Today's Three Things: Braves finally reach .500 thanks to Drake Baldwin

The Atlanta Braves have finally gotten to the elusive .500 mark after multiple failed attempts

The Atlanta Braves took down the Washington Nationals 5-2 in Truist Park on Tuesday night.

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

The Turning Point

Atlanta’s fourth inning.

Facing a 2-0 deficit and having allowed former Atlanta starter Michael Soroka to carve them up for three innings (two singles, three strikeouts), the Braves got to work in the bottom of the 4th.

Matt Olson got rung up on a low fastball from Soroka that just barely caught the bottom of the zone - both Olson and Nick Allen, who combined for six of the team’s twelve strikeouts tonight, had issues with home plate umpire Austin Jones. But after that, Marcell Ozuna singled up the middle on a ball that was ripped (106 off the bat) and then young Drake Baldwin, getting the start in lieu of Sean Murphy, deposited a slider into the Chop House to tie the game.

Unfortunately, the Braves couldn’t continue to press the issue after getting Soroka on the ropes - after Ozzie Albies flew out for the 2nd out of the inning, Michael Harris II drew a walk and then was thrown out at second base to end the inning and give Soroka an escape from the self-inflicted jam.

But just getting those runs on the board and driving up the pitch count ending up knocking Soroka, making just his second start after returning from a biceps injury, out of the game.

Today’s Player of the Game

Drake Baldwin.

Making his second start of the last three days, he made the opportunity count. (With the Braves seeing a lefty on the mound tomorrow, they likely wanted to start the right-handed Sean Murphy in that game.)

UPDATE: Brian Snitker said after the game that the team wanted Baldwin to catch on Thursday as well and the plan is to juggle the starts based on who is hot and matchups.

Baldwin went 3-4 in this one, hitting the aforementioned two-run homer in the fourth, singling (and coming around to score) in the 6th, and then hitting a one-out double (and scoring) in the 8th to be directly responsible for four of Atlanta’s five runs in the game.

I also want to give Baldwin some credit for Spencer Schwellenbach’s performance tonight. I’ve long thought that Schwelly’s slider is underused, especially to lefties - he averaged under 10% usage to southpaws entering tonight.

He threw 37 of them in his 97 pitches tonight, including 21 to lefties (31% usage) and 16 to righties (55% usage). While the strikeouts weren’t there for Schwelly, with the righty picking up only three in his seven innings, he also only allowed two runs on four hits. He leaned on both the slider and cutter tonight, averaging just 85.2 mph on the exit velocity off the slider and an absurd 79.1 on the cutter while picking up nine combined whiffs.

What You’ll Be Talking About

They’re finally at .500.

While tonight’s offensive performance wasn’t as good as last night’s (yes, even though they scored more runs tonight - we’re talking about the inputs here), it’s still a significant improvement over last week’s results. The team’s now finally at .500 and has a positive run differential in the process at +2. After the terrible 0-7 start, they’ve played at a 21-14 pace (.600 winning percentage), which would be the 4th-best winning percentage in the National League and 5th-best in all of baseball were it their full season mark.

Only four other teams in modern MLB history have opened 0-7 and eventually reached .500, with only one doing it prior to game 42:

The 1945 Boston Red Sox, Game 38
The 1983 Houston Astros, Game 62
The 2008 Detroit Tigers, Game 80
The 1980 Atlanta Braves, Game 126

What’s Next for the Braves?

The Braves are looking to win the series on Wednesday night. They’re sending Bryce Elder (2-2, 4.97 ERA) to the mound opposite lefty Mitchell Parker (3-3, 3.97) at 7:15 PM ET.