Braves face Yu Darvish and Padres on ESPN Sunday Night Baseball

The Atlanta Braves want to tie the series today.

After an unexpected day off due to a weather delay, the Braves are hoping for better results today than in Friday’s opener, when they struck out eighteen times (ten against knuckleballer Matt Waldron) in their opening match. 3-1 loss to the San Diego Padres.

The Braves send a lead Bryce Elder (1-1, 4.79) on the mound against the veteran Yu Darvish (3-1, 2.43).

Here’s how Atlanta will line up for the contest:

RF Ronald Acuna Jr.
2B Ozzie Albies
DH Marcell Ozuna
1B Matt Olson
SSOrlando Arcia
CFMichael Harris II
3B Short Zack
LF Jarred Kelenic
C Chadwick Tromp

As expected, Austin Riley continues to be out of the lineup after being ruled out of Sunday’s game due to “left side tightness,” later diagnosed as “inflammation” via MRI. Zack Short will get his fifth straight start at third base for Atlanta. As expected, Travis d’Arnaud is also left out of today’s squad after being ruled out of Friday’s match for “dizziness”. He’s reportedly feeling much better, but the team will try to avoid using him until at least Monday.

Elder sandwiched two decent starts (two earned runs in 5.1 innings against the Cleveland Guardians and New York Mets) with a rough outing against fellow NL West star-laden Los Angeles Dodgers ( 7 ER in 3.1 innings). His only career outing against the Padres was short – just 4.1 innings on April 17, 2022 with two earned runs on three hits and five walks. Recent Padres acquisition Luis Arraez knows Elder from his time in the NL East with the Miami Marlins, hitting 3-12 with a home run off Atlanta’s lead.

Here is the Padres lineup:

2B Luis Arraez
RF Fernando Tatis Jr.
LF Jurickson Profar
1B Jake Cronenworth
3B Manny Machado
DH Xander Bogaerts
CFJackson Merrill
C Luis Campusano
SS Ha-Seong Kim

Darvish is having a typical Yu Darvish season, but he’s been on fire recently – the right-hander hasn’t allowed a run to score in his last three outings, leading a seventeen inning scoreless streak into the game. This evening. However, the Braves have generally hit him well — he’s just 1-3 with a 5.33 ERA in his last five outings against Atlanta. DH Marcell Ozuna is the one to watch here, as he’s hitting .316 lifetime with a homer, five RBIs and a .965 OPS out of Darvish.

Tonight’s game is scheduled for a 7:20 p.m. ET first pitch and is being broadcast nationally on ESPN. Sunday Night Baseball.

If you prefer to just listen, the Padres radio broadcast is available on KWFN 97.3 and XEMO 860 while the Atlanta Braves Radio Network carries the standard broadcast on 680 AM/93.7 FM The Fan and its affiliates across Braves Country .