Today's Three Things: Braves bullpen falters late in loss to Cardinals
The Atlanta Braves bullpen game went well...until it didn't
The Atlanta Braves dropped their matchup against the St. Louis Cardinals 10-4 in Truist Park on Tuesday, tying the series at one game each.
Here’s Today’s Three Things from the contest.
The Turning Point
Atlanta entered the 8th inning locked into a 4-4 tie with the Cardinals.
St. Louis would score the next six runs.
With rain starting to fall, Enyel De Los Santos was tagged for three runs on two hits and two walks, striking out just one. It was a bit of bad luck and a bit of bad defense - the first hit in the inning was a flared double by speedster Victor Scott that Orlando Arcia overran in shallow left field, giving Scott the opening he needed to take a second base on the 57.3 mph hit. After a strikeout of Masyn Wynn. De Los Santos walked Lars Nootbaar (intentionally) and Willson Contreras (only semi-intentionally - he was clearly pitching around him, only occasionally coming into the zone and hoping he’d chase balls for a strikeout) to bring up Nolan Gorman.
Who absolutely ripped a hanging changeup for a bases-clearing double.
Despite what the broadcast discussed, I don’t hate the idea of a changeup to Gorman there. Offspeeds were his worst pitch type last year and are currently his lowest expected batting average this year.
But a middle-middle changeup is NOT the way to attack any professional hitter, nevermind one with 25-30 homer power like Gorman.
Call-up Nathan Wiles got the ninth, allowing three runs in his MLB debut, but this game was over when EDLS couldn’t get Contreras to chase a bad pitch out of the zone.
Today’s Player of the Game
Austin Riley.
The slugger went 3-4 and all of his hits were infield groundballs that he not only beat out with pure speed, but he actually forced an errant throw that allowed him to advance to second on two of them. (Nolan Arenado, first inning, Andre Pallante, third inning)
In the “funny results on batted balls” department, Riley’s only out was a 111.2 mph lineout with an expected batting average of .790 while all three of his infield hits had expected batting averages of .260 or below, with two of them coming in below 62 mph off the bat.
That’s baseball.
What You’ll Be Talking About
Atlanta’s pitching.
It’s clear that the bargain bin bullpen buying spree this offseason hasn’t worked entirely according to play. Several of those players - Buck Farmer, Hector Neris, Jake Diekman - while several others are struggling to such a degree that the Braves have traded for three relievers in just April alone.1
I actually thought that the “bullpen game” strategy mostly worked - Scott Blewett and Aaron Bummer gave you five innings combined with two runs allowed on four hits and two walks, simulating a pretty decent spot start. The issue tonight was Rafael Montero not having control of the splitter, Enyel De Los Santos throwing a terrible changeup to Nolan Gorman, and being forced to go to EDLS in the first place instead of someone like Aaron Bummer or Daysbel Hernández.
What’s Next for the Braves?
Tomorrow’s series finale, weather permitting, is scheduled for 12:15 PM. Bryce Elder (0-1, 7.20 ERA) gets the ball for Atlanta opposite struggling veteran Miles Mikolas (0-2, 7.64) with both teams looking for length out of their starter and a series win.
Michael Peterson (Angels, 4/1), Rafael Montero (Astros, 4/8), and Scott Blewett (Orioles, 4/21).