Riley still ailing, d’Arnaud to start again on Friday night

Austin Riley missed his first game of the season on Thursday night, and he’s still out on Friday. Poor guy, I hope he feels better soon. The other notable non-change is Travis d’Arnaud drawing another start. d’Arnaud hasn’t started back-to-back games since August 10-11. Makes you wonder if maybe Murphy also has a bug.

As for the Pirates, well, they still love mixing it up. They have yet to use a single lineup more than twice this season, and have used 135 batting orders in 140 games so far, which is wild.

This is going to be yet another new arrangement for them (both lineup and just starting nine), as Ke’Bryan Hayes will hit third for just the tenth time this season, and a few other guys like Endy Rodriguez, Joshua Palacios, and Alfonso Rivas are also hitting in relatively unfamiliar places.

As you can see, the Braves have a limited history with Mitch Keller:

But so do the Pirates with Bryce Elder, given that they’ve only faced him once before: