Today's Three Things: Atlanta holds on to win yet another extra-innings battle
Atlanta's offense continues to not show up, but the Braves win despite that. Is it sustainable?
The Atlanta Braves survived against the Pittsburgh Pirates by the score of 3-2 in eleven innings inside of PNC Park to tie the series at one game each.
Here’s Today’s Three Things from the contest.
The Turning Point
I guess technically it’s the eleventh inning, where Matt Olson scored the game-winning run on a wild pitch, but I want to go to something earlier in the game.
In the bottom of the 8th, Atlanta went to Rafael Montero with a one-run lead instead of Daysbel Hernández.
Manager Brian Snitker addressed this after the game, explaining to the media that they wanted to give Raisel two days off as a “reset” and that he’d be available to resume his closing role on Sunday with no restrictions.
The move didn’t really work out. Montero got a quick groundout of veteran Andrew McCutcheon before Joey Bart continued his dominance with his fourth and final hit of the day, a single to right field. With pinch-runner Ji Hwan Bae stealing second and then advancing to third on a Ke’Bryan Hayes groundout, Atlanta went ahead and called in Daysbel Hernández for the four-out save.
They did not get one.
Hernández gave up the game-tying run on a single from Matt Gorski, who advanced to second on the Austin Riley throwing error. While Daysbel got out of the inning after two more walks (one intentional) and then a flyout off the bat of Jared Triolo, the blown save was on his tally despite pitching a scoreless ninth.
Today’s Player of the Game
Coming off of eight innings of one-hit ball against the Reds on earlier this week, he didn’t go as deep tonight (5.2 innings) but looked almost as impressive as he did on Monday night.
Smith-Shawver allowed just one run on five hits, all singles, and walked just twon while striking out seven. Since he returned to the majors in mid-April and made three starts, he’s covered nineteen innings with seventeen strikeouts and a 1.42 ERA.
His pitch usage was a bit interesting tonight, but with a caveat - statcast doesn’t have any of the cutters he threw in the system, showing him with only FB/CB/splitter usage in this one. But no matter what the pitch classification has his pitches listed as, he still got thirteen whiffs (seven on the split finger) and 10 called strikes on the fastball. His ability to consistently land the heater for a strike has opened the arsenal for him, as opposing hitters can’t just it on the split finger and wait for him to make a mistake.
What You’ll Be Talking About
More anemic offense.
Atlanta had five hits in eleven innings and 45 plate appearances and despite four of them being extra base hits (three doubles and a homer), scored only three runs. Part of the issue comes from the inability to string those hits together - only two of the five came in the same inning and the Braves did score on those back-to-back 2nd-inning doubles.
The Braves finished this game just one for eleven with runners in scoring position, stranding eleven on base. Their three runs came from those 2nd inning back-to-back doubles, Olson’s solo shot in the third inning, and a passed ball by Pittsburgh’s Chase Shugart in the 11th.
BONUS Thing You’ll Be Talking About
The veteran reliever was designated for assignment by two different teams this season, but all he did in this one was give the Braves two scoreless innings in extras, allowing one hit but otherwise keeping Pittsburgh off the board. Blewett got his second win of the season and lowered his ERA to 2.79, proving that he’s definitely not going to be the one on the chopping block when Spencer Strider needs a roster spot next week.
What’s Next for the Braves?
The Braves are looking to win the series and get to .500 in the series finale. Veteran lefty Chris Sale (1-3, 4.07) takes on Carmen Mlodzinski (1-3, 6.16) at 1:35 PM ET.
The Braves cannot "string hits together" because the lineup card has the CURRENTLY better hitters too far apart.
Stars are the players that "shine the brightest when the lights are the hottest." Braves management began letting them leave, with no better example than Max Fried. Face it: the Braves don't have the will or money to field the best team anymore.
I agree with everything you say here, but I am a bit more critical. I don't remember your exact comment on youtube, something to the effect of winning but morally losing...a perfect explanation what we are all witnessing with this latest rendering of the Braves. I think we were all hoping the funk was gone where Harris is concerned. Instead we got a half of one good game from him then right back to all the bad things. Walking away from a winning game with the feeling we lost, as quite frankly two bad teams playing each other until one team screwed up enough to lose. Our offense is gone, and everyone is to blame. We have no stars on the field, none. Now we have some real studs on the pitching side, but do we really want to see Chris Sale give another A-Plus outing with little to no run support? I don't know where the magic will come from, but it has got to come from somewhere, and if it doesn't, then the General Manager will get the boot, the head coach will get the boot, the asst. coaches will as well. Then the player dumping will begin. It is no fluke that Max Fried is doing so well this year as he is now on a team with a winning plan, instead of a team that is floundering. It is judgement day folks. It is put up time!