The Braves are playing a night game in Grapefruit League action today. After Reynaldo Lopez had an inconsistent outing yesterday afternoon, it’s Bryce Elder’s turn to see if he can make any waves in terms of the fifth starter spot battle. To be perfectly honest, I’m not even sure that performance, or some other perceived in-game outcome really matters at this point — if the Braves want to try Lopez starting in any capacity, they may as well just let him do it because it’ll be harder to ramp him up if Elder flames out than vice versa. So even this camp “battle,” which is one of the few the Braves have at this point, feels less like a contest and more like a fait accompli. Sure, Atlanta could surprise us again, like they did last year when Ian Anderson and Bryce Elder were (in Elder’s case, temporarily) booted in favor of Jared Shuster and Dylan Dodd, but at this point, the only surprise would be cutting the Lopez-as-starter experiment short, and that’s fairly mild on the expected-to-inconceivable scale.
Anyway, lineups. The Braves are sending about half their regulars to back up Elder in Sarasota.
The Orioles are countering with backend starter Cole Irvin, and a lineup that is also about half regulars, with some role players and some guys like Kolten Wong and Ryan McKenna that probably won’t make their roster.
The game is at 6:05 pm ET and I believe does not have any TV coverage, though you can indeed catch it on radio.
