Today's Three Things: Atlanta's Battery Carries Braves to Series-Clinching Win
The Atlanta Braves saw Drake Baldwin and Chris Sale come up big in their win in the finale
The Atlanta Braves took down the Athletics 5-1 in Truist Park on Wednesday afternoon to secure the series win.
Here is Today’s Three Things from the contest.
The Turning Point
Holding a slim 2-1 lead as they headed to the bottom of the 4th inning, the tail end of Atlanta’s lineup got to work.
Dominic Smith and Mauricio Dubón both hit one-out singles to chase Athletics starter Luis Severino from the game. With reliever Elvis Alvarado now pitching, Ronald Acuña Jr. hit a sacrifice fly to right to get Smith to third and then Drake Baldwin cleared the bases with a double to cap off an eleven-pitch at-bat. Matt Olson then brought in Baldwin from second on a slow bleeder up the middle, pushing the lead to three.
Today’s Player of the Game
With all due respect to Baldwin, who went 2-for-3 with four RBI and a walk, we’re giving this to Chris Sale.
The veteran lefty explained in the postgame that he didn’t have his best stuff today, and he knew that going in. “Kind of one of those days. I noticed it in my pregame bullpen. This was one of those times; Sometimes you’re not going to have your best stuff every time, so I really tried to focus on raising my focus (today) because reaching for more stuff when it’s not there is just really not the way, and I knew I had to find a way to win this game.”
Sale went on to explain that he tried to focus more on location than “trying to out-stuff guys”, and his accumulated stats bear that out. Across his six innings, he allowed just one run on one hit, a solo homer by Shea Langeliers after a fastball leaked up and in to the righty. Sale had just nine whiffs, although he also got 16 additional called strikes as he was more in and around the zone than usual. He only struck out three, but didn’t walk any Athletics in the process.
Walt Weiss explained after the game that Sale was sick, unable to keep anything down, and Weiss was hoping for “three or four innings, max” from the lefty today.)
As Weiss remarked when discussing that they got six quality innings from the ill Sale, not the three they were hoping for, “Hall of Famers just operate differently, and that’s what he is. It was an unbelievable performance, considering the circumstances.”
What You’ll Be Talking About
Atlanta’s offense being able to get a starter out early.
Severino threw thirty pitches across a scoreless first inning, with only a pickoff and two well-timed strikeouts preventing the Braves from cashing in their three walks.
But Ozzie Albies started the second inning with a great at-bat, drawing a six-pitch walk and putting immediate pressure on Severino. After Michael Harris II swung through a center-cut sinker for the first out, Dom Smith singled and Acuña walked to load the bases for Baldwin, who drove in two with a single to left. By the eventual end of the 2nd inning, Severino was hovering around 60 pitches already and the Athletics were already starting to get their overworked and beleaguered bullpen up and moving.
While the ‘Big Three’ only picked up two hits and an RBI across their nine at-bats, they also walked three times and were generally able to see plenty of pitches, with Baldwin providing the offense and RBI from his #2 hole.
Interesting observation here: The Athletics did not want to throw Ronald four-seam fastballs. The first at-bat was seven pitches, all sinkers and cutters, while the second was five pitches with just one four-seamer in the mix. Ronald didn’t see another four-seamer until the bottom of the 6th, his fourth at-bat, when he grounded out to first agsinst lefty Hayden Harris.
What’s Next for the Braves?
Atlanta is off to Arizona, where they’re set to play four against the Diamondbacks in Chase Field. Pitching matchups and game times are as follows:
Thursday (9:40 PM ET): Reynaldo López (0-0, 1.50) vs Ryne Nelson (0-0, 7.71)
Friday (9:45 PM ET): Grant Holmes (0-1, 5.40) vs LHP Eduardo Rodriguez (0-0, 0.00)
Saturday (7:15 PM ET): Bryce Elder (1-0, 0.00) vs Michael Soroka (1-0, 0.00)
Sunday (4:10 PM ET): TBD vs Brandon Pfaadt (0-0, 7.50)