Today's Three Things: Atlanta Wins a Pitcher's Duel Against Milwaukee in the Game of the Year
The Atlanta Braves went as the underdog, but came out on top because of speed, defense, and clutch hitting from the role players
The Atlanta Braves took down the Milwaukee Brewers 3-2 in Truist Park on Friday night in game one of the highly anticipated series between the two first-place teams.
Here is Today’s Three Things from the contest.
The Turning Point
This game was a bit of a roller coaster. With all apologies to Mauricio Dubón and his two-run single in the 6th inning that gave Atlanta the lead, let’s talk about the top of the 9th inning.
Raisel Iglesias was in for the save, holding a narrow 3-1 lead, but given the combination of a bit of rust - he hadn’t appeared in a game for a week - and some interesting pitch calls from Drake Baldwin, it was anything but routine.
After a groundout from Gary Sanchez, Christian Walker worked an eight-pitch walk. Iglesias executed a 0-1 changeup at the bottom of the zone to Jackson Chourio, but the red-hot outfielder laced it to left for a double that had the tying run at second base with only one out.
Brice Turang then ambushed a first pitch four-seamer to left to score Yelich and Milwaukee, sensing the urgency of the situation, sent Choiurio to the plate as well.
But Brewers third base coach Matt Erickson forgot that you can’t spell “elite” without “Eli”.
Eli White came up throwing, unleashing a 95.3 mph dart to the plate to a waiting Drake Baldwin, who caught the ball as Chourio was sliding into the glove and made the tag.
Iglesias, gifted another chance to secure the win, struck out former Braves catcher William Contreras for his 15th save of the season and a series-opening win for Atlanta.
Today’s Player of the Game
By a plurality of the vote, Martín Pérez won his 5th POTG award.
In a game where he was facing off with a flamethrower 12 years younger, one who throws 14 mph harder, Pérez came out on top. Pérez finished with one run allowed on six hits, walking two and striking out five. He only picked up 10 whiffs and maxed out at 89.6 mph on his four-seamer (with Miz finishing at 18 whiffs and 104.2 mph), but Pérez also induced seven groundball outs (with only one flyout) and an average exit velocity of 86.4 mph.
The lefty’s ERA is now down to 2.78 and strictly on the results (so throwing out the ERA estimators), he’s been the best starter in the last month, outperforming Chris Sale (3.86), Bryce Elder (5.88), and Grant Holmes (5.48). While I still don’t think I trust the stuff in the postseason, it’s clear that Pérez’s results are no fluke and his ability to both locate and ‘take the sting out of the swing’ means his signing to a minor league contract last winter has to be in contention for the best addition for Atlanta this season. It’s a shortlist of Pérez, Mauricio Dubón, Robert Suarez, and Dominic Smith.
What You’ll Be Talking About
Other than how awesome that game was in general, it’s that the role players and depth pieces were instrumental in Atlanta’s win.
We’ve already discussed Pérez’s start and Eli White’s outfield assist. White added a full-speed catch in the left field corner back in the 8th inning, one that sent the runner who started on 2nd retreating and unable to even advance on the play, nevermind scoring. Jorge Mateo added defense at shortstop, making some key defensive plays, and his 31.1 ft/sec sprint to beat out an infield groundball in the 6th inning was the start of Atlanta’s two-run rally. Those runs came in via a Mauricio Dubón single, an impressive piece of hitting where he was trying to guard against a fastball outside, preparing to serve it the other way, and was surprised with heat on his hands.
Dubón pulled his hands in and got around the ball, shooting it to left and allowing both Mateo and Ozzie Albies to score to give Atlanta the lead. (These two earned runs were more than Misiorowski has allowed across the months of May and June combined.)
For at least one day, it wasn’t the stars that carried Atlanta to a win, it was role players and other minor pieces, some of who only got on the roster or got playtime due to injury, suspension, or unavailability.
Possible injury concerns: Mateo was checked out by trainers after running through the bag to open this inning, while Ozzie took a while to get up after an awkward landing on his slide. Both stayed in the game without incident, but it’s something to watch for tomorrow.
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?
Atlanta’s looking to secure an early series win, but as expected, Milwaukee won’t make it easy. It’s a battle of lefties, as Chris Sale (8-5, 2.30 ERA) is taking on Kyle Harrison (8-1, 2.47 ERA) at 4:10 PM ET.