Mauricio Dubón is back at shortstop for Sunday’s matinee in Philadelphia, continuing a busy weekend of moving around the diamond for the Braves.
After opening the series in center field on Friday and then shifting to left on Saturday, Dubón will handle shortstop and bat fifth in the 1:10 p.m. ET game on NBC.
Atlanta made only a few tweaks to its Saturday lineup, keeping the top six hitters intact. Sean Murphy returns behind the plate and hits seventh, while Mike Yastrzemski slides into Dubón’s spot in left field and fills out the order.
Philadelphia’s lineup also saw only minor adjustments. JT Realmuto gets a relatively rare day off behind the plate, with Garrett Stubbs taking over and batting ninth. The Phillies also brought back left-handed bats Brandon Marsh in left and Justin Crawford in center, hitting seventh and eighth, respectively, against Braves right-hander Tyler Mahle.
The pitching matchup brings plenty of familiar history. Atlanta’s current hitters have 388 career at-bats against Phillies right-hander Aaron Nola, going 113-for-388 with 22 homers, 56 RBIs, 31 walks and 103 strikeouts.
Ronald Acuña Jr. and Austin Riley have done especially well against Nola. Acuña is 21-for-60 with four homers and six doubles, while Riley is 23-for-66 with six homers and five doubles. Every Braves hitter on the roster with at least 10 at-bats against Nola has hit .235 or better.
The Phillies’ current group has gone 26-for-101 against Mahle, who already saw them twice this season in April while with the San Francisco Giants. Kyle Schwarber is 6-for-20 with two homers, Trea Turner is 8-for-19 and Bryce Harper is 4-for-12. Still, most of the damage Mahle has allowed to this group has been limited to singles: 22 of the 26 hits he’s given up have been singles, with just two homers and two doubles.
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For Braves fans, it was the sort of critique that lands with extra edge because it came from a rival who has plenty of history of his own. The exchange also pointed back to the differing team cultures around celebration and edge, with Philadelphia under Don Mattingly leaning into a harder-nosed identity while Atlanta has long been more comfortable letting its stars show personality. It was another reminder that even in a series that has moved on, the grudges and reactions tend to linger. [Read more 🡒]
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Braves Suddenly Have An October Rotation Question They Can't Ignore
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Manager Walt Weiss said Reynaldo Lpez will be joining the rotation soon, a move that adds another layer to the conversation without settling it. The Braves still have decisions to make on both the rotation and bullpen roles, and the bigger issue is less about regular-season innings than about postseason suitability. For a staff that has carried the team for much of the year, the next few turns could go a long way toward determining how Atlanta lines up when the games matter most. [Read more 🡒]