Lineup, how to watch Braves vs Cardinals game two

Atlanta goes for the series win on Tuesday night behind the arm of rookie lefty Dylan Dodd

The Atlanta Braves, fresh off of a long ball-powered 8-4 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals and spot starter Jake Woodford on Monday night, are back at it on Tuesday night. 

Here's how the Braves will line up in the contest: 

.@Doddzy_25 makes his MLB debut tonight in St. Louis!#ForTheA pic.twitter.com/p5iheLVvRP

— Atlanta Braves (@Braves) April 4, 2023

Travis d'Arnaud reprises his role as the DH, keeping his electric bat in the lineup while Sean Murphy gets another start as Atlanta looks to keep St. Louis's running game in check. We'll also see the regular season Braves debut of Kevin Pillar in left field, batting 9th.  

The Braves are sending prospect lefty Dylan Dodd to the mound for his first career appearance in the bigs. Added to the 40-man and 26-man rosters just yesterday, he's getting his first big league start just hours from his childhood home of Elk Grove, IL. 

The prospect lefty was in a pitched battle with Jared Shuster for the 5th starter's spot in Spring Training, but the delayed start of spring (and subsequent IL stint) of Kyle Wright allowed both lefties to make starts in Atlanta's first week. 

Dodd, a 3rd rounder in 2021 out of Southeast Missouri, rapidly climbed through the minors as a control artist - in his minor league career, covering 30 starts, he's walked less than two batters per nine innings, and is regarded as having the best control of anyone in the Braves farm system. The 6'3 lefty throws both two-seam and four-seam fastballs in the low to mid-90s, without exceptional shape but consistently in the zone - in the minors in 2022, Dodd threw them for strikes more than 73% of the time. Pounding the zone with fastballs is the setup for his slider and changeup, both of which are used to induce weak groundball contact and get swing and miss. Dodd throws the slider for strikes more than the changeup, but the changeup is the better pitch. The key for Dodd against this potent Cardinals lineup will be keeping the breaking ball down so that these power hitters can't square it up and send it into the stands as a souvenir. 

Opposing the Braves is old NL East foe Steven Matz. Previously with the Mets, he had 15 career appearances against Atlanta, going 6-3 with a 3.42 ERA in 79 career innings. He hasn't seen Atlanta since 2020, however, with the Mets trading him in January 2021 to Toronto, where he went 14-7 with a 3.82 ERA. Upon signing with St. Louis in November 2021 for four years and $44M, he went 5-3 with a 5.25 ERA in only 48 innings last season as he battled knee and shoulder issues. 

Not many Braves have significant sample sizes against Steven Matz, with a few exceptions. DH/LF Marcell Ozuna is 6-21 against Matz with a HR, six RBIs, and five strikeouts. 2B Ozzie Albies is 3-23, with a double, three RBIs, and five strikeouts. 3B Austin Riley has the best success, going 2-7 with a double and a homer off of Matz.  

The Atlanta Braves take on the St. Louis Cardinals in the second game of the series tonight at 7:45 pm ET from Busch Stadium. The broadcast, with Voice of the Braves Brandon Gaudin, is available inside Braves Country on Bally Sports South, and is available on MLB.TV outside of the broadcast area. The radio call, with Ben Ingram, is available locally on 680 AM/93.7 FM The Fan or outside the Atlanta market on the Atlanta Braves Radio Network or MLB.com.

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