Today's Three Things: AJ Smith-Shawver and Drake Baldwin dominate Washington
The Atlanta Braves could have TWO contenders for Rookie of the Year on their hands
The Atlanta Braves took down the Washington Nationals 5-2 on Thursday afternoon in Truist Park to win the series three games to one.
Here’s Today’s Three Things from the contest.
The Turning Point
Atlanta’s fifth inning.
Holding on to a narrow 1-0 lead and with Nationals lefty Mitchell Parker having relatively cruised to that point, the Braves got to work immediately. Ozzie Albies took an inside fastball off the left hand (he stayed in the game and appeared to be fine) and then Nick Allen’s one-out single moved him to third base.
From there, Atlanta picked up back-to-back singles from the top of the order (Alex Verdugo and Drake Baldwin) that not only each scored a run but also knocked Parker from the game. Marcell Ozuna rounded out the scoring with a sacrifice fly that made it a three-run inning before Matt Olson recorded the final out with a groundout to third.
The singles from Allen and Baldwin in the inning were part of multi-hit games for both, with Baldwin going 3-4 and Allen going 2-3.
Today’s Player of the Game
The young righty continued his breakout season with another six innings of one run (unearned) baseball, walking just one and allowing just two hits while striking out six.
The biggest change for me today was being able to throw his fastball for strikes while still maintaining the velocity. He averaged 96.8 mph on the pitch today, almost two full mph above his season average, while still throwing the heater in the zone 64% of the time. It wasn’t just the average that was up - his max was 98.9 mph and he threw eleven heaters at 98 or above while not dropping below 94 on any of them.
AJ finished with seventeen whiffs and a 35% CSW while primarily being a three-pitch guy. I’m not sure why he’s essentially stopped throwing the cutter - none at all today, for the second straight start, after throwing it just once in the May 5th outing - but he’s clearly comfortable with the fastball/splitter/curveball combo.
What You’ll Be Talking About
More offensive struggles from the heart of the order.
Only an Austin Riley double in the eighth kept this from being another hitless game for the heart of Atlanta’s order. Matt Olson, in particular, had some ugly swings in this one and is in a skid. Over the last seven days, Olson’s batting .143 (4-for-28) with one RBI and eleven strikeouts.
Riley’s not struggling at the moment, hitting .286 across the last seven days and picking up five base hits in the series, but he has slipped a bit defensively. Riley’s error today was his fourth in the last eight games, a sharp contrast from the pace of just two across the first 36 games of 2025.
What’s Next for the Braves?
The Braves are flying to Boston to take on the Red Sox in what MLB is calling ‘Rivalry Weekend’. I guess our rival is the Red Sox because the two franchises shared a city back in the day, before the Braves relocated to Milwaukee after 82 years in Boston.
Here’s the starters for the weekend:
Friday (7:10 PM) - Chris Sale (1-3, 3.97 ERA) vs Garrett Crochet (4-2, 1.93 ERA)
Saturday (7:15) - Grant Holmes (2-3, 4.14 ERA) vs Lucas Giolito (1-1, 5.51 ERA)
Sunday (1:35) - Spencer Schwellenbach (2-3, 3.31 ERA) vs Brayan Bello (2-0, 2.33 ERA)
"Matt Olson, in particular, had some ugly swings in this one and is in a skid. Over the last seven days, Olson’s batting .143 (4-for-28) with one RBI and eleven strikeouts."
This has been going on since the beginning of 2024. Find a platoon for 1st base AND get Olson out of the middle of the lineup where he is mostly begging for walks, striking out or hitting into double plays.