Gamethread 5/7: Phillies at Braves

Once again the Phillies are playing the Braves and once again I am annoyed. Why must MLB have these teams play each other so much so early in the year? Is there really no other way to space them out during a 162 game season? Once they play each other this weekend, they will have met nine times already. Meanwhile, they haven’t yet seen the Marlins or Nationals yet. Not that I’m all that eager to see the Marlins after what they’ve done to the Phillies the past two years, but the point remains that spacing teams out should be a priority when creating schedules. I’m of the opinion that one of the unsubstantiated reasons why offense is down this year is because teams see each other so much, so early, so often that the pitchers are able to make quicker adjustments to the offense and set them down a lot easier is a series than if they had not seen the team for a few weeks. I don’t think there is any way to prove this, but that’s my conspiracy theory.

You’re here for lineups, so let’s get to them. For the Phillies:

Zach Eflin has the unenviable task of following Zack Wheeler’s gem yesterday. The major thing is the return of Bryce Harper and Jean Segura to the lineup after their respective injuries. It’ll be nice to have a full offensive compliment for this weekend.

For the Braves:

I mean, it’s the Braves, so who really cares, amiright?

Let’s talk about it!