Today's Three Things: Braves win series with Schwellenbach's first career complete game

The Atlanta Braves picked up their first series win since Boston with multiple homers off of Milwaukee's starter

The Atlanta Braves won the series two games to one against the Milwaukee Brewers with today’s 6-2 victory in American Family Field.

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

The Turning Point

Believe it or not, the top of the 2nd inning. (Nice to be so early in the game, right?)

The Braves got a leadoff walk from Marcell Ozuna and then, after Ozzie Albies struck out, Michael Harris II let the playing-hurt Ozuna (hip) jog home with a two-run shot to right. It was a welcome sight for both Harris and the Braves - a center-cut cutter that he did not miss, launching it 413 feet and 102.4 off the bat.

But the Braves weren’t done just yet.

After Eli White grounded out for the second out of the inning, Nick Allen showed some impressive plate discipline with a seven-pitch walk, was advanced to second base on a Ronald Acuña Jr. single, and then scored on a Drake Baldwin grounder to left.

It felt like the first time all series that Atlanta’s been able to keep scoring in an inning after the decisive homer. They would go on to add two more runs in the fourth after Allen singled and Ronald homered, as well as another in the 7th on an Austin Riley single, a single and a double play advanced him to third, and then an Albies base hit drove him in.

An offense that performs like this has the ability to push Atlanta into a winning streak, while last night’s offense is befitting a team that’s now nine games below .500.

(More thoughts on the schedule in tomorrow’s newsletter)

Today’s Player of the Game

Spencer Schwellenbach.

The 25-year-old pitched his first career complete game (at any level - college, minors, or majors) in this one, allowing five hits and two runs while striking out nine with no walks. It took him just 105 pitches (76 strikes) to do it, making him the likeliest bet on the roster for the next ‘Maddux’.

A few things stood out to me about Schwellenbach today. The first was his velocity.

Just as he did last time out, he increased his average fastball velocity to a career-high 98.2 mph, a full 1.2 mph above his season average. While he didn’t break 100 in this one, he was able to maintain his velocity - pitch 100 was a 99 mph heater that just barely missed the zone.

Another interesting aspect of his pitch usage today was how heavily he leaned on the fastball - 51% of all his pitches were the four-seamer. Milwaukee wanted to swing at it, offering 32 times, but they whiffed (11) and fouled off (13) more than they put the ball into play (8). He picked up whiffs on the splitter (three in six swings) and cutter (one in nine swings), but Drake Baldwin kept going back to the heater and Milwaukee just didn’t have an answer for it.

Of the two runs he gave up, the Rhys Hoskins solo shot in the 2nd came on an inside and down sinker, while the Eric Hasse 8th inning RBI double was the only real mistake, a belt-high four-seamer on the inner third that was probably supposed to be more inside than it was.

Just a masterful performance from the righthander, who lowered his season ERA to 3.11 with the win and bought two days of downtime for the bullpen with tomorrow’s off day.

What You’ll Be Talking About

Ronald’s big series.

Acuña went 7-12 across the three games in Milwaukee, clubbing two home runs with three runs scored and four RBI. He also walked twice while only striking out once, a sign he’s seeing the ball as well as he ever has.

The hot series brings his season line to .353/.436/.647, a mark even better than his MVP 2023 season, where he went .337/.416/.596, albeit on an extremely small sample size of just 18 games versus that year’s 159.

But there’s still some small sample size fun to be had with his 2025 so far: A 162-game pace of 54 home runs, 99 RBI, and 117 runs scored.

What’s Next for the Braves?

The Braves are off tomorrow before starting a three-game set with the Colorado Rockies in Truist Park this weekend. While Colorado has not yet announced starters for the weekend, Atlanta has their rotation set:

Friday: Bryce Elder (2-3, 4.08)
Saturday: Spencer Strider (0-5, 5.40)
Sunday: Chris Sale (4-4, 2.79)