Today's Three Things: Braves squander momentum from Mets sweep with losing series in Miami
The Atlanta Braves couldn't respond to Miami's assault of Bryce Elder in the series finale
The Atlanta Braves dropped game three to the Miami Marlins 5-3 in loanDepot Park on Sunday afternoon, losing the series two games to one.
Here’s Today’s Three Things from the contest.
The Turning Point
The bottom of the 6th inning.
Starter Bryce Elder clearly didn’t have it today, finishing with only five total whiffs and a sub-30% CSW, but he battled nonetheless. He ended the 5th inning with four total runs allowed, including two in that final frame, and was sitting over 90 pitches.
Brian Snitker sent him back out for the 6th anyway.
Yes, it was the bottom of the order due up, not the top, but that didn’t matter - Elder gave up a leadoff double to catcher Nick Fortes and Miami bunted him over to third before Snit finally made the change to lefty Dylan Dodd. The Marlins immediately got a run-scoring single to push their lead to 5-3 before Dodd got a groundout and lineout to end it.
This seemingly bungled managerial decision is part of a larger concern with how Atlanta approached this series in Miami. Put simply, the Braves aren’t treating every game like a must-win.
I’m not saying they should have pulled Elder in the 3rd inning, like you sometimes see in the playoffs, but it’s hard to contrast the quick hook he got last week with the extra runway he got to try and find it today.
There are other little things - not pinch-hitting for Nick Allen in the 7th inning with a reliever entering the game and the top of the order waiting behind the light-hitting shortstop. (Instead, the pinch-hit at-bat came in the 9th inning with two outs and Atlanta down by two.). Not pinch-running for Alex Verdugo when he got a leadoff single in the 9th, which could have potentially kept him out of the double play that Michael Harris promptly hit into. (More on this later)
The Atlanta Braves, frankly, aren’t good enough from a win-loss perspective to not treat every game as a must-win. Pull Elder to start the 6th instead of running him back out there and letting the deficit increase. Go for the pinch-hit situation to start a rally in the 9th. Use some pinch-runners and put them into motion. Instead, it was business as usual, and this team lost because of it.
Today’s Player of the Game
Give me Dylan Dodd in this one.
Atlanta’s former third-round pick (2021, Southeast Missouri State) has seemingly settled in as a reliever now that he has a cutter. Dodd bailed out Bryce Elder and then turned around and put up a clean 7th, making his 2025 Atlanta tenure so far 6.1 scoreless innings with only two hits allowed.
It’s a bit unusual for the Braves to not only have four lefties in their pen, but one of them not being a closer. Behind Dylan Lee (who has been functioning as the 9th inning pitcher in both wins and close losses recently) and groundball specialist Aaron Bummer is Dodd and Austin Cox, who made his Atlanta debut this afternoon with a scoreless ninth.
But in a season where the Braves have dealt with a lot of instability and poor performances from their backend, having someone who can give you clean innings, even if it’s atypical1, is a welcome sight.
What You’ll Be Talking About
The poor offensive showing.
Atlanta finished with just seven hits today, including just two for extra bases (doubles from Acuña and Ozzie Albies). They went 2-for-10 with runners in scoring position, stranding six, and picked up just a single two-out RBI.
The ultimate issue today was the bottom of the order not being able to do really anything on offense. The bottom three of Verdugo, Harris, and Allen combined to go 1-12 with two strikeouts; their only hit was a leadoff single in the 9th by Verdugo that was promptly wiped away by the Harris double play.
While other members of the lineup struggled, including Marcell Ozuna going 0-4 with two strikeouts, there were too many times where runners were either stranded on base by the bottom three or Atlanta couldn’t get the lineup over to the top (like in the 9th).
I’m going to single out Harris and Verdugo here, for different reasons.
Harris is providing phenomenal defense, but his bat’s regressed to an alarming degree. He’s slumped to an atrocious .248 on-base percentage, the worst among all qualified hitters in baseball by a full five points after not walking in his last 113 plate appearances. His OPS is .585, 7th-lowest among all MLB qualifiers.
And unlike Allen, who is somewhat safe because there’s no other true shortstop on the roster, Atlanta has the ability to play Eli White in centerfield if they decide that Harris needs a “reset” in Gwinnett for a few weeks.
As for Verdugo…what is he doing here, exactly? Today’s base hit raised his average to a whopping .247 with a .607 OPS. He’s not always running out of the box on infield grounders and despite having a 22-point edge in OPS over Harris, doesn’t produce near the defensive value that Harris does, despite playing a much less demanding defensive position.
Eli White could at least provide defense in left, while Carlos Rodriguez in Gwinnett is batting .300 with a .362 on-base in Gwinnett and could theoretically get on base a bit more reliably than Verdugo, both through base hits and walks.
Jurickson Profar’s going to be back in just under two weeks so they’re probably just running out the string with Verdugo, but again: When every game matters (and Atlanta can’t afford to act like they don’t), Alex Verdugo can’t continue to get five starts a week.
What’s Next for the Braves?
The Braves are heading to New York for a rematch with the Mets. The starters for the four-game series are as follows:
Monday: Spencer Schwellenbach (5-4, 3.26) versus Paul Blackburn (0-1, 6.92)
Tuesday: Spencer Strider (2-5, 3.89) versus Frankie Montas (season debut)
Wednesday: Didier Fuentes (0-1, 7.20) versus Clay Holmes (7-4, 3.04)
Thursday: Grant Holmes (4-6, 3.71) versus Griffin Canning (7-3, 3.91)
Dodd’s a cutter/four-seam/slider guy that skews heavily towards the two fastballs, throwing them a combined 95%. Just a bit of an unusual profile because it doesn’t give you anything that breaks in towards a righty - most lefties have something they reserve for same-handed hitters, like a changeup or sinker.