Today's Three Things: Braves Refuse To Be Swept by Houston Astros

The Atlanta Braves cashed in a lot of their walks in the Sunday matinee

The Atlanta Braves avoided being swept by the Houston Astros with an 8-3 win in Truist Park on Sunday afternoon.

Here is Today’s Three Things from the contest.

The Turning Point

The bottom of the fifth inning.

With the Astros having tied the game up at two each, Atlanta worked the Tim Hyers offense to perfection. Facing lefty Framber Valdez, three Braves hitters each walked to open the inning - Jurickson Profar, Matt Olson, and Ronald Acuña Jr.

And then the middle infield joined the party.

Ozzie Albies and Ha-Seong Kim each singled, driving in a combined three runs and knocking Valdez from the game. Unfortunately, the Braves were done scoring after that in the frame. Against old friend Enyel De Los Santos, pitching for the second straight day in this series, Michael Harris got a one-out single but three strikeouts ended the Atlanta threat, albeit after they broke the tie and pushed it to 5-2 Braves.

Today’s Player of the Game

Ozzie Albies.

Atlanta’s second baseman continued his 2nd-half surge, picking up two hits and driving in three runs thanks to a double and two singles, one with the bases loaded. The second baseman is now hitting .292/.320/.563 in September with seven runs and eight RBI in the month’s 12 games.

While his full season line is relatively anemic as compared to his career norms, just .239/.304/.368, his post-All-Star Break performance (.273/.329/.459) makes one hope that he will regain something closer to the Silver Slugger form the farther away he gets from last season’s wrist injury.

While his defense has dropped to below average at this point in his career, he’s still shown to be significantly better than 2023’s -10 Fielding Run Value, sitting at just -3 FRV in a similar number of innings to that year. Even if the Braves weren’t already likely to pick up on that club option based on the financial aspect alone, they likely would do it based on the second-half production.

What You’ll Be Talking About

Today’s offensive approach.

We talked about the offense having swung the wrong direction late last week, pointing out that the Braves were significantly less aggressive earlier in the count than usual and the team’s power numbers suffering as a result.

They were a bit better in that regard today.

The Braves walked six times today, cashing in four of them for runs. They also hit two home runs, with Matt Olson’s first-inning blast coming on a 0-1 inside fastball and Sandy León’s seventh-inning two-run shot coming on a 1-0 inside curveball that caught too much of the plate.

This offense is one that would make opposing pitching coaches stay up at night. The uber-efficient Framber Valdez took 76 pitches to make it through four-plus innings - he faced five batters in the fifth inning but failed to record an out before being lifted.

While Atlanta scored three of their eight runs on homers, the rest came on back-to-back singles or a well-timed Ozzie Albies double. Against a quality pitching staff led by Valdez, the Braves had fifteen at-bats with a runner in scoring position today.

Looking for more discussion about this game?

Here’s tonight’s Postcast, with me and Locked On Braves host Jake Mastroianni, as we went live to break down the win/loss.

What’s Next for the Braves?

The Braves are heading to Washington to take on the Nationals for four games in three days, owing to a Tuesday doubleheader. Both teams have announced their rotations for the series, although Washington has a late TBD and both teams have not yet decided on their plan for game one of the doubleheader.

Mon: Spencer Strider (5-13, 4.86) vs Mitchell Parker (8-15, 5.69)
Tue Gm1: TBD vs TBD
Tue Gm2: Chris Sale (5-5, 2.52) vs TBD
Wed: Hurston Waldrep (4-1, 2.78) vs Brad Lord (5-8, 4.21)