Ever since the very start of the 2025 season that we are just going to pretend never happened, the Atlanta Braves lineup has looked more like their usual selves. Since April 3, the Braves' position players rank fifth in fWAR (5.3) and fifth in wRC+ (117) which is much more familiar to the Atlanta lineups fans had grown accustomed to seeing. Unfortunately, an equally formidable lineup is coming to Truist this weekend in the Dodgers who also have an ace up their sleeve Friday in Yoshinobu Yamamoto.
Yamamoto has been one of baseball's best pitchers to start the season with a crazy 1.06 ERA through his first six starts. The 26 year old right has given up a TOTAL of four earned runs this year and the Braves will probably have to score that many just tonight in order to win this ballgame.
Given the lineup the Braves just released for the first game of the series on Friday, Atlanta could have their work cut out for them against Yamamoto.
Braves lineup's matchup against Yamamoto appears to be tough on paper
Where the Braves' lineup excels is in getting big swings to their advantage thanks to extra-base hits and home runs. They have certainly got more patient as the season has gone on, but this isn't really a team that is built to play a lot of small ball and them doing so is usually the exception instead of the rule. Atlanta has also been famously bad this year at driving in runners in scoring position.
The problem comes when you look at Yamamoto who not only gets ground balls at a very high clip (top 4% in all of baseball this season) which is a foil to what the Braves want to do, but he also possesses a pair of pitches in his four-seamer and splitter that can get hitters from both sides of the plate out.
His slider has not given up a hit to a righty at all this year and Yamamoto has actually been better against lefties this season with his splitter in particular being a nightmare for them. If you thought having Michael Harris II, Alex Verdugo, and Matt Olson from the left side against a tough righty would give them a bit of an edge, you may want to temper your expectations.
The Braves have gone up against tough pitchers before and time and time again, they have found a way to grind their way to wins or exploit a weakness outright. The way Yamamoto is pitching, they are really going to have to be sharp on Friday or it could be a long night.