popular lineup for the team, being used in seven of 87 games. It’s already the most popular starting nine, being used 24 times in 87 games.

Tyler Glasnow has been around for a while, but he’s also constantly hurt, so there isn’t much in the way of history here:

The Rays are trying to get their first win in July tonight, and line up like this:

The Rays rarely use the same lineup twice — they’ve never used a lineup more than two times, and this will be their 85th different lineup in 91 games. Josh Lowe hasn’t hit third too often, Isaac Paredes rarely hits seventh, and Jose Siri hasn’t hit eighth much, but the other guys aren’t in particularly unusual spots.

Of this starting nine, only three have ever faced Morton — Brandon Lowe has a strikeout, walk, pop out, and lineout, Wander Franco has two strikeouts and a groundout, and Harold Ramirez has a flyout and a groundout. That’s it.

Does anyone make “Tyler Glasnow is glass now” jokes because he’s always hurt?