Today's Three Things: Braves bats quiet again as they drop series to Angels

The Atlanta Braves came one inning away from being shut out for a fourth time in seven games

The Atlanta Braves dropped their series finale against the Los Angeles Angels 5-1 in Truist Park on Thursday night.

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

The Turning Point

The bottom of the fifth inning.

Atlanta was down 3-0 and hadn’t put up much resistance up to this point against Angels starter José Soriano.

This inning started off with little resistance, as Sean Murphy weakly grounded out, and Michael Harris flew out. But Nick Allen managed to draw a walk off of Soriano, bringing Ronald Acuña Jr. to the plate.

Ronald worked the count to 3-1 and was sitting on a sinker down in the zone…but despite knowing what pitch was coming and where it’d be thrown, he couldn’t seem to get underneath it and drive it, instead grounding out to end the inning.

Tonight’s single notwithstanding, Acuña’s batting just .167 in his last seven games with only four hits, all singles, and just .269 in his last fifteen. While he’s clearly not the biggest problem with Atlanta’s offense, if you are a “Tim Hyers has destroyed the offense” conspiracy theorist, Acuña hitting well for his first few weeks and then getting into a slump does nothing but confirm your priors.

On that note, Jurickson Profar hit his second homer in as many nights in this one, a 9th inning solo shot that kept the Braves from being shut out. If the Tim Hyers conspiracy theory is true, he has about two or three more weeks of great offensive performances before he crashes back to earth, as well.

Today’s Player of the Game

Dear Austin Cox, I owe you an apology - I was not familiar with your game.

Cox came in for the 7th and 8th innings, attempting to cover multiple innings for Atlanta so that they could save the rest of the pen. He did that and more.

Cox allowed just one hit in his two innings, striking out three. He threw five different pitches, including two fastballs (a four-seamer and a cutter), two different breaking balls (a curveball and a slider), and a pretty wicked splitter. Inducing fourteen swings in his seven batters faced, seven of those swings were whiffs and while four balls were put into play, none of them were even at 90 mph exit velocity.

In a season where the bullpen has been in flux, I was once again impressed with a lefty out of Gwinnett who popped up on the MLB radar and has looked impressive in limited action.

What You’ll Be Talking About

Jurickson Profar.

We saw both the good and bad of the leftfielder in this one.

I already mentioned his home run, the second homer and third hit of his first two games back from suspension. We also saw some of the bad, coming on defense.

Profar missed a diving catch in what became a Taylor Ward RBI triple early in this one, and it showed his limitations as a defender. He didn’t get a bad or a late jump, moving the correct direction as quickly as possible after the ball was struck. He just didn’t have the foot speed to get all the way the ball, exacerbated by his too shallow of an angle, diving and just coming up short.

Here’s both the broadcast and high home angles of the play:

Good enough read and reaction, just a lack of foot speed and athleticism to actually reach the ball.

A frustrating thing that shows up in the high-home footage, by the way: Michael Harris II not even attempting to be in a position to back Profar up. The centerfielder needs to be moving that way when the ball is struck, even a little, so that he can help if that exact scenario happens. Think back to both missed catches in right field by Jorge Soler in this series - the centerfielder was right there both times, albeit with the caveat that those balls were in the gap rather than towards the line.

But if Profar continues hitting homers and otherwise producing at the plate, you’ll live with a slight downgrade in outfield defense from what Eli White or Stuart Fairchild would have given you.

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?

Atlanta’s welcoming the Baltimore Orioles to town for a three game set that begins tomorrow night in Truist Park. Spencer Strider (3-6, 3.86) takes on old friend and longtime Braves starter Charlie Morton (4-7, 5.63) at 7:15 PM ET.