Today’s Three Things: Atlanta Braves Sweep Colorado Despite Strider's Stumble

Spencer Strider was rusty and feeling the Coors Field effects tonight, but Atlanta still cruised to an easy win

The Atlanta Braves downed the Colorado Rockies 11-6 in Coors Field on Sunday afternoon to secure a series sweep.

Here is Today’s Three Things from the contest.

The Turning Point

The top of the 5th.

With Rockies starter Kyle Freeland nursing a 4-3 lead and the top of Atlanta’s lineup coming to bat, the Braves made their move. Drake Baldwin led off the action with a one-out single, followed by back-to-back walks to Ozzie Albies and Matt Olson to load the bases.

Austin Riley then got a bit of fortune from the baseball gods, hitting a rocket down the third base line and off the base, scoring Baldwin from third and advancing all the runners without recording an out.

Eli White then came to the plate and decided to force Freeland to throw strikes. Getting ahead 3-0, he took a fastball before fouling two more off, well placed at the top and bottom of the zone. He then got rung up by home plate umpire Bill Miller on an elevated four-seamer, but successfully used an ABS challenge to overturn the strikeout into an RBI walk, one that gave Atlanta a 5-4 lead.

Starter-turned-reliever Anthony Senzatela entered the game and gave up a sacrifice fly to Jonah Heim, extending Atlanta’s lead to 6-4, but got out of the inning without any further damage. The Braves never relinquished their lead the rest of the way.

Today’s Player of the Game

Getting 93% of the vote on the postgame show, it’s Jonah Heim.

Atlanta’s backup backstop hit his first Braves homer in this one, catching a hanging knuckle curve with the barrel to put Atlanta on the board in the 2nd inning. He later added the sacrifice fly in the fourth and then a two-RBI double in the 9th as much-needed insurance.

It was Heim’s second multi-hit game in a Braves uniform, pushing his average to .231 on the year. In his last seven games, though, he’s 7-24 with six runs driven in and three runs scored.

It’s a timely surge, given his situation - with Sean Murphy set to be activated tomorrow morning now that he’s completed the rehab process for his surgically-repaired hip, Heim is likely going to be out a roster spot. If Ronald Acuña Jr. were still in right field and/or Michael Harris II were able to play the field right now, it’s likely that Heim would remain on the roster as a third catcher while Baldwin continues to play every day and Murphy eases back into a normal workload. But being limited to only catcher and with the team already carrying a DH-only player in Dominic Smith, there’s just not room on the bench for two bats that can’t cover outfield spots at the moment.

What You’ll Be Talking About

Spencer Strider’s rough outing.

‘Quadzilla’ allowed three earned runs in just 3.1 innings before being pulled at 87 pitches. Strider allowed four hits, including a solo homer, and walked five, opposite six strikeouts.

I’m not going to criticize the fastball shape - Coors Field typically knocks down IVB by about 20%, so his 15 inches of IVB would translate to roughly 18 inches at standard elevation.

I am going to criticize his locations, with the caveat that this could have been partially due to Coors Field effects. Strider had a 47% zone percentage on his four-seamer today, struggling to land it for strikes and too often leaving it down in the zone versus elevated in the upper third or above the zone (where a high-IVB fastball plays best).

Strider clearly wasn’t happy with the outing after the game, as he explained to Friend of the Newsletter Chad Bishop. “I’d rather be pitching than hurt, for sure, but I don’t want a participation trophy. I’m here to help the team win games. I’m getting paid a ridiculous amount of money to do it. If I can’t, then that’s a problem."

I’m inclined to wait a few more starts before passing judgment on whether or not Strider’s back to his ace form. Coors Field is the hardest MLB venue to pitch in, and his last start there (coming during a healthy season) was just as ugly as this one was. Things won’t get better next outing, however, with Strider lining up to face the Dodgers in Los Angeles sometime this weekend.

One final observation on the pitching after Strider today. Despite the Braves having multiple bulk arms available in the pen, manager Walt Weiss took no chances. He used both starters in Reynaldo López and Didier Fuentes for only a single inning, choosing to ask closer Robert Suarez to get the final three outs in a five-run game. Having managed in Colorado for multiple seasons, Weiss is more aware than most about how quickly a large lead can evaporate when Coors Field gets up to its shenanigans.

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 contest.

What’s Next for the Braves?

The Braves head to Seattle for a midweek series, one with absurdly late start times of 9:40 PM Eastern) on the first two days. Here are the pitching matchups for the series:

Mon: JR Ritchie vs Logan Gilbert
Tue: Bryce Elder vs George Kirby
Wed: Grant Holmes vs Bryan Woo