The Atlanta Braves rallied late, but couldn’t complete the drill in a 7-6 loss to the Cincinnati Reds in Truist Park on Thursday night.
Here is Today’s Three Things from the contest.
The Turning Point
The bottom of the 9th inning.
Down 7-6 entering the frame, Atlanta battled back but came 90 feet short of tying the game.
Michael Harris II led off the inning with an at-bat characterized by terrible process…but a good result. He was down 1-2 before he saw a single pitch in the strike zone, the 5th pitch of the bat, but he was able to swat an infield grounder to second base and beat the throw for a leadoff baserunner. He advanced to second base on Mauricio Dubón’s sacrifice bunt and third on Emilio Pagán’s wild pitch.
And then the wheels fell off.
Ozzie Albies either whiffed or fouled off three consecutive fastballs in the upper third of the zone, so Pagán decided to just…stop throwing them. Nothing but splitters below the zone followed in the at-bat, including one that bounced in front of the plate, but Ozzie decided to swing at all but one of them anyway, finally striking out on a ball in the dirt that required a throw to first.
Now that there were two outs, Mike Yastrzemski attempted to salvage the inning and rally by jumping on both of the first two in-zone fastballs he saw, but he fouled the first off and flew the second one to centerfielder Carlos Jorge for the final out.
Today’s Player of the Game
Despite only one hit today, I’m giving it to Austin Riley.
The slugging third baseman, mired in a terrible season, went deep for the second consecutive night. He got a cutter from Brady Singer that caught way too much of the plate in the third inning and did not miss it.
I want to talk about what the homer means.
The first is the milestone - this is Riley’s 188th career home run, which ties him with former catcher Brian McCann for 12 on the franchise’s all-time home run list. He’s one ahead of Matt Olson’s 187, but they’re both chasing Ronald Acuña Jr. in the #10 spot with 206.
But the second is what this might mean for the postseason. This Riley home run was his second in two days, and when Riley’s at his best, he’s able to consistently blast baseballs to right-center. It’s been a terrible season for Riley and nothing he does in the last three games will change his overall stats that much…but if he can continue this streak of seeing the ball well and making quality contact, it has the potential to make a significant impact in October.
What You’ll Be Talking About
Atlanta’s offense with some surprising competency tonight.
In a reversal of…well, everything that’s happened in September so far, they scored four runs in the first inning off of Brady Singer and batted around. They then added single runs in the third and, after Singer left the game, the 5th.
And the way they did it was by doing what scientists call “hitting the crap out of the ball.”
Atlanta had 22 hard-hit balls tonight, including nine off of Singer in just three innings. Each of the first four hitters in Atlanta’s order had four hard-hit balls each, with Ronald Acuña Jr.having all of his over 100 mph.
Yeah, I’m thinking his shin is okay.
Now, frustratingly, they didn’t always get the results you’d expect off of those 22 hard-hit balls, getting just seven hits (four singles), but the process was sound. Atlanta struck out just four times tonight while also walking four times, and both Yastrzemski and Riley were able to pick up two-out RBIs.
Frustratingly, the good offensive start for the Braves coincided with both a poor outing from Tyler Mahle (five earned runs in five innings) and a lack of production against the Reds bullpen.
But beggars can’t be choosers - I know Brady Singer isn’t currently in the same stratosphere as Zack Wheeler or Cristopher Sanchez, but you have to walk before you can run.
Looking for more discussion about this game?
Here’s tonight’s Postcast, where I went live to break down the contest and discuss Mahle’s poor start in more detail.
What’s Next for the Braves?
Atlanta’s flying to Miami for a three-game set against the Marlins at loanDepot park. (Yes, that’s really how they capitalize it - I wrote something as a freelancer for SI a few years ago and got it wrong, and Marlins comms emailed me to correct it). Atlanta hasn’t announced a starter, and Walt Weiss floated after the game they might have Ray Kerr open the game and go a few innings, so things are fluid…but whatever they do, it’ll be at 7:10 PM ET tomorrow night on BravesVision.
What this game points out even more is Ozzie does not need to be batting cleanup. His futility in rbi situations far outweighs his occasional homer. Olson benefits far more with Harris following him for protection. Add to that Harris is by far more likely to take advantage of the rbi opportunity.