Braves Walk Off Royals to Keep Wild Card Hopes Alive

The Atlanta Braves keep handling their business, winning their fifth consecutive game tonight and maintaining their edge in the NL Wild Card

The Atlanta Braves got a clutch homer from Travis d’Arnaud, his first as an Atlanta Braves, to walk off the Kansas City Royals 2-1 in Truist Park on Saturday night.

Here’s what you need to know about from the contest.

López is ALL the way back 

Reynaldo López was activated off the injured list this morning after two bullpens this week, but no rehab outings. (All of the Braves minor league affiliates are done for the season.)

Yeah, I’d say he’s fine.

López struck out two batters in each of the first two innings and finished with five 1-2-3 frames in his six total innings. Allowing just one run on two hits while not walking anyone and striking out nine, López was efficient with both his at-bats and his pitch count, needing just 73 pitches (49 strikes) to go through 19 batters across six.

The slider was the real weapon for López in this one - his breaking ball accounted for twelve of his sixteen whiffs and was the putaway pitch for all nine strikeouts. After Kansas City got their run in the 3rd inning, López retired the final ten batters he faced before being lifted for the seventh.

Another quiet night from the offense

Heading into the middle of this week, Atlanta’s offense was hot - they were coming off of a six game road trip against the Cincinnati Reds and Miami Marlins and just took down the New York Mets in the series opener behind STRONG offense: 20 homers, a .322 team batting average (with a .968 OPS) and 46 runs scored, an average of 6.6 per game.

But having two games against the Mets rescheduled to next week seems to have done a number on the bats - the Braves won last night with just four hits and only one homer, adding just two runs on five hits tonight.

The team keeps winning because of both dominant pitching and timely hitting - López and three relievers combined to hold Kansas City to just three hits and three walks while striking out thirteen while Travis d’Arnaud delivered a walkoff homer in the 9th (his first walkoff homer for the Braves, per Bally’s Hanna Yates) to secure the win.

Concerns about Ozzie?

Our own Christian Rauh wrote a long piece about a week ago discussing Ozzie Albies and his relative lack of experience batting righty against righthanded pitching.

Jury’s still out.

Ozzie finished this game 0-3 with a walk, bringing his batting average since returning down to just .174 (4-23) with a homer and three runs scored.

Two of his first three at-bats ended Braves innings, with the second baseman lining out and grounding into a double play to kill some attempted Braves rallies. In his defense, he didn’t face a left handed pitcher until tonight, so he was absolutely thrown into the deep end on the adjustment to right-on-right matchups, but it’s still a problem.

I’m not suggesting that Atlanta bench Ozzie and go back to Whit Merrifield, but I’m wondering if maybe moving Jorge Soler back to the #2 spot is a better decision for the final few games of the regular season.

Scoreboard watching

The New York Mets lost again, dropping the middle game of their series 6-0 to the Milwaukee Brewers.

As of press time, the San Diego Padres just took a three-run lead over the Arizona Diamondbacks in the 9th inning thanks to back-to-back homers from Kyle Higashioka and Brandon Lockridge.

Pending the final result of the Arizona-San Diego game, the Braves are in the second Wild Card spot, a full game ahead of the Mets and a half-game ahead of the Diamondbacks. With the standings where they are, the earliest Atlanta can be eliminated from postseason contention is game 162, meaning it’s increasingly likely that probable NL Cy Young (and Triple Crown winner) Chris Sale will be available to pitch game one of a Wild Card matchup. The Braves would face either the San Diego Padres (if the five seed) or the Milwaukee Brewers (if the six seed) in the first round, starting Tuesday.

What’s next for the Atlanta Braves?

The Braves have the series finale tomorrow afternoon - in a scheduling twist for MLB, every single game starts within a twenty minute window. Braves vs Royals will start from Truist Park at 3:20 PM ET, the final start time of the afternoon.

Manager Brian Snitker told us tonight that tomorrow’s starter would be one of the main three arms - Sale, Spencer Schwellenbach, or Charlie Morton. The decision will be made after Arizona’s game with the Padres is concluded.