Today's Three Things: Braves walked off in Pittsburgh after another anemic offensive showing

A quiet offense and some great batted ball luck for the Pirates led to a walkoff win and a series loss

The Atlanta Braves dropped game three and the series against the Pittsburgh Pirates, getting walked off 4-3 in PNC Park on Sunday afternoon.

Here’s Today’s Three Things from the contest.

The Turning Point

Atlanta’s eighth inning on offense.

Nick Allen led off the inning with a single, his second base hit of the day, but was then thrown out at second base on a stolen base attempt that, frankly, was not that close.

It would come back to bite the Braves.

After Alex Verdugo struck out for the 2nd out of the inning (instead of the first), Austin Riley singled to left field and Matt Olson doubled to right field. Had Allen been on second base after Riley’s single, he’d have scored here.

Marcell Ozuna was then walked and replaced by Stuart Fairchild as a pinch-runner, a decision I’m okay with.

There’s a difference in asking Fairchild to pinch-run with two outs when he’s the tying run - when Snit did this on Thursday against the Reds, it was already a tie game and potentially going to extras. Fairchild ended up coming to the plate with a runner on third and one out in the 10th and couldn’t get the ball through the infield, with Verdugo being thrown out at home on the play.

And here’s where the big decision was made by Snit, sending Sean Murphy to the plate in place of Drake Baldwin. Joey Wentz was the new reliever in the game and has better numbers against lefties (.154 BAA) than righties (.267 BAA), but it was still taking the bat out of the hands of the game’s best hitter in Baldwin and then being forced to bat Ozzie Albies (who was currently 0-for-22 across the past week).

It worked, though - Murphy laced a double to the left-center wall and cleared the bases; Fairchild slid in just ahead of the throw, showing that Ozuna would have been stuck on third base at best and the Braves would still be down a run.

I still don’t know how I feel about the decision to bat Murphy instead of Baldwin - the numbers say to send a righty up instead of a lefty, but game context says don’t lose your best bat in Baldwin. For at least one day, it worked out for Brian Snitker and the Braves.

Today’s Player of the Game

Is it fine to say no one?

The bright spots offensively with two hits each, Drake Baldwin and Nick Allen, both made crucial mistakes that hurt Atlanta today. Baldwin allowed a passed ball that got Pittsburgh on the board in the 5th, while Allen had that caught stealing in the 8th.

If anything, Sean Murphy coming off the bench and getting the game-tying hit could give an argument that he was the MVP, but it doesn’t really feel like anyone on Atlanta’s roster deserved it.

What You’ll Be Talking About

Raisel Iglesias ‘blowing’ the game in the 9th…but you shouldn’t, for two reasons.

The first reason is that this loss was on the offense, not Iglesias. If Atlanta scores four in that 8th inning instead of three, it’s possible that Pittsburgh approaches that final inning differently and he holds on. If the offense musters more than three runs on their eight hits and two walks, it might not even be a save situation at all.

The second reason is that Iglesias didn’t actually pitch poorly in the 9th and was the victim of some cruel batted ball luck from the baseball gods.

Let’s walk through the at-bats together.

PH Adam Frazier singles to center

There’s no reason to be mad about any of these pitches - a fastball away that Murphy steals a strike on and then two elevated heaters? Nothing in the zone and it almost worked.

Single by Ke’Bryan Hayes

I’m sorry, that’s a perfectly executed at-bat. A changeup out of the zone that he just barely gets good wood on and it falls for a hit? Fun fact - it had an expected batting average of just .090, but the baseball gods were wearing black and gold today.

Bryan Reynolds groundout

A good changeup and he gets the groundout. 10/10, no notes.

Joey Bart walkoff fielder’s choice

Really? That’s a perfectly executed 2-2 slider and Joey Bart, playing against his hometown team, could do no wrong here. (xBA of just .080 on this, by the way.)

Iglesias has been bad at times this season, don’t get me wrong, but it’s not right to group this in with those other outings.

What’s Next for the Braves?

Atlanta’s heading back home for four against the Nationals. Here’s the pitching matchups for the series:

Mon (7:15): Grant Holmes vs Jake Irvin
Tue (7:15): Spencer Schwellenbach vs Michael Soroka
Wed (7:15): Bryce Elder vs Mitchell Parker (LHP)
Thur (12:15): AJ Smith-Shawver vs Trevor Williams

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