Today's Three Things: Braves Bullpen, Defense Implodes Late in Loss to Detroit

The Atlanta Braves were close to securing a series sweep before the middle of the bullpen hd their first notable stumble of the year

The Atlanta Braves dropped their series finale to the Detroit Tigers, 5-2, from Truist Park on Thursday afternoon.

Here is Today’s Three Things from the contest.

The Turning Point

It’s the top of the 8th for Atlanta.

Clinging to a narrow 2-1 lead and with Tyler Kinley having escaped a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the previous inning, manager Walt Weiss called on Joel Payamps to navigate through the bottom of the order.

He wasn’t able to do it.

Payamps recorded only one out, a strikeout of pinch-hitting catcher Dillon Dingler, and that only came after most of the damage he allowed was done. The inning opened with a triple to center, coming off a 92 mph 1-1 fastball that was pretty close to placed on a tee for Kerry Carpenter.

Is it possible that Michael Harris II, who was at designated hitter because of lingering tightness in his left quad, makes this catch? Maybe - it had a 85% hit probability after coming off the bat at 104.4 mph, and that probability is before any adjustments are made for proximity to the wall - but this is a classic example of an extra-base hit being thrown.

Carpenter than comes around to score on a double from Matt Vierling, with Payamps walking Hao-Yu Lee before being pulled for Aaron Bummer. The lefty loaded the bases on a four-pitch walk of rookie Kevin McGonigle before a sacrifice fly scored the second run and a strikeout ended the frame.

Detroit added on two more in the 9th against lefty José Suarez, with a fielding error by Mike Yastrzemski allowing one to come in and a double to left allowing the second. Only a great throw from Yaz to the plate to cut down Hao-Yu Lee, who started the play on second base, prevented more runs in the 9th later in the frame.

(This ball was 98.5 mph off the bat and took a bad hop on Riley; it’s hard for me to put the blame on Riley for not fielding that one instead of with Yaz for this obvious whiff.)

With several pitchers expected back in the coming weeks, including Spencer Strider (Sunday), Raisel Iglesias (next week in Seattle), and potentially Dylan Dodd (no firm timetable, but believed to be in the next two weeks), it’s possible that Payamps and Suarez have already played their way off the roster.

Today’s Player of the Game

Bryce Elder would have gotten the game ball if we were passing one out.

The sinkerballer put up another quality start, his fifth of the year (in seven starts) after allowing just one earned run across six innings on six hits and three walks. Elder struck out five Tigers today, and did it in a different way - his four-seamer.

He had nine whiffs today, four of which came on the four-seamer, and its usage up in the zone was definitely a point of emphasis today. Elder consistently elevated the heater for strikes, with its success up allowing the sinker to pick up nine called strikes, mostly at the bottom of the zone.

Elder also restored some of the lost sinker usage to righties today, pushing its usage to 61% (season avg = 51%) at the expense of the slider. Some of this was to take advantage of a ‘loose’ bottom of the strike zone from home plate umpire Roberto Ortiz, who was giving close pitches low.

What You’ll Be Talking About

Outside of the bullpen implosion, it’s once again Austin Riley.

The righthander went 0-4 with three strikeouts again today, finishing the series 0-11 with eight punchouts. For as bad as his approach has looked recently, he appeared to practically not even have one today. Riley saw 19 pitches across his four at-bats, striking out three times on eleven swings despite a grand total of five pitches being in the zone. He didn’t see a fastball of any sort until he flew out in the bottom of the 6th on a sinker, and the only two four-seam fastballs he saw on the day were both called strikes in his final at-bat of the day, a four-pitch strikeout.

It’s at the point where I genuinely don’t know what the Braves do here, other than move him down the order and hope Tim Hyers and Chipper Jones can get Riley hitting again. With the news from postgame that Michael Harris II will likely man DH on the entire three-city road trip due to more issues with his left quad, the Braves will need Mauricio Dubón’s glove in the outfield, so they can’t send him in to play third base for Riley. Maybe Kyle Farmer gets a start in Colorado on Friday night and/or Sunday afternoon - they have a lefty on the mound and the Braves might want to see if they can collect some sort of ‘revenge game’ magic from the former Colorado Rockies infielder - but there’s no real easy answer here other than hoping the slugger plays his way out of the slump.

I’m wondering if the reduced bat speed we’re seeing in 2026 is a byproduct of last season’s sports hernia surgery, which is just a core muscle injury and could conceivably have lingering impacts into the next season, similar to what we see from oblique injuries for hitters.

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 contest.

What’s Next for the Braves?

Atlanta’s heading to Colorado for three games at elevation against the Rockies. Here are the pitching matchups for the series:

Fri: Grant Holmes (2-1, 3.62) vs LHP Jose Quintana (1-2, 4.91)
Sat: Chris Sale (5-1, 2.31) vs TBD
Sun: Spencer Strider (2026 debut) vs LHP Kyle Freeland (1-2, 3.48)