In a matchup of the top two offenses so far in MLB this season, the Atlanta Braves will be taking on the Washington Nationals. The Nationals have continued their strong offensive showing leading MLB in runs and doubles while being fourth in OPS.
The Braves are right behind them scoring the second most runs while being second in OPS trailing the Dodgers by .002. The Braves are also second in HRs, first in hits, and first in slugging percentage.
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What will be interesting in the game today is the Braves have Elder pitching, who has a 2.01 ERA but the Nationals were originally supposed to have Miles Mikolas pitching with a terrible 6.91 ERA. Mikolas has the fourth worst ERA of any pitcher with at least 40.0 innings pitched, while Elder is in the top ten best. However there was a change and Richard Lovelady will be getting the start with his much better 3.61 ERA in 20.2 IP.
It is a bit unfortunate for the Braves that the pitching change happened because Michael Harris has been great in his eleven at-bats against Mikolas with a .455 average and 1.000 OPS. Matt Olson has two HRs and a 1.067 OPS in fifteen at-bats, and Austin Riley has a .278 average and .816 OPS in eighteen at-bats. It is a much different story with Lovelady because no one has faced him in more than two at-bats.
Before the lineup was dropped, the biggest question was whether Ronald Acuña would be in the lineup. He apparently had a bone bruise yesterday, but wanted to start tonight.
With who the Braves are facing tonight, and Acuña’s history of struggling against Mikolas, it would not be a shock if the Braves decided to rest him for a game.
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Turns out Ronald Acuña was good enough to start and will lead off and play RF.
As for the Nationals and their hot offense, their best players will be in the lineup for them tonight with James Wood leading off and C.J. Abrams hitting cleanup.
Garcia has had fourteen at-bats against Elder and has been successful with a .357 average and .971 OPS. Abrams leads the team with sixteen at-bats and has a .912 OPS against Elder.
First pitch is at 7:15 EDT.
