Today's Three Things: Birthday boy Spencer Schwellenbach shines against Boston

The Atlanta Braves got back in the win column in dominant fashion versus the Red Sox

The Atlanta Braves took it to the Boston Red Sox on Saturday afternoon, winning 5-0 in Truist Park to set up a series-deciding rubber game tomorrow afternoon.

Here’s Today’s Three Things from the contest.

The Turning Point

Atlanta entered the 4th inning clinging to a narrow 1-0 lead. While Boston hadn’t really gotten anything going off of Spencer Schwellenbach (more on him in a minute), the Braves hadn’t done much off of Walker Buehler either.

That changed in a hurry.

Just a pitch after hitting a center-cut sweeper down the line but foul, Austin Riley turned on an inside knuckle-curve and launched it to left-center and just over the outstretched glove of Jarren Duran for a solo shot. Ozzie Albies then walked, advancing to second on an errant pickoff throw that bounced off his ribs and went out of play. Michael Harris II continued his high-leverage hitting, driving Ozzie in with a single before Ronald Acuña Jr. ambushed a center-cut “get-me-over” fastball for his third homer in just his eighth game back from knee surgery.

The four-spot in the inning would be all Atlanta needed, as Schwellenbach and three relievers combined to allow only three more singles the rest of the way for the easy win.

Today’s Player of the Game

Spencer Schwellenbach, and it isn’t particularly close.

On his 25th birthday, Schwellenbach put on a pitching clinic for the accumulated Truist Park faithful, going six and a third scoreless innings with no walks and eleven strikeouts.

Schwellenbach’s eleven strikeouts tied a career-high for the righty, but there’s another stat that illustrates his dominance in this one.

It’s his second consecutive game with eleven or more strikeouts and no walks, a feat done just 16 times in MLB history. It’s the first time it’s been done since the 2023 season, when Zac Gallen of the Arizona Diamondbacks did it in April. He’ll have a chance to join an exclusive club next week - the only players to have three consecutive starts like that are Clayton Kershaw and Chris Archer, both of whom did it in 2015.

As catcher Drake Baldwin is wont to do, he found something that works and stuck with it. Schwellenbach threw 49 four-seam fastballs in this one, averaging a career high 98.1 mph (almost a full 1.5 mph over his season average) and even breaking 100 mph twice in the outing. He finished with sixteen whiffs, half of which came on the heater, and added 22 called strikes for an absurdly dominant 38% CSW.

What You’ll Be Talking About

Signs of life from Atlanta’s offense.

The Braves finished with eleven hits in this one, with every single starter but Ozzie Albies collecting a hit (and he got on via walk and later scored) and having at least one hard-hit ball.

Atlanta had multiple hits with runners in scoring position and finished with three two-out RBI, two coming on Ronald’s homer and the third being the first-inning double by Matt Olson. Harris finished with three hits, while both Acuña and Ozuna had two. The only black mark was Luke Williams, who went 0-4 while starting at shortstop in place of banged-up Nick Allen (hand).

What’s Next for the Braves?

Atlanta’s looking for the series win, their first since two weeks ago in Fenway Park, on Sunday afternoon. Bryce Elder (2-2, 4.50) is being called up to start opposite lefty ace Garrett Crochet (4-4, 2.04) at 1:35 PM ET.