The Atlanta Braves got blanked for zero runs for the seventh time this season when they faced the Angels last night. It is no secret to this point that the offense has been the main reason for the Braves subpar season. They currently rank eighteenth in MLB in terms of wRC+ and twenty-first in runs scored.
The sad part is that you cannot blame bad batting average of balls in play (BABIP) luck since they have the ninth highest as a team in MLB with a .299. If we look at the glass half full, their defense has been excellent, but if you don’t score many runs it is hard to win games.
The Braves could use another spark. Although fans have reason enough to be mad at Jurickson Profar for failing a drug test, it had been rumored that he was going to be back tonight. In his forty-eight ABs in the minors while he was ramping up he has done well. He has a .333/.407/.583 slash line which equates to an OPS of .990 while having eight walks to only six strikeouts and hitting three HRs. Alex Verdugo was DFA’d earlier today so that was a pretty good indicator that Profar would be back in the lineup.
The Braves will be matching up against Yusei Kikuchi who is currently sporting a 2.79 ERA, but has a much higher xERA of 4.12 largely due to a high left on base rate.
Matt Olson leads the team with twenty-three ABs against him and has a .830 OPS with two solo HRs. Sean Murphy has struggled in his ten ABs against Kikuchi with a .191 OPS. No other player on the Braves roster has more than three ABs against Kikuchi, but Ronald Acuña Jr. and Ozzie Albies have both hit HRs against him in their limited sample size.
Profar is indeed rejoining the team and will be batting fifth and will be batting fifth.
With Didier Fuentes pitching for the Braves it is obvious that none of the Angels have faced the Braves’ starter before. Fuentes has struggled so far with a 10.80 ERA and 1.80 WHIP in only 8.1 IP in two starts. Hopefully he can get on track tonight.
The only difference from the lineup last night is that old friend Travis d’Arnaud will be behind the plate.
First pitch is at 7:15 EDT
