Today’s Three Things: Braves Blown Out by Mets. So Was Connor Thomas’s ERA.
Martín Pérez gave Atlanta five rain-soaked innings, but with the bullpen spent and no lead to protect, Austin Thomas was left to wear the rest.
The Atlanta Braves got run out of Citi Field by the New York Mets, losing by the score of 14-3.
Here is Today’s Three Things from the contest.
The Turning Point
Atlanta’s early lead in the first didn’t last long; New York immediately tied it up in the bottom half of the inning. But in the top of the 4th, down 3-1, the Braves had a chance to get back into this game.
Both pitchers spent the night battling weather that vacillated between steady rain and something approximating a monsoon. Home plate umpire Ron Kulpa nevertheless decided the conditions were playable; another curious judgment from an umpire whose 91.68% accuracy on balls and strikes ranks last among all qualified umpires this season, according to Ump Scorecards.
The top of the fourth started off great for Atlanta, despite the weather - Matt Olson drew a leadoff five-pitch walk, followed by Ozzie Albies tying the game on a 2-1 fastball on the upper corner away.
The Braves didn’t appear to be done, though. Michael Harris II hit a 0-2 sweeper off the plate away for a single, somehow pulling that pitch to right, and doing it at 98.7 mph too. Mauricio Dubón popped out at 0-2, though, getting a changeup that ran in on his hands. Austin Riley, who’s been much better since the All-Star Break, made the same mistake as Dubón; he got a fastball in on his hands and weakly beat it in the ground to second base, where Bo Bichette successfully started the inning-ending double play.
The Braves would get only one more baserunner in the rest of the game, allowing New York to score eleven unanswered runs from that point forward.
Today’s Player of the Game
As incredulous as it sounds from a blowout, yes we’re naming a player of the game and it’s Ozzie Albies.
Albies has been a bit maligned recently for his rather pedestrian numbers recently, but for one night, he showed that he’s still got it.
Albies’s first inning at-bat, taken with two outs and a runner at third base, resulted in a run scored despite the fact that his batted ball never left the infield. Shooting a hard-hit grounder into the hole at shortstop, Albies hit a shockingly high 29.2 feet per second on his sprint to first base, beating Francisco Lindor’s throw to get Atlanta on the board.
He then followed up that RBI single with the fourth-inning home run, giving Albies his fourth two-hit game since the All-Star Break. While the best configuration of Atlanta’s lineup is still Albies batting towards the bottom, he’s miles away from the outright liability he was at times last year.
What You’ll Be Talking About
The pitching conundrum for Atlanta.
Midnight appears to have come for Martín Pérez, with the veteran lefty battling the rain in an attempt to get through five full innings.
They weren’t good innings, though.
Pérez allowed three runs on eight hits, walking one while striking out four. He finished with just four whiffs (12%), although his 21 called strikes allowed him to salvage a 29% CSW. And Perez couldn’t even fall back on his ability to minimize hard contact, with more than half of the 19 balls he allowed to be put in play to be hard-hit and with an average exit velocity of 91.9 mph.
And after he survived his five innings, a depleted bullpen and the fact that Atlanta’s offense didn’t have a lead meant that Walt Weiss really had no choice but to go to longman Connor Thomas instead of any of the leverage options that could take the ball tonight.
And Thomas wasn’t up to the task.
Thomas allowed an impressively awful eleven runs on ten hits in five walks in just 2.2 innings, finishing with more home runs allowed (three) than strikeouts (two). He needed 78 pitches (42 strikes) to get through his outing, with the righty getting 10 whiffs on 33 swings (30% whiff rate) but also allowing 10 hard-hit balls in 16 BBEs, with an average exit velocity for all of his balls in play of an astounding 94.9 mph.
Remember, 95 mph is a hard-hit ball.
Thomas will be getting optioned tomorrow morning for a fresh arm, with the Braves likely looking for the ability to give length out of whoever is called up to reinforce the pen.
Shortstop Jorge Mateo finished the 8th inning on the mound, giving up a hit but also recording his first career strikeout. And yes, they saved the ball for him.
This all comes back to Atlanta’s starters not being able to give length, combined with two extra-innings games over the weekend. Walt Weiss mentioned after the game that the only reliever he had was Thomas, which is his way of explaining that if they're not winning, he's not supposed to go to the leverage arms due to the accumulated workload from the weekend. Like, they're available if you're trying to hold a win, but you can't push those chips in to chase a win, if that makes sense.
The trade deadline can’t come soon enough. Sure, an “impact starter” capable of slotting in as the #2 behind Chris Sale is what we’re all waiting and asking for, but getting a veteran starter who can give some length and stability every fifth day would be very helpful, as well.
Since the All-Star Break, Atlanta’s starters are averaging barely more than five innings per start, and that includes Chris Sale’s 13 innings across his two starts. That lack of length in four out of every five starts means that several of these become quasi-bullpen games, and the pen just hasn’t been able to hold up. Since the All-Star Break, Atlanta’s bullpen (entering tonight) was 4th in the league in innings with 42.0, and their 4.71 ERA was 21st.
Looking for more discussion about this game?
There was no Postcast tonight; Jake and I have a rule that if the Braves are losing badly enough for a position player to enter the game on their behalf, we’re not doing a postcast.
What’s Next for the Braves?
If the weather holds, which is a massive “if”, Chris Sale (11-6, 2.19 ERA) will take on Christian Scott (3-2, 3.13) at 7:10 PMET.