Today's Three Things: Braves Can't Find Run Support for Chris Sale in Loss
The Atlanta Braves just can't seem to find runs when Chris Sale takes the mound
The Atlanta Braves dropped the middle game of their series against the Chicago White Sox, 2-1, in Rate Field on Wednesday night.
Here is Today’s Three Things from the contest.
The Turning Point
It’s tough to narrow this one down, but the first inklings that something was off tonight came in the 2nd inning.
The Braves loaded the bases with one out, thanks to a Mauricio Dubón single, an Austin Riley HBP, and a scorcher to second from Mike Yasterzemski that Chicago had trouble converting into an out - Chase Meidroth laid out to knock it down, but he couldn’t get the ball out of his glove in time to either flip to second or throw to first for an out.
But from there, pain. Jorge Mateo, starting at shortstop with Dubón moonlighting as an outfielder for at least the next two weeks, struck out on three straight pitches, the last of which he got rung up on the check swing for a slider in the dirt. Austin Wynns then ripped a line drive to right, one with an expected batting average of .610, but prospect Braden Montgomery ran it down to erase the threat.
This sequence would somewhat repeat throughout the contest: first and third with two outs in the 3rd? Hard-hit flyout to right to end the inning. Runner on second in the 4th? Line drive for an out, which happened again with a runner on first to end the 5th, as well.
Today’s Player of the Game
Chris Sale, I guess?
Atlanta’s veteran ace covered 5.2 innings, being pulled with a runner on first and two outs in the sixth. Didier Fuentes, who came on to relieve Sale, completely missed that Jacob Gonzalez broke early on a steal attempt and hung himself out to dry, but catcher Austin Wynns threw behind the runner for the pickoff to end the inning.
Sale sat 97.6 with his four-seam fastball today, a full 1.9 mph over his season high, and touched 99.4 with the heater today. It’s the continuation of a recent trend that’s seen him ramp up the velocity early in the start before going back to it in his final inning when he ‘empties the tank’.
The extra velo worked for the heater, too - Sale finished with 9 whiffs on 22 swings against the four-seamer. But the extra velo did not help the slider, which got just four whiffs on 21 swings. Is that due to him facing more righties than usual tonight, or is the slider either in suboptimal locations or moving less at its higher velocity? It normally averages 79.2 mph but was at 81.2 tonight.
I’m not entirely sure, but even a merely ‘good’ Chris Sale was able to win Player of the Game on a night where no one else really earned the award.
What You’ll Be Talking About
Atlanta’s inability to reliably give Chris Sale run support.
It was another quiet night for the Braves offense, which scored only one run. Of the team’s seven hits, only one was for extra bases, a Jorge Mateo double. They went 1-for-6 with runners in scoring position (making them 2-16 in the series) and stranded ten batters on base.
In Sale’s five losses this season, the team has scored a combined six runs. His run support entering this game was officially 5.71 runs, but that counts two outings with nine offensive runs, plus 10 & 13-run games. We’re on the verge of making the Jacob deGrom jokes on this one.
To be fair, Atlanta’s batted ball profile was one that could have put up more runs than it did - Braves batters had 15 hard-hit balls and 10 of them were outs, including three line drive outs from catcher Austin Wynns and lineouts from Michael Harris II and Dom Smith, all of which had expected batting averages well north of .500.
That being said, Braves hitters absolutely did not help themselves tonight. In the ninth inning alone, after pinch hitter Eli White walked with one out to represent the tying run, both Harris and Ozzie Albies popped out to the infield after getting jammed on inside fastballs.
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?
The Braves are looking to not get swept on Thursday evening, with Martín Pérez (4-3, 3.02) getting the ball at 7:40 PM ET. The White Sox have yet to officially announce a starter.