Today's Three Things: Braves blank Marlins, Holmes Houdinis out of trouble

Atlanta's curly-headed starter escaped enough jams to get his own magic show in Vegas

The Atlanta Braves took down the Miami Marlins 7-0 in loanDepot Park on Saturday afternoon to even the series between the two teams at one game each.

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

The Turning Point

Atlanta’s fifth inning on offense.

Holding a narrow 1-0 lead and with Holmes having escaped runners on 3rd situations in each of the first three innings, Atlanta got a one-out single from Nick Allen and went to work. Ronald Acuña Jr. immediately went to work, ambushing a first-pitch fastball for a double to left that scored Allen all the way from first base. After a Matt Olson groundout pushed Ronald to third but put up the second out of the inning, Miami went from starter Eury Pérez to reliever Lake Bachar.

Not a great move.

Riley went and got a 1-1 sweeper off the plate, sending it back up the middle and scoring Ronald easily from third. While Atlanta would end up tacking on a single run in the 8th and getting a Drake Baldwin three-run homer in the 9th, this was the first breathing room for Holmes, who battled to hold a 1-0 lead without his best stuff early.

More about Holmes a bit later.

Today’s Player of the Game

It’s going to be Ronald Acuña Jr.

Ronald went 2-3 in this one, walking twice, and ultimately scoring three runs. Three of Atlanta’s four run-scoring innings involved Ronald in some way - he ran through a stop sign from third base coach Fredi Gonzalez to score from first base on a Marcell Ozuna single in the first, he had both an RBI and a run scored in the fifth, and he leadoff the 9th with a walk and came around to score on the Baldwin homer.

It was Ronald’s 21st game, out of 26 played, where he reached base safely two or more times and extended his current 2+ on-base streak to eleven games. Ronald’s now in the top eight for National League outfielder WAR on FanGraphs at +2.0; every player ahead of him has at least 295 or more plate appearances, while Ronald’s at just 108.

Looking at his accumulation stats, he’s already equaled last season’s RBI total with his 15th today, although he played 49 games last season and just 26 this year. His 21 walks are six away from last year’s figure, while he’s already doubled up last season’s homer production.

The rate stats are even more impressive. With the small sample size caveat (and some regression expected), he’s improved in all three components of his MVP-winning .337/.416/.596 slash of 2023 with a current line of .391/.504/.696.

Just absurd production.

What You’ll Be Talking About

Grant Holmes doing his best Harry Houdini impression.

As I mentioned above, Holmes escaped several jams today. He let Miami get a runner on third base in each of his first three innings, once with no outs and twice with only one, but found a way out of it every time.

Once he went three straight sliders, all down and away, to get a strikeout of Agustín Ramírez before making Kyle Stowers flyout with a cutter (1st inning). Once he used a well-placed cutter on the black outside to get a double play ball off the bat of Dane Myers (2nd inning). The 3rd inning escape was courtesy of nine straight sliders, getting an Otto Lopez strikeout and a Ramírez groundout.

Just hours after Atlanta put Chris Sale on the IL with a fractured ribcage, Holmes showed that the remaining members of the rotation aren’t going to pack it up and call it a season. On a day when he didn’t have great locations (five walks) or get a single whiff on his fastball (or anything other than his slider, really), he ramped up to 50% usage of the slide piece and dominated the Marlins for almost six full innings.

Holmes’ conversion from a reliever to a starter is complete - he’s a Capital-D Dude now, and someone that Atlanta is going to need to continue pitching like one if they want to make it through this Chris Sale injury absence.

What’s Next for the Braves?

Atlanta’s looking to win the series tomorrow afternoon. Bryce Elder (2-3, 4.45) takes the mound opposite Sandy Alcantara (3-8, 6.88) at 1:40 PM ET.