Today's Three Things: Atlanta's Offense Doesn't Show Up In Saturday Loss

The Atlanta Braves were held to one hit in nine innings, including six hitless from a starter that had an ERA of almost six entering the game.

The Atlanta Braves dropped game two against the Washington Nationals 2-0 in Truist Park on Saturday afternoon.

Here is Today’s Three Things from the contest.

The Turning Point

Atlanta’s best chance to get some runs on the board came in the bottom of the 7th inning.

Down 2-0, Michael Harris started the inning with a 1-2 single, getting a center-cut fastball from righty Brad Lord and sending it right back where it came from and into centerfield at 109 off the bat.

Harris then successfully, thanks to Atlanta’s replay room, advanced to second on an infield grounder by Matt Olson. He was originally ruled out, despite getting to second ahead of the throw from shifted third baseman Jorbit Vivas. Playing out of position, Vivas bobbled the ball before shoveling to shortstop CJ Abrams at second base.

The on-the-field call of out was overturned on review.

But with two on and no outs, Atlanta was unable to bring those runners in. Ozzie Albies swung at the first pitch, a slider both down and on the inner third, and popped out to third base. Dominic Smith got a good swing on a fly ball to deep left field, advancing Harris to third, but Austin Riley’s strikeout ended the rally and the Braves never got another runner into scoring position for the rest of the game.

Today’s Player of the Game

Let’s go with Grant Holmes. The righty went five innings with just two earned runs allowed, both of which came on solo shots.

Holmes started off incredibly hot, striking out the side in the first and getting two more punchouts in the second. But after facing Washington in the top of the inning, making his final strikeout during a downpour, the game officially entered a delay. The 40-minute pause in the action required Holmes to expend some of his bullets simulating an up-down in Atlanta’s cages behind the dugout, and had lingering effects when he finally got back on the mound. He opened the third with a single, a double, and a walk that loaded the bases, but held Washington off the board with a 1-2-3 double play and a strikeout.

For the contest, Holmes struck out ten opposite just two walks, successfully spamming his slider to the tune of 11 whiffs (in 24 swings) and a 31% CSW. He didn’t really adjust his sequencing as he hit the second time through the order, mostly because everything worked the first time through, other than taking a bit away from the curveball and four-seamer so that he could sprinkle a few changeups and an extra sinker in.

While his highest and best use is probably still the utility pitcher role we’ve been asking for the team to return him to, more outings like today, where he walks only one or two while piling up the strikeouts, could cement him as the team’s preferred 5th starter.

Not to be outdone, Dylan Dodd (6th-8th innings) and Tyler Kinley (9th inning) combined to allow just one hit while striking out five. Dodd’s sinker/cutter/slider mix got him a lot of early strikes, with the lefty getting more called strikes (six) than whiffs (five) and finishing with three strikeouts. Kinley continued his resurgence, getting two strikeouts in the 9th inning with both his slider and curveball carrying the load.

What You’ll Be Talking About

Atlanta’s anemic offensive performance tonight.

Despite Nationals starter Jake Irvin entering tonight with an ERA of 5.79, he had five scoreless, hitless innings with one walk and seven strikeouts before exiting with some forearm tightness. His curveball was the star of the show, picking up 11 whiffs and being just as effective as Cubs starter Ben Brown’s was against the same Atlanta team two weeks ago.

Righty Brad Lord, similar to Dodd, covered three innings before handing things off to lefty (and Braves legend) Richard Lovelady for the save in the 9th. The Nationals pen, which entered today with a 4.87 ERA, struck out four Braves with no walks and only the one Harris run allowed.

Particularly egregious with their struggles today were Ronald Acuña Jr. and Ozzie Albies. Acuña picked up a Golden Sombrero, striking out four times and failing to put a ball into play. Albies continued his struggles of the last two weeks, where he’s hitting just .121 with a .321 OPS over the last fifteen games, by going 0-4 with a strikeout. He had one quality batted ball, a 104.6 mph lineout, but also had two fielding outs (a pop fly and a groundout) that were both below 70 mph.

Not to be outdone, two of Matt Olson’s fielding outs were also sub-70mph, although he also had that 109 mph fielder’s choice and drew a walk, so he at least got on base tonight.

Looking for more discussion about this game?

Here’s tonight’s Postcast, where I went live to break down the contest.

What’s Next for the Braves?

Despite the struggles tonight, the Braves still have a chance to win the series. Veteran lefty Martín Pérez (2-2, 2.85) takes on fellow lefty Foster Griffin (5-2, 4.02() at 4:10 PM ET.