Drake Baldwin, Alex Verdugo return to lineup against Frankie Montas, Mets

Alex Verdug-argh

Well, the Braves took a bit to get this lineup out, and I’d rather they have kept it to themselves, since Alex Verdugo is back. Woof.

There’s really not a lot of history between current Braves and Frankie Montas. I know someone is just dying to point out that Verdugo has 12 PAs (most on the team) against Montas, with a .592 wOBA, but in true Verdugo fashion, he has a .265 xwOBA in those 12 PAs. No one else in the lineup has more than 5 PAs against Montas — Marcell Ozuna has struggled against him in a tiny sample, but Matt Olson and Austin Riley haven’t.

The Mets are using a lineup pretty similar to the one Spencer Strider faced last week in Atlanta:

Last week’s lineup that Strider ate up featured Tyrone Taylor and Francisco Alvarez; this one has Brett Baty and Luis Torrens instead, with Jeff McNeil moving to center field to accommodate both Baty and Ronny Mauricio in the infield. I noted this last week, but may as well do so again — most of these guys have faced Strider a few times at this point, with six members of this lineup tallying double-digit PAs against him. Brandon Nimmo remains the nemesis/Nimmo-sis with 22 PAs of .397 xwOBA / .623 wOBA off Strider, while Francisco Lindor and Juan Soto have also hit him well (as have Baty and Mauricio in a combined six PAs). Only McNeil has really explicitly struggled against Strider, but that didn’t faze him last time out. In total, we are talking a collective .383 wOBA and .341 xwOBA in 107 combined PAs by this lineup against Strider.