Today's Three Things: Braves rally late and hold on in extras for series win
Atlanta survived their wildest game of the year, coming out of it with a victory and being in position for a sweep on Sunday
The Atlanta Braves once again rallied late to take down an opponent, this time taking down the Arizona Diamondbacks 8-7 in ten innings in Chase Field on Saturday night.
Here’s Today’s Three Things from the contest.
The Turning Point
The wheels came off in the bottom of the 4th inning. Leading 2-1, Atlanta was feeling good - Grant Holmes had just struck out the side in the third inning, although the second strikeout, of 2B Tim Tawa, was an eight-pitch at-bat before Grant was able to get him to swing at a slider below the zone.
That extended at-bat ended up being a bad omen.
The first two Arizona hitters, SS Geraldo Perdomo and DH Pavin Smith, both walked in pretty non-competitive at-bats. After 1B Josh Naylor grounded out, pushing the runners to 2nd and 3rd, catcher Gabriel Moreno was up.
And he worked Grant Holmes. Fouling off six pitches in an extended at-bat, he finally got pitch #11, a slider below the zone that was slightly higher than the one that got Tawa, into play, lining it to left field and scoring both runners.
So, Holmes adjusted. He got Eugenio Suarez to swing through a low slider for the 2nd strike of the next at-bat, but rather than trying to go back to the same well of “low slider as the putaway pitch”, he tried to elevate a fastball above the zone and see if Suarez would chase.
Suarez did chase, but he didn’t whiff.
Hitting his second homer of the game, Suarez pushed the Diamondbacks lead to 5-1 and got Atlanta’s bullpen scrambling. While Holmes rebounded to make it into the sixth inning, he gave up yet another homer to Suarez that knocked him out of the game after only two outs. Holmes went from allowing only two longballs in his first four starts to a total of five and his ERA increased from 3.22 to 4.23 after this one.
All of that was just setup for the actual turning point, the 8th inning.
Having narrowed the deficit to 6-4 on a two-run shot from Eli White in the 7th, Atlanta had the heart of the order up in the top half of the inning. After two quick outs from Austin Riley (strikeout) and Marcell Ozuna (groundout), Matt Olson and Sean Murphy both had fantastic at-bats that resulted in walks, seeing a combined thirteen pitches and never once expanding the zone.
With Stuart Fairchild entering to run for Murphy, Ozzie Albies lined one up the middle to score Olson and then Michael Harris II followed that up with a bases-clearing double over the head of Alek Thomas in centerfield. Ozzie’s single was hitting a cookie - a center-cut fastball - but Harris’ was a good piece of hitting, getting wood on a 1-2 cutter that was down and away for a strike and ripping it to center at 106.7 off the bat.
Today’s Player of the Game
Atlanta’s centerfielder picked up two more hits today, stole a base, and got a great jump on a ball in the right-center gap to erase a potential extra-base hit. After entering the last homestand hitting just .179 on the year, he’s raised his average to .253 in the last eight games after going 13-30 with a homer, two doubles, five runs scored, and seven RBI. He’s also stolen three bags and struck out just twice across that span, so the contributions are showing up in virtually every single facet of the game.
What You’ll Be Talking About
Two things, and this isn’t cheating because I make the rules.
1st thing: 8th inning magic.
After tonight’s rally, the Braves have scored more runs in the 8th inning this season (thirty) than they’ve played 8th innings (26). Maybe the 2023 team thought that every inning was the 8th inning?
The Braves quickly got Daysbel Hernández up, who pitched a scoreless 8th inning despite being severely squeezed by home plate umpire Tony Randazzo.
2nd thing: The closing situation
The Braves finally used Raisel Iglesias for the first time in five days, asking him to get the save, but the extra time off didn’t help. Iglesias gave up Eugenio Suarez’s FOURTH homer of the game to tie the game at seven each before getting a bunt out and a double play to end the frame and send it to extras.
Raisel Iglesias pitched 69.1 innings last year and allowed just four homers on 259 batters faced, but this year, he's already given up five homers despite facing just 40 batters. It feels like an IL stint for some ‘shoulder soreness’ might be the best thing for Iglesias, so he can work on whatever mechanical issue is making him leave all of his pitches up in the zone.
After Matt Olson scored in the top of the tenth on a wild pitch, Dylan Lee came in and made it through a scoreless 10th inning, albeit with a leadoff walk that put runners on 1st and 2nd early. Olson provided a fitting end to the wild one, making a great scoop on an Austin Riley throw from behind 3rd and getting the dugout to (successfully) challenge the save call and end the game on the putout.
What’s Next for the Braves?
The Braves are looking for a potential series sweep on Sunday afternoon. Atlanta sends young phenom Spencer Schwellenbach (1-4, 2.56) to the mound opposite Brandon Pfaadt (4-1, 2.73) at 4:10 PM ET.
Does Ian report to AAA or to the MLB?
Sort of, but not really, felt bad for the Diamondbacks. The last four homer game that I saw was Bob Horner doing it for the Braves, and they lost too.