The Atlanta Braves took down the Houston Astros 6-2 in Daikon Park on Friday night to officially secure a postseason berth.
Here is Today’s Three Things from the contest.
The Turning Point
The bottom of the 8th inning.
Atlanta was up 4-1 after a pair of two-run homers, one coming from Michael Harris II in the 4th and another from Ronald Acuña Jr. in the 7th. But Houston, in a battle for the AL West, was determined to fight this one out.
With Didier Fuentes on the mound for a second inning of work - more on that in a moment - veteran LaMonte Wade Jr. led off the inning with an opposite-field single to left. But Fuentes battled back, striking out pinch-hitter Yanier Diaz and getting a flyout from shortstop Jeremy Peña.
And then presumptive AL Most Valuable Player Yordan Alvarez came to the plate. Whether it was a product of fatigue or just a business decision, Fuentes threw him four straight balls for the walk.
Which meant that pulled-fly-ball merchant Isaac Paredes was up, representing the tying run…if he could get a batted ball into the waiting Crawford Boxes down the left field line.
He could not. He did single to left, though, with Wade scoring from second to bring the Astros within two runs, 4-2.
Which means that likely Hall of Famer Jose Altuve was now up as the go-ahead run. But Fuentes got him to make suboptimal contact on the first pitch of the at-bat, Fuentes’ 40th of the outing, and the second baseman flared a ball into shallow right field, with Ronald Acuña Jr. making a spectacular running catch to end the inning and keep a run off the board.
It was an odd decision to use Fuentes for two innings - Dylan Lee was warming up, and Dylan Dodd would start throwing in the top of the 9th, despite neither reliever ever being inserted into the game. Four of Fuentes’ seven outings in the month of September have been for more than an inning, and this 40-pitch outing was his highest pitch count since he moved from a bulk relief role earlier in the season to his current leverage role.
Does Atlanta not trust any of the other relievers to take the inning after Fuentes? And if a lack of trust in the other options is the driving factor behind their usage of Fuentes for multiple innings almost every time out, do they not feel that having the flamethrowing righty twice in a weekend would be a better use of his reliability than burning him for the whole weekend in game one?
It’s just really interesting and atypical usage that likely has more to it than we’re aware.
Today’s Player of the Game
With 57% of the vote on the Postcast, tonight’s honor went to starter Tyler Mahle. He continued his trend of excellence with Atlanta, allowing just one run on three hits and a walk over his six innings. His ERA with Atlanta is now down to a stellar 1.28 with Atlanta, easily the best of any traded starter at the deadline.
What impressed me was how Mahle adjusted to what the Astros were giving him. Against a lineup that was actively trying to lift the ball, he didn’t try and fight to keep it down - he just refused to allow solid contact. He recorded five flyouts and only two groundouts, but also surrendered an average exit velocity of just 83.6 mph. He later started dropping the four-seamer for called strikes in the zone, finishing with six strikeouts on just 11 whiffs but a whopping 18 called strikes, a 30% CSW.
It was yet another impressive performance from a maligned trade deadline acquisition who has become practically chiseled in stone as the team’s #2 behind ace Chris Sale.
What You’ll Be Talking About
The offense, both good and bad.
The top of the order came to work today, with the first five hitters going 11-for-24 with three two-run homers (Harris, Acuña, and Matt Olson in the 9th) and two additional doubles, one each from Drake Baldwin and Mauricio Dubón. The quartet combined to score all six of Atlanta’s runs and had just four strikeouts to one walk on the evening.
That’s absolutely the kind of performance that can win you a game in the postseason.
But the Braves need to be grateful that the top of the order did so well, because the bottom did not. The last four hitters in the order went 0-15 with one walk, striking out six times and stranding different four runners in scoring position with two outs.
Austin Riley was the most egregious here, going 0-4 with three strikeouts and somehow doing it on just 15 pitches. His 8th inning strikeout was a microcosm of everything that’s gone wrong for the Braves in the last 30 days, as we discussed this morning:
Old friend Enyel De Los Santos used a fastball to establish strike one, moved his stuff out of the zone, and let Riley create the out in a futile attempt to protect against pitches that were never going to finish in the strike zone.
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 shrink their magic number of three for the NL East tomorrow night at 7:10 PM ET, with Grant Holmes (9-5, 3.49) taking on Hayden Wesneski (5-2, 3.70).
The bottom 3 of the order had 5 strikeouts and never got the ball out of the infield. Assuming these guys come up 4 times in a game, you've got a guarantee of zero production. And don't give me that "well, it can't get any worse" because even if someone got on by accident, the next one would hit into a double play.
Anyway, the net result is that the Braves CANNOT COMPETE when 3 straight batters are three straight outs 4 times/game. We're giving playoff caliber teams 4 innings with a guarantee of zero, nill, nothing, nada offensive production. When you add in that Riley can't tag anyone out at third and Yastremski is a defensive liability, this is a GLARING weakness. One they won't overcome in 2 weeks.
Why hasn’t Dubon been signed to a new contract already. In my mind he could well be the MVP of the team this year. Also, why hasn’t Mahle been extended or signed. Performances like this will drive his value up so much AA won’t want to pay the price.