Today's Three Things: Braves rally in bullpen game behind both big bats and small ball
The Atlanta Braves showed both what they're capable of at the plate and how they can supplement the homers with some manufactured runs
The Atlanta Braves rallied late to take the series from the St. Louis Cardinals with a 7-6 win in Busch Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
Here’s Today’s Three Things from the contest.
The Turning Point
The top of the 9th inning.
Just a frame after the Cardinals tied the game at six-all with a bases-loaded wild pitch, Atlanta took the lead for good via a manufactured run.
Nacho Alvarez Jr., who played third base in lieu of an injured Austin Riley, started the inning off with a single, his second base hit of the day. Michael Harris II then used a sacrifice bunt to get him into scoring position. After pinch-hitter Drake Baldwin singled to put runners on the corners (and was promptly pinch-ran for by Luke Williams, who would be playing shortstop anyway), Jurickson Profar attempted to shoot a grounder through the right side of the infield. It didn’t get past second baseman Brendan Donovan, but it was just awkwardly-placed enough to allow Alvarez to score and put Atlanta ahead, for good.
Today’s Player of the Game
The Braves backstop hit yet another homer, his third of the series, that showed why a lineup change can be so devastating. With Atlanta down 5-3 in the 8th, leadoff man Profar doubled and three-hole hitter Ronald Acuña Jr. walked to establish traffic for Cardinals reliever Phil Maton.
Murphy jumped on a middle-middle cutter, sending it out to left at 102.1 off the bat and just over the 370-foot wall.
Murphy’s been hot in the last few weeks, but he’s been productive all year. He has seven homers and 16 RBI in his last 11 games, but he’s already at 16 home runs this season despite having just 195 at-bats. As long as he stays healthy, it’s increasingly likely that he sets a new season high in power production - his previous mark is 2023’s 21 homers, set in 370 at-bats.
What You’ll Be Talking About
The bullpen game.
Despite calling up Nathan Wiles out of Gwinnett earlier this week with the intention of starting him today if he wasn’t needed in relief, Wiles was optioned to Gwinnett this morning when waiver claim Joey Wentz joined the team in St. Louis today.
Aaron Bummer got the start, stumbling in the 2nd inning after a three-run shot by #8 hitter Nolan Gorman. But Wentz looked good in his three innings of relief, racking up six strikeouts thanks to a significant increase in usage of his cutter. He was 48% four-seam/33% cutter/17% curveball entering today, but this game saw him throw 58% cutters and he was rewarded with seven whiffs and six foul balls on fifteen Cardinals swings.
This is a common coaching point by Atlanta whenever they acquire a guy - think back to the acquisition of Pierce Johnson out of Colorado at 2023’s trade deadline. The org had him dramatically ramp up his curveball usage, going from 44% curveball and the rest between the slider and fastball to almost exclusively curveball usage. Down the stretch, Johnson’s bender got as dominant in his pitch mix as 92% usage.
His stats in Colorado: 39 innings, 25 walks to 58 strikeouts, an ERA of 6.00
His stats in Atlanta: 23.2 innings, five walks to 32 strikeouts, an ERA of 0.76
I suspect that, if Wentz stays around, it’ll be as a cutter-dominant reliever. I’m excited to dive into what exactly makes it so special after the All-Star Break.
Looking for more discussion about this game?
Here’s today’s Postcast, solo with just me, as I went live over on Locked On Sports Atlanta and Locked On Braves to break down the win.
What’s Next for the Braves?
The series finale is scheduled for 2:15 PM ET from Busch Stadium. Veteran Sonny Gray (9-3, 3.51) is starting for the Cardinals, while Atlanta likely has yet another bullpen game on tap. My guess is Jesse Chavez gets the start.