Braves @ Dodgers May 25, 2015: Meet The Braves

Not too often that an opposing starting pitcher comes through town that I’ve never heard of, so, hey, who are you, Williams Perez?

	Braves			Dodgers
	5:10 p.m.			Los Angeles
2B	Peterson		CF	Pederson
CF	Maybin		SS	Rollins
1B	Freeman		2B	Kendrick
RF	Markakis		1B	Gonzalez
LF	Gomes		3B	Turner
3B	Ciriaco		RF	Ethier
SS	Simmons		LF	Van Slyke
C	Bethancourt		C	Ellis
P	Perez (R)		P	Anderson (L)

That’s who is going for Atlanta tonight in Los Angeles, and apparently he’s a 24-year-old righty who’s appeared in just three big league games. With Mike Minor out for the year, Trevor Cahill & Eric Stults demoted to the bullpen, and Alex Wood recently slowed by a stomach virus, Perez has been forced into action, making his first start last week against Tampa Bay, throwing five one-run innings. I won’t pretend I know anything about him, but a cursory look at his numbers indicates that he primarily throws a sinker that generates a ton of grounders when he’s going right, so now you know something about Williams Perez.

Really, I feel like it’s almost necessary to do that for a big part of this Atlanta roster, really. You know Freddie Freeman, Nick Markakis, and Andrelton Simmons, but without Craig Kimbrel or Justin Upton or Melvin Upton or Jason Heyward or Chris Johnson (injured) or Ervin Santana from last year’s roster alone, the rest is an interesting collection of castoffs and young players. Name an Atlanta reliever. You can’t, I dare you. (For the record: Stults, Cahill, Luis Avilan, Brandon Cunniff, Jason Grilli, Nick Masset, Jim Johnson, and Ian Thomas.)

So there’s your 2015 Atlanta Braves, somewhat surprisingly plugging along with a 22-21 record. As for your 2015 Los Angeles Dodgers, they counter with Brett Anderson and the usual lineup tonight — and no, you should not be surprised that A.J. Ellis is starting over Austin Barnes. Yasmani Grandal will DH for Oklahoma City on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and should be back with the Dodgers on Saturday. That’s only three missed games after today; Barnes, presumably, will start one of them.

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