Today's Three Things: Braves Cruise to Easy Win, Taking the Series
The Atlanta Braves still have not lost a series on the season after taking the finale versus the Angels
The Atlanta Braves took down the Los Angeles Angels 8-2 in Angels Stadium on Wednesday evening.
Here is Today’s Three Things from the contest.
The Turning Point
The top of the third inning.
With the game tied at two, the top of Atlanta’s order did what they had to do to put this one away. After a leadoff strikeout, Drake Baldwin wore a sinker in the side to give the Braves a baserunner, with Matt Olson bringing him in via a two-out homer to right-center. Austin Riley then got an 2-1 elevated fastball and shot it the other way to right field, the second opposite-field hit of the series for him, and ended up on double after (successfully) testing Jorge Soler’s arm. Mauricio Dubón then drove him in with a hotshot to short that Zach Neto, rushing his throw to catch the speedy Dubón, airmailed over first base.
Today’s Player of the Game
The righty almost didn’t make it out of the 2nd inning, letting a leadoff homer to Jorge Soler shake him enough to allow a single and three walks in the inning, with two runs eventually coming in to score. But with the bases loaded and no outs, he buckled down and got a strikeout, a flyout, and a groundball to end the inning.
That was the start of a stretch of fifteen outs in sixteen batters for Holmes, who essentially went on cruise control, save for a leadoff single in the fourth. He was finally lifted after a two-out single and a double in the 7th, both on pitches off the plate down and away. Joel Payamps stranded them both with a strikeout of Mike Trout.
For the outing, Holmes finished with two earned runs allowed on five hits and three walks, striking out six. He was very heavy four-seam/slider today, throwing them a combined 84% of the time and getting 12 of his 13 whiffs on the two pitches.
What You’ll Be Talking About
The well-rounded effort in all phases today.
The Braves stole two bags today, one by Austin Riley (off of a lefty) and the other by Michael Harris. In all, the baserunning was exceptional tonight, with some first-to-thirds and runners correctly taking extra bases.
The defense was fundamentally solid, without any of the mental or simple errors that plagued them the first two games of the series.
And on offense, every single member of the starting nine got on base in this one, seven of them via hit, with Jonah Heim delivering a two-out RBI and five of the team’s eight hits being for extra bases.
With the caveat of the skill level of the opponent - the Angels are now just 6-7 and lead baseball in strikeouts - this was a well-played game in all phases by the Braves.
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 win/loss.
What’s Next for the Braves?
The Braves, after thirteen straight games, have their first off day of the season tomorrow. They’ll be back in action at home this weekend, taking on the Cleveland Guardians for three before the Miami Marlins come to town. Here are the pitching matchups for the weekend:
Friday: Bryce Elder (1-1, 0.00) vs Slade Cecconi (0-1, 5.23)
Saturday: Martín Pérez (0-0, 3.86) vs LHP Parker Messick (1-0, 0.82)
Sunday: Chris Sale (2-1, 3.94) vs Tanner Bibee (0-1, 3.29)
I liked your report for the last game. I'm always rooting for the underdogs, like Grant Holmes, who has turned into an overdog since coming to Atlanta. A wonder what another pitch will do for a guy. And I agree with Tom Lamoureux: why waste Richie, et al, with innings in the minors if he's already "there"? Get rid of the "oldsters" and bring in the new wave. Also, did was Eli White sick or something yesterday? Playing Yaz against righties gives you (historically) .240, but against lefties.... And look what Eli did the night before.
Lindsay - Very good breakdown of Holmes’s pitching on the post-game podcast. I haven’t seen any stats to back this up, but is Holmes’ control better? He seems to be hitting his spots more and fewer balls are leaking into the hitters’ hot zones. (The Soler bomb notwithstanding). What are your thoughts on managing the workload for the pitchers in the minors. I saw Ritchie had an outstanding outing this week and went 7 innings. My thought was, if he’s got 120-130 innings in him this season, what’s he doing going 7 in the minors. Braves may need those innings.