The Atlanta Braves dropped their series opener with the Tampa Bay Rays on Tuesday evening by a score of 7-1, and will look to even up the series at one apiece with Reynaldo Lopez getting the start on Wednesday.
Both clubs have announced their lineup for game two of the series between two ‘East’ leading division clubs, and with the Braves lineup drop came a Drake Baldwin announcement.
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Drake Baldwin Back to Usual Leadoff Spot on Wednesday
Drake Baldwin’s spot in the Atlanta Braves batting order has been somewhat fluid this season, but he’s most often batting leadoff.
Well, in the series opener, manager Walt Weiss decided to use Drake Baldwin in the cleanup spot, but on Wednesday, he is back leading off for Atlanta and is also the DH.
Here is the full Atlanta Braves batting order, per @UnderdogMLB:
D. Baldwin DH R. Acuña Jr. RF M. Olson 1B M. Harris II CF M. Dubón SS M. Yastrzemski LF O. Albies 2B A. Riley 3B S. Murphy C
R. López SP
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Drake Baldwin Has Been One of the Braves Best Hitters This Season…
BatteryPower.com’s Demetrius Bell wrote (about Drake Baldwin):
“This’ll be the 55th time that Baldwin has led off for the Braves this season and so far through 54 games, he’s hit .305/.390/.500 in the leadoff spot, good for a wOBA of .388 and 146 wRC+. Compare that to his overall slash line for the season of .276/.352/.446 with a wOBA of .350 and a wRC+ of 121, it’s clear that Baldwin is pretty comfortable hitting in the leadoff spot.”
Drake Baldwin has also added 22 home runs, 70 RBI, and 133 total hits to the Braves’ offense this season.
He should be due for a contract extension rather shortly, but a few stinker contracts on the Braves’ books may be holding him back from that for now.
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