Today's Three Things: Braves offense fails Bryce Elder in series opening loss to Pirates
The Atlanta Braves are seemingly allergic to a .500 record, as the offense keeps forgetting to show up in those situations
The Atlanta Braves dropped their series opener 3-2 to the Pittsburgh Pirates in PNC Park on Friday night.
Here’s Today’s Three Things from the contest.
The Turning Point
Atlanta’s seventh inning.
Staring up at a 3-0 deficit and having finally gotten Bailey Falter out of the game, the Braves had an opportunity to get back into the game against the Pirates’ bullpen. After two quick outs in five total pitches against reliever Chase Shugart, Michael Harris drew just his fifth walk of the season to give the Braves only their fifth baserunner of the game.
But then, some sort of dugout miscommunication happened.
The Braves decided to send Alex Verdugo, originally given the day off with a lefty on the mound, to the plate against the righty Shugart…but somewhere in the process, the message never reached Verdugo.
After Harris’ walk, home plate umpire Dan Bellino assessed an automatic strike on the next batter because, when the pitch clock reached zero, there was no Atlanta batter in the box. As of time of publication, we don’t know why Alex Verdugo wasn’t ready to hit, but after he was assessed a strike and reported to the plate, Pittsburgh went to the pen anyway. Lefty Caleb Ferguson threw five pitches, only one a strike, but got a called strike on a low cutter and induced some chase on an inside sinker to end the relatively meager threat.
While the Braves rallied for two runs in the 9th inning, including picking up their first hit with runners in scoring position of the ballgame, it was too tall of a deficit to overcome that late.
Today’s Player of the Game
The oft-maligned sinkerballer had yet another quality start today, his third in the last four outings, but took a hard-luck loss when the Braves were unable to do anything offensively off of opposing starter Bailey Falter.
Elder allowed nine hard-hit balls (five hits) and two solo homers among the three runs he gave up, but also struck out eight with no walks and just five hits. It’s arguably one of the more impressive starts of the righty’s season to date, even accounting for the homers. Elder picked up 12 whiffs (10 on the slider) and finished with a 34% CSW thanks to 22 called strikes, including 15 alone on the sinker. Unlike some of his other recent successful outings, he did not use the four-seam fastball very often, throwing just three.
What You’ll Be Talking About
What’s wrong with the offense?
This is the third game where the Braves have been in a position to finally reach .500 after their disastrous 0-7 start to the season, just to see the offense forget to bring the bats to the yard.
At Colorado on 4/30: Braves lose 2-1 with three hits (0-7 w/ RISP)
Vs Cincinnati on 5/7: Braves lose 4-3 with six hits (1-4 w/ RISP)
At Pittsburgh on 5/9: Braves lose 3-2 with seven hits (1-7 w/ RISP)
The worst thing is, it is not like they haven’t had chances to get some wins in these matchups: Chase Dollander had an ERA of 7.91 entering his start against the Braves, but he put up his best start of the season with only two hits and one run across 5.2 innings. Similar opportunity against Cincinnati; Atlanta saw Hunter Greene leave with injury and then could only muster three runs on four hits against a Reds bullpen that used six guys to cover six innings. And in this one, Bailey Falter was holding a 5.06 ERA entering the night and left with a 4.36 thanks to six scoreless innings.
Not so fun fact: While the Braves are 4-0 in extra innings games this year, they’re just 0-4 in the next day’s game and have scored a total of twelve runs in those four contests.
At the end of the day, while there will be conversation about Atlanta’s decision to give Verdugo a day off and bat Ozzie Albies leadoff instead of Eli White, it doesn’t matter. Tinkering on the edges by changing the lineup isn’t going to significantly change the team’s fortunes when the heart of your order, the quintet of Albies, Matt Olson, Marcell Ozuna, Austin Riley, and Sean Murphy, combine to go 2-19 with two walks and six strikeouts.
What’s Next for the Braves?
The Braves are back at it tomorrow. AJ Smith-Shawver (2-2, 3.00) looks to follow up a no-hit bid against the Pirates opposite veteran lefty Andrew Heaney (2-3, 3.18). First pitch from PNC Park is scheduled for 4:05 PM ET.
On Jake's mailbag podcast yesterday, someone asked something that I've meaning to ask and believe would make for one of those reads of yours the we like to nerd about. It was about Ozuna.
He's been getting praise for his more patient at bats this year, and all the walks. Looking through the team stats, his numbers are among the top of a lot of categories, but I think he's falling behind in the ones that make him most valuable. And that brings me to my question.
These new approach, all these walks, are good for the team, but, are they even better for the opposing teams?
From just watching the games, what could look like an improvement on Ozuna's approach at the plate, also looks like it benefits the opposing teams more than his own. He's not a threat on the bases. Also, it doesn't look like his timing on the fastballs as quick as in past years. That could be a result of this new approach.
Opposing teams seem to have discovered and made it their game plan to just pitch around Ozuna and Olson, and deal with what comes next.
It is so nice to see Elder get back to 'center' as it were. He is a great 5th starter for many teams. He generally will go 6 and give the team a chance to win. He is a valuable pitcher and he may not fit into the rotation by the end of the year or by August, but I am very grateful for what a gift he has been to this franchise. Lindsey, (if I may ask) who do you think in the minors will be ready to bring up by August that might push Elder out the door forever (except for injuries)? Again you are amazing at what you do. Keep on.