Michael

Harris II

Harris’ home run was his 25th of the season. He hit a three-run shot off Garrett Stubbs, a position player, in the eighth inning. Harris’ fantasy managers will take it. He was 0-for-15 over his last four games entering play Saturday. Harris is hitting .288 with an .804 OPS and 83 RBI this year.

It’s a bit of a surprising move given the Phillies are trying to chase down the Braves in the NL East and Harris is hitting .351/.373/.684 with four homers and three stolen bases in his last 15 games. They are facing LHP Cristopher Sánchez and Harris is hitting .269/.306/.462 against left-handers this year, we guess. Lane Thomas will get the call in left field for the Braves with Mauricio Dubón shifting over to center.

Harris’ home run was his 24th of the season. He hit a two-run shot off Nationals reliever Clayton Beeter in the eighth inning. Harris hit .314 in August, but with only three home runs in 28 games. He’s hitting .296 with an .829 OPS and 80 RBI this year.

Harris took a curveball from Giants starter Anthony Molina out to left-center field with a 401-foot blast that extended his on-base streak to 15 consecutive games. It was his 23rd round-tripper of the season and seventh time he’s left the yard in 43 games since the All-Star break. He’s gone deep three times in his last eight games.

The Braves were facing a 1-0 deficit heading into the eighth inning but got a two-out rally going with back-to-back singles from Matt Olson and Mauricio Dubon. Harris then smoked a double into the gap in left-center that scored both runs and put the Braves ahead to stay. The 25-year-old outfielder finished the day 2-for-4 and is now slashing an excellent .296/.322/.498 on the season to go along with 22 homers, 77 RBI and nine stolen bases.

Harris got the scoring started for the Braves in the second inning when he doubled to bring home Ronald Acuña. He would later come around to score on an RBI double by Sean Murphy, and in the fifth inning he blasted a two-run homer off Tomoyuki Sugano to push the Braves’ lead to 6-3. It was the 22nd homer of the season for Harris, who has hit safely in 11 of his last 12 games and is slashing a solid .289/.312/.444 in August.

Dropping Baldwin from the top of the order against lefties seems like the right call. Harris is sort of a surprising choice to lead off against a lefty, but he has been pretty successful against them this year, hitting .281/.319/.468. Harris has been batting cleanup against righties and fifth or sixth versus lefties.

The 25-year-old outfielder will get a breather with tough left-hander Max Fried toeing the slab for the Yankees. Mauricio Dubon will start in his place in center field and will bat fifth for the Braves on Friday evening in New York.

Harris changed this game with his three-run homer in the sixth inning. It more or less chased Nationals’ starter Foster Griffin and gave the Braves a commanding 5-1 lead. It was an impressive blast too at 112.8 mph off the bat and traveling an estimated 421 feet. He’s in a bit of a cold spell with just five hits in his last 27 at-bats – and of course just one walk over that span – so here’s to hoping this big game can help him get off the schneid.

Harris will need to go on a stolen base tear to get to 20/20 for the second year in a row — he’s just 6-for-7 there at the moment — but at least the home runs don’t seem to be in doubt. He’s also eighth in the majors with a .299 average and tied for 20th with 61 RBI.