Lineup, how to watch Atlanta's Saturday afternoon matchup against the Chicago Cubs

The Atlanta Braves blasted Kyle Hendricks and the Cubs 8-0 in Wrigley Field yesterday afternoon to set the tone for the weekend series. Now Atlanta's trying to get an early series win in a game two where Atlanta's throwing one of their big three starters from this season in All-Star Bryce Elder and Chicago's resorting to a bullpen game in the wake of Marcus Stroman's placement on the IL with a hip injury.

Lineup for the Atlanta Braves on Saturday, August 5th

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

Back at it 🔥#ForTheA pic.twitter.com/qCWA4Zz4tb
— Atlanta Braves (@Braves) August 5, 2023

As usual, Atlanta's not making a lot of changes to their go-to lineup, a luxury for Braves fans in an era of load management and platoons for specific pitching matchups. The average team uses over 120 different lineups in the course of a season - Atlanta's used only 56 this season, most of them because of injury to key contributors like Michael Harris II and Orlando Arcia early this season.

Pitching Matchup for the Atlanta Braves vs Chicago Cubs on Saturday, August 5th

Starting for Atlanta is Bryce Elder. The 2023 All-Star is 8-2 with a 3.18 ERA in his 21 starts this season, striking out 89 in his 121.2 innings. He's never faced the Cubs in his short career, and exactly one Chicago player even has at-bats against Elder: new trade acquisition Jaimer Candelario, who went 1-2 with a HR and 2 RBIs during his time with the Washington Nationals.

Starting for the Cubs is RHP Javier Assad. The reliever is 1-2 with a 3.24 ERA in 2023, pitching in nineteen games this season with 40 strikeouts in his 50 innings. He's working as an opener for the second time this season, and is going to need to give the Cubs some depth - several relievers have thrown over 25 pitches in the last few days and there could be workload concerns if Assad gets knocked out early or if Chicago needs to rotate relievers more often than they're hoping.

A repeat of yesterday's game, where Kyle Hendricks was done after four innings and longman Hayden Wesneski had to pitch three innings on fifty pitches, would absolutely burn this Cubs pen before Sunday's series finale.

How to watch the Atlanta Braves and Chicago Cubs on Saturday, August 5th

First pitch today is at 2:20 PM ET from Wrigley Field. The game broadcast, with Voice of the Braves Brandon Gaudin, is available inside Braves Country on Bally Sports Southeast 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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