Today's Three Things: Braves bats go silent again in series finale
The Atlanta Braves finish the month of June at 11-15, albeit 7-6 against the NL East
The Atlanta Braves couldn’t figure out Philadelphia Phillies starter Ranger Suárez, dropping Sunday’s finale 2-1 in Truist Park.
Here’s Today’s Three Things from the contest.
The Turning Point
The top of the 5th for Philly.
Down 1-0 after Sean Murphy’s solo shot in the 2nd inning, Philly opened up against Spencer Strider with a Bryson Stott single and a RBI double from Otto Kemp. And then Philly went into small ball mode - Brandon Marsh bunted Kemp over to third and Trea Turner immediately hit a sac fly to center to bring him in.
It’s a sign of how quickly a game can change on you. After the Stott single, the next three pitches were all put into play and the second run had scored.
Against a day where Atlanta’s offense couldn’t do much of anything (more on that later), scoring two runs in the span of three pitches ended up being enough for Philadelphia to take the game and the series.
Strider allowed just the two earned runs in his seven innings, walking three with just four strikeouts. I think this was a combination of Strider not having the fastball and Philly gameplanning him really well. You may remember his 2023 NLDS start where Philly just fouled off the fastballs while sitting slider. Strider attempted to immediately adjust by ramping up his fastball velocity to average 100 in the outing, but that was one of the main influencing factors for him to develop a curveball that offseason.
Philly clearly had a plan of hitting this lesser version of the heater, knowing that he didn’t have the additional velocity in the tank to adjust, while doing their best not to chase the slider. While they did still pick up seven whiffs on fifteen swings at the slider, the plan mostly worked - they swung 26 times at the fastball, whiffing only once, and putting 14 into play. Strider did well to get through it, however, bringing down his fastball locations and finishing with what feels like a career-high in groundball outs with 11.
Today’s Player of the Game
Braves manager Brian Snitker made the correct strategic decision for the top of the 8th, sending Lee out to face the top of Philly’s order.
It initially looked like an off day for Lee. Kyle Schwarber went down and got a first pitch fastball for a leadoff single, with Alec Bohm getting a 0-1 changeup in the air to center for a double, although the not-fleet-of-foot Schwarber1 had to hold at third base.
And then Dylan Lee got to work.
The lefty promptly stranded both runners, getting a Nick Castellanos strikeout on a great slider-slider-elevated fastball sequence, followed by a Max Kepler flyout and a J.T. Realmuto groundout.
If anyone was on the fence that Dylan Lee had the stuff and mentality to be a closer, he answered all of it in escaping the jam by stranding both runners in scoring position.
What You’ll Be Talking About
Once again, the correct answer is “the offensive futility”, but we’re going to focus on Marcell Ozuna.
Atlanta had only six hits today, with the only one for extra bases being Murphy’s homer, but even in that context, it was an awful day for Ozuna. He went 0-4 with four strikeouts, two looking.
Ozuna seemingly used all of his swings in his nine-pitch strikeout in the first inning, because he struck out looking in a four-pitch at-bat that ended the 3rd inning without once taking the bat off his shoulder. He at least swung twice in a five-pitch backwards K to open the 6th inning before whiffing on a center-cut sweeper to end the 8th inning.
Listen, the guy’s a clubhouse leader who has been playing with a hip injury. He deserves his flowers for showing up every day.
But while he has shown up, his bat hasn’t.
Ozuna finishes the month of June with a .188/.263/.287 line, hitting two homers in the month while striking out 30 times (against just ten walks, one intentional). We’re writing later this week (probably Tuesday) about the drastic moves Atlanta might make to shake up the roster when Jurickson Profar returns, and putting Ozuna on the injured list so that both catchers can be in the lineup almost every day is low-hanging fruit that Atlanta needs to grab.
What’s Next for the Braves?
Monday’s a much-needed off-day before a three-game set kicks off against the red-hot Los Angeles Angels offense - they’ve hit 22 homers in the last ten days with a 141 wRC+. Here are the pitching matchups for both teams:
Tuesday: Didier Fuentes (0-2, 10.80) versus LHP Tyler Anderson (2-5, 4.41)
Wednesday: Grant Holmes (4-7, 3.70) versus LHP Yusei Kikuchi (3-6, 2.79)
Thursday: Bryce Elder (2-5, 5.82) versus RHP José Soriano (5-5, 3.99)
All three games are 7:15 PM ET starts with the usual broadcast options.
He’s no Matt Olson, that’s for sure.
Has anyone ever faced more pressure to hit the ground running after a PED suspension than Profar with the 2025 Braves? My fingers are crossed.