Drake Baldwin hitting cleanup as Braves face Reds

Drake Baldwin will get the start and hit cleanup, and Ozuna is in the lineup again.

The Atlanta Braves are taking on the Cincinnati Reds in a day game on the day after a busy trade deadline and a day before the MLB Speedway Classic.

The lineup today was clearly in question before the deadline. With the way the Braves have been playing this season, there was reason to believe players like Marcell Ozuna may no longer be on the team. That being said, we have those answers now. He was not traded and is still in the lineup. Alex Anthopoulos said “we were not interested in just dumping players and trying to shed some money on a contract”.

Brady Singer is pitching for the Reds and three different players on the Braves have at least nine at-bats against him. Ozzie Albies is one of those three and has struggled to a .444 OPS, but the other two have done well. Matt Olson has a 1.500 OPS with two HRs, and Sean Murphy has a 1.637 OPS with two HRs of his own. Other key players to look at are Austin Riley with a 1.166 OPS and one HR in six ABs, and Jarred Kelenic has a 1.700 OPS with one HR in five ABs.

Ozuna is in the lineup again and is batting fifth. Drake Baldwin is catching today and is batting cleanup. Although Jarred Kelenic has had moderate success against Singer, he will not get the start.

Bryce Elder will be pitching for the Braves, and no Reds player has more than three ABs against him. Four of the six players to have faced him have at least a .333 average against him. Of course, the sample size is small, so it is hard to draw any real conclusions. Elder has a 10.50 ERA over his past 30.0 innings, so we can assume that things may get out of hand quickly if Elder is not careful.

The Reds have made some changes in the lineup from yesterday. Lux will get the start at DH and leadoff, and Austin Hays will get the day off. Trevino will get the start at catcher instead of Stephenson.

First pitch is at 12:40 EDT.