Today's Three Things: Braves blast Cardinals with two catcher lineup
The Atlanta Braves had an impromptu bullpen game break out, but came out on the winning side of it
The Atlanta Braves took down the St. Louis Cardinals 6-5 in Busch Stadium on Friday night.
Here’s Today’s Three Things from the contest.
The Turning Point
This one came prior to the game, when Snit made the lineup.
The Braves gave the struggling Marcell Ozuna the night off, using Sean Murphy as the designated hitter (batting cleanup) and Drake Baldwin behind the plate, batting 6th.
Good move on Snit’s part. The pair combined for five hits, including two homers (both by Murphy), with four RBI between them.
If this playing time continues, it’s entirely possible that Baldwin can hold off electric lefty Jacob Misiorowski of the Milwaukee Brewers (who was just named an All-Star despite starting only five games and throwing 25 innings) for Rookie of the Year. Winning the award would get Baldwin $750,000 in prize money from MLB, roughly doubling his season salary, while netting Atlanta a Prospect Promotion Incentive draft pick after the first round of 2026’s MLB Draft.
Today’s Player of the Game
I’m going with a collective award for Atlanta’s pen.
Grant Holmes lasted only three innings in this one, getting abused by some poor locations and some weak contact that found holes in the defense. He needed 86 pitches for his 19 batters, striking out only one while allowing five runs on nine hits and two walks.
But the pen stepped up and shut down St. Louis the rest of the way, allowing just one hit and two walks. Enyel De Los Santos got the win after covering the 4th and 5th innings, while Austin Cos, Rafael Montero, and Pierce Johnson all got holds behind Raisel Iglesias’s 10th save of the season.
What You’ll Be Talking About
A possible injury for Austin Riley.
After going 1-2 and scoring a run early during the chaos of the early innings, Riley was suddenly and unexpectedly pinch-hit for by Luke Williams in the top of the 4th. The team later announced that Riley was removed for “lower abdominal tightness”, which is a vague enough diagnosis that it could be anything from diverticulitis to just an ill-timed bout of food poisoning that felled him.
Williams covered the rest of the game, committing a defensive error and going 0-3 with three strikeouts. We’re going to watch this one closely - it’s possible a roster move would need to be made if Riley’s out for any sort of actual period of time, but they’ll probably just float the roster spot over the weekend if it’s not deemed to be anything lasting or serious.
Looking for more discussion about this game?
Here’s tonight’s Postcast where I went live to break down the win.
What’s Next for the Braves?
Game two is Saturday afternoon at 2:5 PM ET. Erick Fedde (3-9, 4.79 ERA) takes the mound for the Cardinals, while the Braves officially have “TBD” but it’s expected to be Nathan Wiles making his first career Major League start.