Ozzie

Albies

There haven’t been any indications that Albies is dealing with any sort of injury, so it looks to be just a breather for the 29-year-old infielder. Mauricio Dubon will cover second base in his absence and will bat fifth against Marlins’ righty Janson Junk.

Albies smashed a solo homer in the third inning off Ryan Gusto, the only run Atlanta picked up off Gusto before he exited the game. Albies now has 19 homers on the season, and the RBI ups his total to 63.

Albies’ home run was his 17th of the season. He hit a game-tying solo home run in the eighth inning off Rico Garcia. The home run gave the Braves life momentarily before the Orioles had a walk-off win in the bottom of the ninth inning. Albies has hit two home runs in his last three games. He’s hitting .264 with a .755 OPS and 57 RBI.

Albies isn’t exactly struggling this month, but he has fanned 21 times in just 17 games, which is incredibly unusual. In fact, it’s the most times he’s struck out in a month since Sept. 2021. He struck out just nine times in 23 games in June. Of course, Albies really hasn’t been hot at any point since April; he’s batting .234/.289/.381 since May 1.

Albies’ home run was his 15th of the season. He hit a solo shot off Wandy Peralta in the sixth inning. Albies was just 2-for-13 with a run scored and two RBI in the last three games entering play Monday. He’s hitting .266 with a .755 OPS and 54 RBI.

The Braves only mustered three hits and two runs off Cardinals’ starter Michael McGreevy, and Albies was responsible for both runs and two of the three hits. He’s had a tremendous bounce back season thus far with 13 home runs and a .769 OPS as we approach the All-Star Break.

The Braves had been held without a hit through four innings until Albies took Kyle Harrison deep for a solo homer to lead off the fifth. He added a base hit and scored a run in the seventh, then came through in a big spot in the ninth. With a runner on and trailing by one run, he slugged a two-run homer off Aaron Ashby to walk it off for Atlanta. The 29-year-old second baseman is hitting .284/.335/.453 with 12 homers, 50 runs scored, and 40 RBI across 322 plate appearances.

Albies broke this game wide open with his three-run home run in the seventh inning after it sat still at 4-2 from the third inning on. That was his 10th home run of the season – only six shy of his mark from last year – to go along with a .283 batting average and .791 OPS in what’s been a resurgent season for the second baseman.

Albies smacked a double off of Payton Tolle in the fourth inning and came around to score on a two-out RBI single off the bat of Dominic Smith. He then capped off the scoring in the ballgame with a 416-foot (104.4 mph EV) two-run blast off of Ryan Watson in the ninth inning. With the three-hit attack, Albies is now slashing a solid .276/.333/.439 to go along with nine homers and 29 RBI on the season.

Albies has been the team’s everyday cleanup hitter this week following the return of Ronald Acuña Jr. The second baseman has one of the highest wRC+ marks of his career, though he finishes the afternoon just 14 percent better than league average. It’s still a bounceback from the past two years. The only flaw in his roto profile this year is that he hasn’t yet stolen a base and has been caught three times.