Today's Three Things: Braves Blow Extras, Waste Rare Outburst at the Plate
A brutal extra-innings loss overshadows one of Atlanta’s best offensive showings in weeks.
The Atlanta Braves dropped game two (and the series) to the Baltimore Orioles in ten innings, 9-6, in Truist Park on Saturday afternoon.
Here’s Today’s Three Things from the contest.
The Turning Point
Despite the game being tied and going to extras, it should not have been. Let’s go back to the bottom of the 6th.
Old friend Scott Blewett, now back in Baltimore after a detour (and one very memorable blown lead against Arizona) in Atlanta, has loaded the bases with no outs. Nick Allen started the inning with a single before both Ronald Acuña Jr. and Matt Olson drew walks.
It turns out that Blewett was pitching around the top two in Atlanta’s lineup, confident that he could handle the heart of the order.
Austin Riley struck out on three pitches, including missing a 95-mph fastball that was in the heart of the plate. Juricskon Profar managed a weak groundout to short, although it was so slow that Gunnar Henderson had no play but going to first for the out, so a run came in. And then Drake Baldwin got on top of a slider and groundout to second base.
While it wasn’t a NOBLETIGER1, it was a bit demoralizing for Atlanta to only get one run there. To make matters worse, Baltimore came out in the very next inning and promptly tied the game.
For as good as Austin Riley’s historically been in July and for having multiple hits (including a two-run homer in the first inning), his out was perhaps the most egregious due to the cookie he just refused to make contact with.
Today’s Player of the Game
Matt Olson.
Atlanta’s burly first baseman reached base in all five at-bats today, picking up three hits (including a solo shot in the third inning), walking twice, scoring two runs, and driving in two of Atlanta’s six runs.
(Of note is that he was also thrown out at home while trying to score from second on Riley’s fourth inning RBI double, but with two outs and how much the offense had struggled to score recently, I don’t hate the decision from Fredi Gonzalez to send Olson there. It needed an excellent relay throw from Henderson to get Olson, which the shortstop delivered.)
Olson’s hitting .333/.444/.568 over his last 30 games while continuing to lead the league in defense from the cold corner, yet he wasn’t remotely near the top vote getters for the NL spot in his ballpark’s own All-Star Game. At this point, we’re reliant on the manager and player voting to add him if there’s a reason that either of the NL candidates isn’t able to make this year’s Midsummer Classic.
What You’ll Be Talking About
The disaster that was the bullpen game.
Atlanta, not being enamored with any of their options in either Gwinnett or Columbus, decided to start Aaron Bummer on the mound for a bullpen game. It looked to be a good decision at first, as Bummer struck out five of the first nine Orioles he faced, being tagged only for a solo shot from #8 hitter Tyler O’Neil on a sweeper that ran too far inside.
But as always, Atlanta tried to get a little too much from virtually everyone that was in the game. Bummer followed that O’Neil homer with a walk of #9 hitter Cedric Mullins and then was left in the game to face the top of the order a second time, where he gave up a two-run shot to Jordan Westburg before finally being pulled for fellow lefty Dylan Dodd.
Dodd ran into some trouble of his own later, as well. With a runner on 2nd and one out, he threw an 0-2 cutter to Colton Cowser that was middle of the plate and down rather than taking it out of the zone. Cowser didn’t miss it, popping it out to straightaway centerfield for two more runs and pushing Baltimore to a 5-3 lead.
As MLB.com’s Mark Bowman relayed after the game, manager Brian Snitker doesn’t believe that any more bullpen games are doable for this team, meaning that they have four games to figure out which player out of Gwinnett or Columbus will get the first crack at the open rotation spot left by Spencer Schwellenbach’s elbow injury.
Looking for more discussion about this game?
Here’s this evening’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 tries to avoid the sweep tomorrow morning in the early window - Grant Holmes (4-7, 3.47) squares off with lefty Trevor Rogers (1-0, 2.05) at 11:35 AM ET on Roku.
No Outs Bases Loaded, Ending with Team Incapable of Getting Easy Run
Snit just made a decision in the 8th inning of Sunday's game that defies logic. He pinch hits Michael Harris, who leads the league in making the 3rd out with a runner in scoring position, and what does Harris do, he makes the 3rd out. Hey Snit, that's kind of why Harris was put on the bench, do you remember that? There is just no answer to these idiotic decisions.
Hard/impossible for me to watch. Snit should do himself and Braves nation good and retire. He's embarrasing himself after such a good career.