Today's Three Things: Braves blown out by White Sox after Strider struggles
The Atlanta Braves can't seem to dig out of the holes that Spencer Strider keeps putting them in
The Atlanta Braves dropped game one 13-9 to the Chicago White Sox in Truist Park on Monday night.
Here’s Today’s Three Things from the contest.
The Turning Point
The top of the fourth.
Chicago was holding on to a narrow 1-0 lead, but immediately set out to push it. Andrew Benintendi started the inning with a single, scoring on a Luis Robert Jr. homer two pitches later. After back-to-back singles from Kyle Teel and Chase Meidroth, Strider loaded the bases with a five-pitch walk to Brooks Baldwin. Mike Tauchman then knocked Strider out of the game with a two-run double, calling Austin Cox out of the pen to continue the inning.
Cox allowed two more runs to score, coming on a sacrifice fly and a single, but managed to finally stop the bleeding after six White Sox runs scored.
Atlanta would push things, putting up two four-run innings late, but just couldn’t quite complete the rally to climb out of the six-run hole they were in.
It’s the third consecutive poor start from Strider, who is 0-3 with a 15.43 ERA in the month of August. Everything is bad - the WHIP (2.83), the strikeouts (only 10 in 11.2 innings) and the homers allowed (7).
But tonight’s start wasn’t the same issues as some of the most recent - his homers weren’t on center-cut mistakes, but decently executed pitches that Chicago just got a barrel on. Strider acknowledged it after the game, telling reporters (including 680 The Fan’s Brady Penn) that it wasn’t actually baffling - “I can’t compete in the strike zone”.
And that, in some ways, is more concerning. His velocity was a bit better (average of 96.2, another half a mph increase from his season average) and yet he still got rocked.
Strider acknowledged that his issues won’t be resolved until he gets a full offseason, explaining that the four days between starts weren’t enough time to make the changes he needs to make to get back to full effectiveness.
Today’s Player of the Game
Atlanta’s left fielder went three for five with two homers, picking up five homers and scoring three times. It’s Profar’s first multi-homer game as a member of the Braves; the last time he had two was in Camden Yards versus the Orioles while with the Padres last July.
For all the praise we’ve given Michael Harris II and his post-All-Star Break heater (more on Money Mike in a minute), Profar’s also stepped up his game recently. While his post-ASG numbers still aren’t exemplary (a .248 average), he’s hitting .297 with a 1.085 OPS in the month of August. He is tied with Harris for the team lead in August homers with six and not only is the only Braves hitter to be in double digits for walks (16), but leads in runs (13), stolen bases (4), on-base percentage (.444), and is only one RBI behind Harris for first place with 15.
What You’ll Be Talking About
Michael Harris being lifted from the game early.
It is common for MLB managers to take players out of blowouts and let them have the rest of the night off. Atlanta’s no exception, with Ronald Acuña Jr. commonly being lifted in blowouts.
But tonight, it was Michael Harris coming out early. He opened the eighth inning with a single, with Eli White coming in to pinch-run for him and then staying out to play centerfield. The decision’s defensible, on its face - Atlanta was down 13-5 and Harris has arguably been one of the best hitters in all of baseball since the All-Star Break.
He also hasn’t missed a single inning since getting on his heater. Manager Brian Snitker discussed that after the game, telling reporters that his decision “blew up” after Atlanta batted around in the 8th and his spot came up to bat with two outs as the tying run.
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 loss.
What’s Next for the Braves?
The Braves are looking to even up the series on Tuesday night. Bryce Elder (5-9, 5.89) takes on Shane Smith (3-7, 4.01) at 7:15 PM ET.
I feel for Spencer Strider as he has been my favorite Brave for some time now. Doing a bit of a closer look, I wanted to see if there was any performance differences based on who was catching. I was surprised to find that with his 5-11 record, with Murphy catching, his record is 1 win, 7 losses, and a no decision. With Baldwin catching, his record is 4 wins and 3 losses. The last remaining loss came when Leon was catching. The month of June was by far his best month, with from 6 starts he only gave up a home run in one start (well, it was 3 home runs in that one start), and his record for the month of June was 3-3. In the month of June, all three games he won Baldwin was catching. In five starts in July, and three starts in August, he has given up twelve home runs, and in his three August starts, which are his last three starts, he has gone 4.2, 4.0, and 3.0 innings, which gives the appearance of him running out of gas.
In his 17 starts this season, in 89.1 innings, he has given up 92 hits, 53 runs, of which 52 were earned runs, 17 home runs, 36 walks, struck out 102, hit 6 batters, and has thrown 1 wild pitch. His best outing was a win on June 14th, against Colorado, where in 6 innings pitched, he only gave up 3 hits and no runs, and he struck out 13. His worst outing was his last start, where in 3 innings he gave up 10 hits and 7 runs, including 2 home runs, a walk and only two strikeouts, and he left with runners on base.
It is just my opinion, but with all the starters going down, and the Braves being down and almost out, as Spencer was feeling the weight of the world on his shoulders to help his team, he just very well may have convinced himself and the coaching staff that he was ready, when in reality, and with the stats showing it, he wasn't yet ready to jump in. I hope he gets the time now as none of us will find a more dedicated Brave.