Today's Three Things: Braves walked off in extras to lose series in Sacramento

Extra innings on a getaway day night game is definitely a good way to start your next series

The Atlanta Braves were walked off by the Athletics in the 11th inning on Thursday night, losing 5-4 in Sacramento’s Sutter Health Park.

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

The Turning Point

The bottom of the 8th inning. (I’m saving extra innings for later)

As manager Brian Snitker has become wont to do this season, he was trying to steal additional outs from his pitchers. It didn’t work out tonight.

Spencer Strider was lifted with two outs in the 7th inning, with Dylan Lee coming in to take on lefty (and birthday boy) Lawrence Butler. After giving up a single to left, Lee got Brent Rooker to strike out and ended the inning with only seven pitches thrown. It’s a similar situation to last night, where Lee came in for one out (needing only three pitches) to end the inning and his night was done.

But this time, Lee went back out. Facing rookie homer leader Nick Kurtz to open the bottom of the 8th, Lee elevated a 2-2 fastball away and Kurtz went up and got it, launching an opposite-field homer to left field that tied the game up at four runs each. It wasn’t a bad location or pitch, per se, just good hitting, but it was clear that Kurtz was ready for it and didn’t miss.

It’s only the first homer allowed by Lee in eighteen innings, dating back to May 30th.

Today’s Player of the Game

Spencer Strider.

On a night where the weather was hot and the ballpark was small (a death sentence to some flyball pitchers), Strider recovered from an early three-run homer to give the Braves a quality start and then some.

After getting tagged by Tyler Soderstrom for three in the first on a hanging slider, Strider settled in and ended up with 6.2 innings on his ledger tonight. His slider, in particular, was devastating, getting 16 whiffs on 26 swings and just generally keeping Athletics hitters uncomfortable.

He was visibly not happy about being lifted for Dylan Lee in the 7th, but it’s understandable when you think about tonight’s 101 pitches being a season-high for the righthander, who still hasn’t returned to his velocity levels from prior to his elbow-surgery. Strider now has a 3.16 ERA in his last seven starts with a 1.08 WHIP and 55 strikeouts in just 42.2 innings.

What You’ll Be Talking About

The offense in extra innings.

Atlanta entered extras with a 2-for-2 mark at hitting with runners in scoring position. They had six attempts to score a run in extras and just refused to do it.

The 10th inning was more of the same from Ozzie Albies and Michael Harris, who both struck out in four pitch at-bats that featured a combined two pitches in the strike zone. But the 11th inning might be more egregiousm, considering that the top of the order was due up and yet, only one baseball left the infield. Ronald Acuña Jr., who struck out three times in his 0-5 outing, hit a weak liner to second. Matt Olson’s sacrifice fly to the left field wall moved designated runner Luke Williams to 3rd, but Austin Riley hit a grounder back up the middle to end the scoring threat and strand Williams.

We’ve said it ad nauseum at this point - it doesn’t matter what the bottom of your order does when the top of your order isn’t producing. Just one night after being aggressive at the plate, Atlanta went back to their uber-patient approach and was rewarded with five total hits.

Looking for more discussion about this game?

Here’s tonight’s Postcast, with me and Locked On Braves host Jake Mastroianni, as we went live to break down the win/loss.

What’s Next for the Braves?

The team’s flying to St. Louis for the start of their final series prior to the All-Star Break. The team’s iteinary originally had them landing in St. Louis at 4:30 AM, but that will obviously need to be pushed even farther back after tonight’s extra innings contest.

First pitch tomorrow night, with Grant Holmes (4-8, 3.44) squaring off against lefty Matthew Liberatore (6-6, 3.70), is schedled for 8:15 PM ET.