During Thursday night’s 5-4 win for the Atlanta Braves over the Washington Nationals, Austin Riley spent the entirety of that contest watching from the dugout as Mauricio Dubón came down from the outfield to play third base. Walt Weiss stated in Thursday’s pregame press conference that “the best way to slow the game down is to have [Riley] watch it from the bench.”
Hopefully the game has slowed down enough for Riley after he watched a full one from the bench, as he’s now back in the starting lineup and playing third base for Friday’s contest against the Nationals.
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Here’s Atlanta’s full lineup:
At this point, I can say that it might be safe to assume that we’ll be seeing Ronald Acuña Jr. lead off against lefties while Drake Baldwin gets the nod at the top of the lineup against right-handers. Foster Griffin is a left-hander, so Acuña’s up top. Baldwin has also been the DH every time the Braves have faced left-handers lately, which means that Joey Bart is starting at catcher and batting eighth. Now that Riley is back in the lineup, Mauricio Dubón is back in the outfield and playing left. Most of the usual suspects are in their familiar positions, so there’s that.
Here’s how the Nationals are looking:
Brady House came in as a pinch-hitter during Thursday’s game but he’s starting tonight against Bryce Elder. Daylen Lile moves down to sixth in the lineup as a result. Additionally, Harry Ford is in at catcher instead of Keibert Ruiz and José Tena gets the start at second base instead of Nasim Nuñez. Jacob Young gets the nod in center as Dylan Crews moves to right field, while James Wood moves to the designated hitter spot to lead off this evening’s contest.
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Tonight’s game is scheduled to start at 7:15 p.m. ET. Tap in with us in the chat and discussion thread later on this evening but if trade speculation is more of your thing, we’ve got you covered with our Feed thread. Either way, keep it right here for the time being, folks.
