Braves Jump on LA Early, Taking Series Opener
The Atlanta Braves sprayed baseballs all over Truist Park tonight, taking an early series lead
The Atlanta Braves struck early against the Los Angeles Dodgers, scoring five runs in the first two innings en route to a 6-2 series-opening win on Friday night in Truist Park.
Here’s what you need to know about from the contest.
Schwelly silences LA
Rookie starter Spencer Schwellenbach has been handled with kid gloves recently by the Braves, going a combined 10.2 innings (and just 154 pitches) in his last two starts. It feels like the career-high workload was starting to get to Schwelly, with his locations more frequently missing in the heart of the plate and the Phillies and Blue Jays punishing him for it: eight runs on fifteen hits in those two starts.
(We talked about this on today’s episode of the Braves Today Podcast, available wherever you get your podcasts and on YouTube.)
However, Schwellenbach fought through the fatigue tonight.
The rookie righthander went six innings against LA, allowing only two runs on four hits while striking out six against only one walk. The locations thing popped up again, with Gavin Lux just missing a center-cut slider that was a flyout to left field, and Tommy Edman getting a single off of a middle-middle slider to score LA’s second run.
(The first run scored off of Schwellenbach was due to a solo homer by Miguel Rojas that came on a low fastball - it was a good pitch and an even better piece of hitting from the veteran Rojas.)
Schwellenbach finished with 13 whiffs and a 33% CSW while holding the “Big Three” of Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts, and old friend Freddie Freeman to 0-8 with a walk.
Atlanta’s offense got started early
For a lineup that’s struggled with scoring runs over the week, you really couldn’t tell tonight. Perhaps it was the return of Ronald Acuña Jr., who was in the Truist Park dugout for the first time since tearing his ACL back in May and having season ending surgery in California just weeks later.
The Braves tagged Dodgers rookie Landon Knack for five runs on seven hits in just two innings, hitting two multi-run homers off of the righthander.
LA used four relievers to cover the final six innings, including higher-leverage arms in Daniel Hudson and Brusdar Graterol. With the Dodgers facing the prospect of short outings from all of their starters this weekend, getting into their bullpen early in game one is going to pay off in the back end of the series.
Money Mike’s cashing in
After an extended absence for a hamstring strain, Michael Harris II has struggled to get back into a groove since returning to the team, batting just .227 over the month of August (17 games).
But since September 1st, he’s been one of the hottest hitters in all of MLB, going 13-40 with three homers and eight RBI. While the overall stats are good (.325 average), the inputs are even better: Harris has a league-leading 20 balls put into play at 100 mph or harder since September 1st.
The back of the bullpen is perfect
The Braves (unfortunately) didn’t need to use the trio of Pierce Johnson, Joe Jiménez, and Raisel Iglesias this week during their 1-2 stretch against the Cincinnati Reds and Washington Nationals; those three relievers haven’t pitched since Sunday.
That just means that they’re well-rested for this four-game series.
Those three relievers pitched tonight’s 7th, 8th, and 9th innings in that order with only one hit allowed, striking out three to seal up the win.
And when Atlanta gets to use those three, they always win. Tonight was the 9th time this season that those three relievers have pitched those three innings, with Atlanta going a perfect 9-0 in those games.
Let’s hope that they have plenty of chances to throw this weekend.
What’s next for the Atlanta Braves?
Oh, just the most anticipated pitching matchup of the series: Cy Young favorite Chris Sale (16-3, 2.38) takes on midseason trade acquisition Jack Flaherty (12-6, 2.86) at 7:20 PM ET on Bally Sports.