Today's Three Things: Baldwin & Riley Bash Atlanta to Series Win Versus Rangers

Atlanta got four home runs, five runs, and six RBI from the pair of sluggers in a relatively easy win on Sunday.

The Atlanta Braves took down the Texas Rangers 8-5 in Sunday’s series finale in Truist Park to win the series two games to one.

Here is Today’s Three Things from the contest.

The Turning Point

Atlanta looked to be cruising to an easy win, putting up single runs in each of the first four innings, before Texas responded with three runs in the top of the 5th.

It was still 4-3 in the bottom of the seventh when Atlanta finally put this one away.

With lefty Tyler Alexander entering the game, Matt Olson opened the inning with a double off of a low-and-inside changeup, ripping it to centerfield at 104.9 to put Atlanta in business. Birthday boy Mauricio Dubón then got robbed of a one-out hit by shortstop Ezequiel Duran, who started a rundown to try and get the lead runner Olson but botched it, allowing the first baseman to get back to the second base bag safely.

With Eli White entering the game as a pinch hitter, the Rangers called on righty Tyler Alexander to get the double-play ball and get out of the inning. The problem is, no one told Texas’ defense that it was supposed to be an inning-ending double play. White chopped it to short, but Duran waited on it and was late getting the ball to second ahead of Dubón (who was hustling down the line), and with the speedy White getting to first so quickly that a throw to first wasn’t even attempted, Texas recorded no outs on the play.

Austin Riley then continued his hot weekend, lacing a 0-1 fastball back up the middle and scoring both Olson and Dubón on the play. After Jim Jarvis struck out, Brewer Hicklen ripped a first-pitch slider to the left-center gap, scoring White from second base for the third run of the inning. But Atlanta wanted more.

Austin Riley, who started the play on first, was sent to the plate by third base coach Tommy Watkins. The relay throw from shortstop Ezequiel Duran was a bit high but right in Riley’s running lane, with catcher Kyle Higashioka making a swipe tag to end the inning without the fourth run hitting the board.

The unfortunate part of the sequence was that Drake Baldwin, who led off the next inning, started it with a home run. At the end of the day, though, I think I’m okay with the send. The value of being aggressive and continuing to stack runs on a struggling reliever in Peyton Gray would have been great, and while Baldwin was 4-4 with a homer at the time that Riley recorded the third out, there’s no guarantee that he would have hit that off of Gray (Ben Peoples gave up the solo shot to Baldwin in the 8th).

Today’s Player of the Game

There was no way it was going to be anyone else but the duo of Drake Baldwin and Austin Riley, both of who had two home runs today. Both sluggers had big weekends against the Rangers and were the catalysts today, combining for eight hits (four home runs), five runs, six RBI, a stolen base and only one strikeout.

Riley’s performance, as Jake pointed out on the postcast, came because of an adjustment he made to be better on time against fastballs and to better ‘pull the trigger’ on breaking balls on the inner half of the plate. His two homers came against an elevated curveball, the epitome of a mistake pitch, and a center-cut four-seam fastball, with Riley’s single coming on an inside fastball. He finished the weekend 6-12 with three home runs, five RBI, and only two strikeouts.

Baldwin’s 5-5 game was the first of his career, and only the fourth for Atlanta to have two home runs in it since the year 2000.¹

But lost in this weekend’s performance at the plate for Baldwin, which saw him go 10-44 with thre homers, eight RBI, five runs scored, and one walk to no strikeouts is that he also stole a base today.

And yes, it was an Antoan Richardson -style ‘walking lead’ steal.

Being able to add that component to Atlanta’s offense in the second half would do nothing but make this lineup even more lethal if the Braves can successfully execute it without the numerous pickoffs we saw early this season.

What You’ll Be Talking About

Once again, Atlanta’s shaky pitching.

The Braves gave the ball to Grant Holmes today, who returned it after five innings of three-run ball on seven hits and two walks, striking out two. And once again, it was late baserunners and hits that did him in.

Holmes actually navigated the second time through the lineup mostly unscathed, allowing just two hits and a walk after allowing two hits the first time through. His average exit velocity was virtually the exact same the second time through, and he mostly kept the same rough pitch mix the first time the lineup turned over.

But the Rangers figured him out by the third time the top of the order got a look at him, causing him to work to get out of the fifth. After #8 hitter Nicky Lopez singled to open the inning, leadoff man Joc Pederson pushed Lopez to third with a first-pitch single of his own. Wyatt Langford ripped a double, coming on a mistake 1-1 cutter that was left over the heart of the plate, scoring López. Josh Jung then hit a 0-1 sacrifice fly, followed by a walk to Brandon Nimmo and a 0-1 single to left by Jake Burger. Holmes finally got out of the inning with a 0-1 groundball on an inside sinker that Ezequiel Duran really should have taken, but three runs scored in the frame.

Every single one of those batted balls except for López’s single came on the first or second pitch of the at-bat. Rangers hitters clearly were comfortable with what Holmes was doing, both (mostly) identifying balls from strikes very easily and not being afraid of Holmes’ stuff in the zone. He finished with eleven whiffs, but took forty swings to get them, and allowed an average exit velocity of 92.1 mph.

I can’t help but feel that despite the five innings, this was nothing but another data point in the “Grant Holmes’ highest and best usage is as a utility pitcher rather than as a starter” argument.

But we also saw Walt Weiss learn from last night’s disastrous outing from Tyler Kinley, sending Dylan Dodd for the sixth inning. Walt then went to Didier Fuentes with a runner on third and two outs, asking the youngster to not only get the final out on a back-to-back but come back and handle the seventh inning. Despite not getting any strikeouts or even whiffs, the youngster’s velocity seemed to be fine and his locations were good, showing that perhaps he’s ready to take the next step towards standard leverage reliever usage.

Dylan Lee and Raisel Iglesias each allowed single runs in their innings, with Lee walking a batter and him being doubled in and Iglesias giving up a solo shot to open the frame. It’s another shaky outing for Lee, who had three different three-ball counts in the inning and is just two off of the MLB lead in appearances on the season with 46. It’s abundantly clear, even once Robert Suarez returns, that Alex Anthopoulos was right to say on Sunday morning that he’s looking both for a playoff starter and a high-leverage reliever at the trade deadline (More on this tomorrow).

Looking for more discussion about this game?

Here’s today’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 is staying home to open a four-game set against the San Diego Padres before heading out for a road trip. Here are the announced pitching matchups for the series:

Mon: Bryce Elder vs LHP JP Sears
Tue: Reynaldo López vs Walker Buehler
Wed: TBA (likely Martín Pérez) vs Michael King
Thu: Chris Sale vs Griffin Canning

1. The other three? Ozzie Albies in 2021, Andruw Jones in 2006, and Gary Sheffield in 2003. Not a bad list to be on.