Zack Short in Atlanta Braves roster

The struggling Atlanta Braves take on the surging San Francisco Giants tonight in the opener of a three-game homestand.

The Braves have scored a total of ten runs in their last four games, and five of them have come in a single inning against a struggling Martín Pérez.

The Braves have been remarkable offensively in recent weeks, though. Since June 17 (two weeks ago), Austin Riley has a wRC+ of 175, Sean Murphy has a wRC+ of 173, Jarred Kelenic has a wRC+ of 150, and Ramón Laureano has a wRC+ of 126. Laureano has been battling back pain and has only made twenty-eight plate appearances in that span.

Outside of Kelenic and Laureano, the outfield production has been mediocre, to say the least. Over the last two weeks, Forrest Wall has a wRC+ of 76 and Adam Duvall has a 2 (that’s not a typo). Luke Williams has eight plate appearances and his wRC+ is 22.

In a word, the production on the field has been poor, so there has been a carousel of starters on the field. Tonight, the Braves chose an outfield with Kelenic in center field, Duvall in right field and Wall in left field.

Orlando Arcia has struggled mightily. In fact, among qualified hitters, his 60 wRC+ ranks last in the MLB. With those struggles, it shouldn’t be surprising to see Zack Short start today.

The Giants have Hayden Birdsong starting tonight for the second time in his career. Obviously, no Braves player has faced him before. However, it should be noted that Birdsong is one of the top four prospects in the Giants’ system according to MLB.com. He struggled in his debut, allowing three earned runs in 4.2 innings, but that’s obviously a small sample size.

Only two Giants players have faced Reynaldo López more than three times at bat. Matt Chapman has fifteen at-bats against him and has struggled to a .516 OPS. However, 2021 World Series hero Jorge Soler has a much different story to tell. In nineteen at-bats, Soler has had López’s number. He has a .632 average with three HRs and a 1.930 OPS.

The Giants’ offense has been on a roll lately, scoring the sixth-most runs in MLB last week.

The first pitch will take place at 7:20 p.m. ET