Braves Welcome Old Friend Shea Langeliers and Oakland Athletics to Truist Park

The Atlanta Braves are hoping for better results in their weekend series against frequent trade partner Oakland Athletics.

Oakland Athletics catcher Shea Langeliers was a first-round pick by the Atlanta Braves in the 2019 MLB Draft before being traded to Oakland as part of the deal where the Braves acquired Matt Olson. / Robert Edwards-USA TODAY Sports

The Atlanta Braves need to “get right”. 

Having dropped three out of the four games of their previous series against the Washington Nationals, the Braves have already cemented their first losing month since June of 2022. 

They’re hoping for better results with frequent trade partner Oakland in town; the Braves and Athletics have linked up for two major deals (Matt Olson and Sean Murphy) and various smaller moves over the last few years, with Oakland's catcher Shea Langeliers being the most prominent former Brave still on the A's roster.

Atlanta’s sending offseason signing Reynaldo López (2-2, 1.75) to the mound opposite lefty JP Sears (4-3, 3.88). 

Lineups for the Atlanta Braves and Oakland Athletics on Friday, May 31st 

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

2B Ozzie Albies
3B Austin Riley
DH Marcell Ozuna
1B Matt Olson
RF Adam Duvall
SS Orlando Arcia
CF Michael Harris II
C Sean Murphy
LF Jarred Kelenic

López, originally scheduled for last night and pushed back to today to give him extra rest, has to be salivating for today’s matchup. In his last five career starts against the Athletics, he’s 2-2 with a minuscule 0.95 ERA. His goal will be to get better results against the only two members of Oakland’s roster that have at-bats against him: outfielders Daz Cameron and Miguel Andujar have exactly one hit each off of López, both homers.  

Here's the Athletics lineup:

3B Abraham Toro
CF JJ Bleday
DH Brent Rooker
LF Miguel Andujar
RF Seth Brown
C Kyle McCann
2B Zack Gelof
1B Tyler Soderstrom
SS Aledmys Díaz

Sears probably isn’t intimidated about today’s matchup - last season, in the midst of Atlanta’s best offensive season in years, he held Atlanta to one run on four hits across six innings in a 2-1 Oakland win. The one run he gave up in that game was on a solo homer, and it was to a player that isn’t even on Atlanta’s roster this season: outfielder Kevin Pillar. 

How to Watch the Atlanta Braves and Oakland Athletics on Friday, May 31st 

The series opener is scheduled for a 7:20 PM ET first pitch. It’s being broadcast on Bally Sports South and NBC-Southern California, with those out-of-market getting the game on MLB.tv. 

If you’d rather just listen, the Athletics radio broadcast is available on Bloomberg 960 AM/103.7 HD2.  while the Atlanta Braves Radio Network has the standard broadcast on 680 AM/93.7 FM The Fan and affiliates across Braves Country. The Braves also have a Spanish language broadcast today on La Mejor 1600/1460/1130 AM.