The Braves will give the fifth spot in the lineup to Ramon Laureano on Monday night as they go for a series win over the Dodgers. I don’t really get what’s going on with Laureano vis-a-vis Jarred Kelenic, and the insanity of “this guy bats fifth when he’s playing but sometimes we bench him to get the platoon advantage” has been present so much this year that it’s losing its ‘s’ and just becoming inanity, but it is what it is.
As for the Dodgers, well, this is the same lineup they rolled out against Chris Sale in Game Two, which ended as a Braves BABIP-fueled clobberfest. May the same thing happen unto this Dodgers lineup again, or something.
Despite the Braves’ lineup being roughly half castoffs at this point, none of them have faced Yoshinobu Yamamoto yet. Jorge Soler had a chance as Yamamoto faced the Giants in May, but it just so happened to be when Soler was on the shelf with a shoulder strain. So, it’ll be a new experience for everyone in this lineup. Whether it’ll be a good one, well… probably not. But that’s why they play the games.
