Washington Nationals first baseman Dominic Smith is not in the lineup for Thursday's series opener against left-hander Max Fried and the Atlanta Braves.
The left-handed hitting Smith will sit against a southpaw. Joey Meneses will man first base while Keibert Ruiz shifts to designated hitter and Drew Millas starts at catcher for Washington.
numberFire’s models project Meneses ($2,700) for 8.6 FanDuel points on Thursday. Per our MLB Heat Map, the Nationals' implied total is a deflated 3.56 while the game total is the highest of the day (9.0). Fried has a sparkling 2.64 ERA and 2.81 xERA this season while limiting hard hits (32.5%) and walks (5.9%). His 25.3% strikeout rate is also solid and rates in the top 65th percentile among qualified starters this season.
Source: MLB.com