Today's Three Things: Atlanta shut out once again

The Atlanta Braves have been shut out seven times this year, but three of those have come in the last five games

The Atlanta Braves dropped the series opener 4-0 to the Los Angeles Angels in Truist Park on Tuesday night.

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

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The Turning Point

The bottom of the 5th inning.

With Grant Holmes pitching his ass off (more on this later), Atlanta had a great opportunity to score the game’s first run thanks to a leadoff Michael Harris II triple.

(Despite being hit at 109 mph, it was really a misplay by Jorge Soler - ask Chris Sale about those - but thanks for the home cooking, Truist Park official scorer.)

But as they’ve done too many times this season, Atlanta couldn’t find a way to get the run in. Nick Allen got down 0-2 and popped out on an inside fastball, Ronald Acuña Jr. struck out in a three pitch at-bat where every pitch was in or touching the strike zone, and after the Angels intentionally walked Matt Olson after getting down 3-0, Marcell Ozuna flew out to left on a center-cut changeup.

While the Braves had other opportunities to score runs in this game, one in which they finished 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position, none were as prime of an opportunity as this one.

Today’s Player of the Game

Grant Holmes.

He was phenomenal. Not allowing a run over six innings with three hits, three walks, and ten strikeouts, none of his pitcher were that hittable by Los Angeles. He picked up an absurd 27 whiffs, including 16 on his slider, and had just eleven total balls (four hard-hit) put into play.

The slider, obviously, was the start of the show but I want to talk about his fastball for a second. He didn’t draw a lot of whiffs, just three in fifteen swings, but the Angels also got only two balls in play and fouled ten different fastballs off. It served as his anchor pitch, being thrown in the zone 61% of the time. His velocity continues to maintain despite his season innings count, with the heater averaging 94.4 mph tonight.

Frustratingly, this is the second straight home start where Holmes hasn’t gotten any run support. Across his last two Truist Park starts, he’s allowed two total runs in 12.1 innings with 25 strikeouts…and Atlanta’s lost both games by a combined score of 14-1. Shades of Jacob DeGrom there.

What You’ll Be Talking About

As always it’s the offense, but specific players.

Ronald Acuña Jr. is going through a cold spell (hopefully it’s that and not Ronald being infected by whatever Monstars-esque pestilence has taken all of the lineup’s ability to hit). He went 0-4 with four strikeouts tonight, and since his Citi Field homer last Monday, is officially in a slump: 1-22 with thirteen strikeouts and no extra base hits. He’s too talented to get stay here, though, and I’m not worried long term. He’ll get confortable with the elevated fastballs again.

Austin Riley is someone who seemingly broke out of his struggles with the calendar ticking over to July. Young Thicc finished 3-4 with a double, finishing just shy of half of the team’s seven hits for the game. It’s a continuation of a theme where he’s been bad in June (and September, frustratingly), but red hot in July:

Career splits by month (prior to tonight):
March/April: .263/.343/.452
May: .278/.341/.494
June: .259/.317/.455
July: .292/.348/.607
August: .289/.349/.518
Sept/Oct: .252/.325/.443

But Marcell Ozuna has officially become a problem. He was examined by trainers in the dugout with what looked like it could have been a hamstring injury, but was able to make his next at-bat.

Didn’t help, though, as he went 0-4 with a strikeout. For all the talk of how bad Harris has been in the last 30 days (.159/.176/.295), a streak of poor performance that led to two days on the bench over the weekend, Marcell’s been right there with Harris at the bottom of the qualified hitter leaderboards. In the last 30 days, Ozuna is batting .168/.246/.238, good for a .484 OPS that is fifth worst among all qualified hitters and just thirteen points above Harris’ .471.

Looking for more discussion about this game?

Here’s tonight’s Postcast, with me and Locked On Braves host Jake Mastroianni, as we went live to break down the loss.

What’s Next for the Braves?

The Braves are looking to try and even up the series tomorrow, but are staring at a severe pitching disadvantage to do it. Atlanta’s sending youngster Didier Fuentes (0-2, 10.80) to the mound opposite lefty Yusei Kikuchi (3-6, 2.79) at 7:15 PM ET.