Today's Three Things: Braves take series with another late rally
The Atlanta Braves will be in the nightmares of Cardinals relievers for weeks
The Atlanta Braves took down the St. Louis Cardinals 4-1 on Wednesday afternoon in Truist Park to take the series and complete a 5-1 homestand.
Here’s Today’s Three Things from the contest.
The Turning Point
Once again, it was the 8th inning that did in the Cardinals. After Miles Mikolas, who entered today’s finale with a 7.64 ERA, blanked the Braves for six innings, the Braves were solidly into the St. Louis bullpen in a tie game. Facing JoJo Romero for the second time in the series - he allowed the Sean Murphy homer in the 8th inning of game one - he once again got tagged by a Braves hitter.
The sequence was a Matt Olson line drive on a sinker in the bottom third of the zone, followed by an Ozzie infield single on a changeup down and away (but still in the zone).
Manager Brian Snitker then went to a pinch-hitter, flipping from lefty-hitting catcher Drake Baldwin to righty-hitting Sean Murphy, whose accidental swinging bunt advanced the runners to 2nd and 3rd.
And little did any of us realize, that’s Eli White’s favorite game situation.
The backup outfielder, getting the start in place of a resting Alex Verdugo, jumped on a zoned 1-1 slider and launched it down the left field line for his first homer of the season and a three-run lead for Atlanta.
Romero finished the series with one full inning pitched across two appearances and three runs scored on three hits, taking a loss today.
Today’s Player of the Game
Believe it or not, we’re going Bryce Elder.
In a game where the Braves desperately needed length from their starter, the first inning looked to be a disaster - the sinkerballer’s first five pitches were all balls and he issued two walks within his first twelve pitches. (Thankfully, between the two walks was a double play.) He finished the first inning with one run on two hits, two walks, and a wild pitch, throwing 27 pitches and seemingly dooming the bullpen to another heavy load.
But from there, he settled down.
Elder went the next five innings allowing just three hits and one walk, keeping the Cardinals from adding on to their lead. While he didn’t get any run support and left the game in position to take the loss, it would have been a bad luck loss as he allowed just one run over six innings.
It feels like the major breakthrough for Elder today was his four-seam fastball usage. He threw 13 of them in his 99 pitches, getting three of his five total whiffs, one called strike, and four foul balls on the pitch. Not a single one was put into play.
Averaging 92 and touching 94, the 4S locations were well up in the zone. The gameplan on Elder recently has been to spit on sliders and sinkers below the zone and make him throw you a strike or, even better, wait for him to make a mistake and hang a slider. But when he’s on with the four-seamer, that strategy is a lot harder to execute.
It’s absolutely a welcome development for the Braves, who will ask him to make another start next week in Colorado against the Rockies.
What You’ll Be Talking About
While the offense on the whole struggled against Miles Mikolas, we need to discuss Ozzie Albies. Expect a deeper dive on this tomorrow, but this version of Ozzie is not cutting it - he went 1-4 today, but that absolutely does NOT mean the process was sound.
His first two outs were both chases on the first pitch, with the first coming with a runner on third. So far on the season, he’s just 1-for-13 with runners in scoring position and two outs, striking out four times and holding a .220 OPS. Among batters with thirteen or more at-bats in those situations, that batting average is the sixth-worst mark in baseball.1
While Ozzie may be batting .234 overall, that’s buoyed by a .279 average when the bases are empty. When things actually matter, he’s been significantly worse.
What’s Next for the Braves?
Atlanta’s traveling out west tonight, where they’ll enjoy an off day before the start of their Friday series against the Arizona Diamondbacks. The Braves have announced their starters for the series: Chris Sale on Friday (9:40 PM ET), Grant Holmes on Saturday (8:10 PM ET), and Spencer Schwellenbach (4:10 PM ET) in Sunday’s finale.
Mark Vientos, Riley Greene, and Alec Burleson are all batting .071, while Dansby Swanson and Brandon Nimmo are batting .063.
Two starters with ERAs in the 7's enter the game... of course it's going to be 1-1 going into the 8th inning...