Braves vs. Phillies / USA vs. Venezuela Game Thread: 3/18/2023

We’ve got double-barreled baseball action of relevance to Braves fans on tap for Saturday night. Kicking off at 6:05 pm ET, the Braves will play host to the Phillies in Grapefruit League Action in North Port, FL. Dylan Dodd will start for the Braves and continue his quest to either head north with the team out of Florida, or at least move up in the “okay we need a starter, who’s it gonna be?” pecking order. Will he Doddinate the opposition once again? Stay tuned and find out.

The Phillies aren’t exactly rolling out a tough lineup for Quadruple Ds to face. Meanwhile, I expect this thread to be absolutely rampant with speculation about why Vaughn Grissom is DHing after not appearing in three games. Go ahead, play right into my hands.

An hour after this game kicks off, Team USA and the Venezuelan Selección will face off in Miami in the WBC quarterfinals. Venezuela is unbeaten so far, but can be knocked out of the tournament with a sole defeat at this point. Team USA dropped a game to Mexico (who is on to the semis at this point) and has underperformed so far relative to their roster strength, but is incredibly dangerous because of their elite-caliber lineup. Lance Lynn will start for Team USA; Martin Perez will start for Venezuela.