Today's Three Things: Fuentes gets shelled as Braves go quietly in New York

The Atlanta Braves were never really in this one after an early blowup from the rookie

The Atlanta Braves dropped game three 7-3 to the New York Mets in Citi Field on Wednesday night.

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

The Turning Point

The bottom of the 4th inning.

Dider Fuentes had given up some hard contact to that point but only one run, that coming on a Ronny Mauricio solo homer to open the third, but this would be his final inning.

For the second straight inning, it started with a solo shot off of a fastball, this one by Juan Soto. What followed was a parade of baserunners off of the fastball, including Pete Alonso being hit by a pitch, Jeff McNeil doubling off of a heater, a sacrifice fly, and three consecutive singles (all but two coming off of the fastball). By the time lefty Aaron Bummer replaced Fuentes with one out, three runs had scored and the bases were again loaded. Two more came in off of Bummer, one on a sacrifice fly and one on a single up the middle, before Juan Soto looked at strike three (and promptly complained to the umpire about it to end the inning).

Fuentes just wasn’t fooling the Mets on the second time through the order. It’s very clear to me that he was being given fastball locations that were down in the zone but he wasn’t comfortable or accustomed to hitting them - as someone that wields a high-IVB fastball, it makes sense that he’s used it up in the zone a lot more than down.

But still, something’s going to need to change with the rotation. More on this in just a minute.

Today’s Player of the Game

Drake “The Rake” Baldwin.

The kid continues to shine, going 1-3 at the plate with a solo shot in the fourth that represented all of Atlanta’s runs of the game until the final frame. It was a good piece of hitting, too, going down below the zone for a 1-2 Clay Holmes slider and launching a no-doubter to straightaway center.

While I wasn’t 100% as enamored with his game calling in this one (although some of that may have been on Fuentes being unable to execute, admittedly), he still did a good job navigating relievers Aaron Bummer and Austin Cox through the back half of the game.

What You’ll Be Talking About

Atlanta’s rotation.

While I’m enamored with the raw stuff of Fuentes, he clearly is not ready for a MLB starting role and this team’s not in a position to give him the runway to figure it out at the major league level. Manager Brian Snitker was non-committal when asked after the game if Fuentes would get another start for the big league club next week.

But at the same time, I don’t necessarily know if it’s that crucial to replace him with another starter out of the motley collection of options in Gwinnett. Looking ahead at the schedule, the only time Atlanta can’t use an off-day to avoid a fifth starter appears to be July 5th at home against the Baltimore Orioles, although it’s possible they may need another one the next time through for the final road trip prior to the All-Star Break unless they go with a bullpen game in their next-to-last contest of the first half.

I’d expect the more likely move is to send down both Fuentes and Austin Cox (who pitched the final two innings) for two more relievers, with Nathan Wiles potentially being the next man up for a start in Atlanta the next time the #5 start rolls around if they want to continue giving the rest of the rotation extra rest.

My unhinged idea is to just let Aaron Bummer work as a once-through-the-order opener twice a week - once in front of Bryce Elder and then once in a bullpen game…but that’s another newsletter.

What’s Next for the Braves?

The Braves look to get a series win tomorrow night in the rare evening series finale. Grant Holmes (4-6, 3.71) takes on Braves legend Griffin Canning (7-3, 3.91) at 7:10 PM ET.

Programming note: There’s not going to be a deep dive in the morning - my birthday was today and I got a bit behind in my writing schedule amidst the festivities with the family. We’ll have our usual game coverage for the finale tomorrow night and another deep dive on Friday morning.