Austin Riley hits second, Drake Baldwin gets the start in series opener against Rays

The Braves rejigger their lineup once again

It’s lineup time. Austin Riley is back hitting second, and Drake Baldwin re-enters the lineup for the first time since Sean Murphy’s activation off the Injured List:

For those of you keeping track of this type of esoterica, Riley started the season hitting second, moved to third on the final day of the road trip, and has hit fifth since, until tonight. Baldwin has hit sixth or seventh in his starts to date; this is first time hitting eighth.

Something vaguely amusing is that earlier, the Braves gave Nick Allen a start, potentially due to batter-versus-pitcher stats, but Murphy hit a three-run homer off Taj Bradley earlier. Still, it makes sense that Murphy is sitting given the quick turnaround and his yeoman’s work behind the plate yesterday.

Everyone in this lineup faced Bradley back in 2023, aside from Bryan De La Cruz and Baldwin. The Braves acquitted themselves well in that contest, but it was one game two years ago.

The Rays will line up like this:

This is pretty much Tampa Bay’s standard lineup insofar as they’ve had one at all this season — they’ve only repeated a lineup and defensive arrangement once this year, and the only “non-standard” thing I can say about this lineup is that Taylor Walls has hit eighth this season, too, but is hitting ninth tonight.

Only five guys in this lineup have ever faced Bryce Elder in the majors. Yandy Diaz took Elder deep in 2023 but has struggled a lot to start the year; in that 2023 start, Elder also walked Walls twice.