Atlanta Braves vs Arizona Diamondbacks Lineup: D’Arnaud behind the plate in normal RHP lineup as Braves look to secure early series win on against the Arizona Diamondbacks
Kelenic starts for his side of the platoon in left field and d’Arnaud gets another start with Murphy out.
Looking for the series win at home against Arizona, the Braves hope that Max Fried can bounce back from his brutal first start. For more on the pitching matchup between Fried and Pfaadt, check out the game preview here. The game is at 7:20 PM ET at Truist Park and can be viewed on Bally Sports South or MLBTV.
The Braves will send out their usual lineup against right-handed starters, with Kelenic starting in left and batting ninth. Kelenic has played well so far this season, albeit with a sprinkle of luck, so perhaps he can take advantage of the fairly soft matchup in Pfaadt and do some damage. Travis d’Arnaud starts over Tromp, with Murphy out, but I would guess that Tromp will get the Sunday game for the series finale.
The Diamondbacks’ change from yesterday Randall Grichuk in for Joc Pederson against the left-handed Fried. Geraldo Perdomo remains out with injury, so Blaze Alexander starts at shortstop, instead of Jace Peterson, who started yesterday.
The Braves have a huge pitching advantage on paper here with Fried being one of the best in the business and Pfaadt being a fringe major league starter. Pfaadt is a fly-ball pitcher, so it would be good to see Ronald Acuna especially hit the ball in the air and maybe get his first homer of the season, after starting the season off with a few too many ground balls.
Max Fried hopes to get right and help Atlanta secure the series win
The Braves’ second ace will look to bounce back from his disastrous firsts start, as the team’s other ace is getting elbow imagery done.
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After an extremely fun walk-off win in the 10th inning that may turn out to be Pyrrhic, Max Fried will hope to put his brutal first outing of the season behind him and help the team to victory as Spencer Strider’s short and medium-term availability is in question.
Fried has all of the reasons in the world to want to come in and dominate this game, as if being a competitive person isn’t enough. He’s in a contract year, had arguably his worst major league start last outing (although with a huge bad call that derailed it), and his team’s co-ace is undergoing an elbow MRI, which is as ominous as it gets. He will face a good team in the Diamondbacks, but when he is right he is one of the best pitchers in the world. Let’s hope we get that, instead of him struggling with command as he did last time out. Fried’s first outing ended after less than 1 full inning in Philly, giving up 3 runs and 3 walks before getting pulled due to pitch count concerns. Max having his command early will be big in this game.
On the Arizona side, Brandon Pfaadt will take the mound. Pfaadt has the profile of a back-end starter, as he has decent strikeout and walk numbers, but has a ERA/FIP/xFIP that tends to sit in the mid-4s due to his high fly ball rate that translates to giving up a lot of home runs. If you’re reading that thinking “well, that sounds like it could be very fun for us and unfortunate for him against this Braves’ lineup”, we are on the same page. Of course, having said that, he’ll probably throw 7 shutout innings, but on paper this is a very juicy matchup for the Braves’ bats. Pfaadt does have a pretty good sweeper that he will use around 30% of the time, but the problem is that the rest of his pitches (four-seamer, changeup, and sinker) are all extremely hittable. This is quite a lopsided pitching matchup on paper.
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