Rosario and d’Arnaud return for opener in New York

The Braves are, to no one’s surprise, re-deploying their standard, copy-paste lineup once again. The only notable elements? Eddie Rosario is back after yielding the start to Kevin Pillar against a southpaw yesterday, and Travis d’Arnaud will catch Charlie Morton after also starting the finale in Pittsburgh.

After three and a half months of raking with new team, Sean Murphy has hit a bit of a skid. He only has a .292 xwOBA (and .236 wOBA) since the All-Star Break. A lot of that slide was concentrated in late July, as Murphy is back up to a fine .340 wOBA / .327 xwOBA in August, but nonetheless, he’s giving way to d’Arnaud again. d’Arnaud also struggled at the tail end of July (.283 wOBA, .300 xwOBA since the Break) and has only been slightly better than Murphy in August considering the small sample size (.346/.349), but here we are.

As for Eddie Rosario, well, he’s basically cratered since his June, but with Sam Hilliard on the Injured List and having re-injured himself during his rehab assignment, this is probably just going to be the status quo going forward.

In case you care, here’s the history of this starting nine against Tylor Megill, who’s been around since 2021:

Meanwhile, the new-look Mets line up this way:

It’s a mix of the familiar and the absurd for New York here, as former Brave Rafael Ortega and 29-year-old fill-in Danny Mendick round out the lineup. The Mets haven’t quite used this arrangement or lineup in any game yet — Pete Alonso will be hitting third for just the fifth time this season, and McNeil will be hitting cleanup for the first time since the season-defining series the Mets were swept in late in Atlanta last year.

Here are these guys against Morton:

That’s such a Jeff McNeil line to have, even in 23 PAs.