After winning their first games of the month in Milwaukee, the Atlanta Braves are looking to keep the momentum going to erase a terrible last two weeks and get to do it against the Colorado Rockies. However, Brian Snitker and his lineup construction might hamper the team as they try to get going.

For some reason, after benching Alex Verdugo for the last two games, the Braves manager thought it was a great idea to hit the left fielder second, which led to the team’s beat writer Mark Bowman calling out the lineup.

Why hitting Alex Verdugo second shows the Brian Snitker is grasping at straws

While the left-handed veteran initially did a decent job filling in the left field hole, Verdugo has essentially been unplayable since the beginning of May. The 29-year-old has been the 13th-worst hitter in baseball by wRC+, with a 46 wRC+ one point ahead of teammate Nick Allen.

While he’s not the only Brave to struggle offensively, he’s the only one who fails to bring value on the defensive side. Eli White has been a slightly plus defender, while Nick Allen and Michael Harris II have been among the best defenders in baseball this season.

With White also struggling at the plate, and with Jurickson Profar still weeks away from returning, it’s understandable that Brian Snitker might not feel like he has much of a choice of who to play in left field on a given day.

Including Verdugo in the starting lineup over White can be argued and defended, but Brian Snitker’s decision to include the lefty with a high ground ball rate second is indefensible.

With Ronald Acuña Jr. no longer stealing bases, the Braves manager is practically begging the Rockies to just walk Acuña Jr., who has been one of the most dangerous hitters in baseball since returning, so they can get an automatic double play out of Verdugo.

Of course, it is the Rockies, but placing a below-average hitter high in the order because he had three hits off of German Márquez back when Nick Markakis was still a huge part of the Braves core seems misguided at best.