Today's Three Things: Braves Drop Opener to Pirates

The Atlanta Braves gave up four runs early and another four runs in the 9th

The Atlanta Braves dropped game one of their season-ending series against the Pittsburgh Pirates 9-3 in Truist Park on Friday night.

Here’s Today’s Three Things from the contest.

The Turning Point

Joey Wentz struggled early, giving up a four-spot to the Pirates in the 2nd inning, but Atlanta had a chance to rally in the bottom of the third. Starting with the top of the order, three of the first four Braves hitters reached via walk, allowing for just one swing of the bat to gave Atlanta a 5-4 lead.

But Ha-Seong Kim, who struggled to an 0-4 night, struck out on four pitches, the final being a whiff on a Mitch Keller sweeper well off the plate. Michael Harris then mis-hit an outside sinker back to Keller, who made the play to first to escape the bases-loaded jam.

Atlanta would finish the game 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position and score only two more runs on the night.

Today’s Player of the Game

With all due respect to Ronald Acuña Jr’s three-hit day, we’re giving this one to Michael Harris.

Money Mike has had a nightmare season and nothing’s going to change that. But baseball’s a funny game, and even though most of his stats are career-worst marks (.248 average, .678 OPS), his leadoff homer in the 6th inning gave him the first 20/20 season of his career.

Getting to the mark of 20 home runs and 20 stolen bases was obviously on Harris’ mind this week; he stole four bags this week, including three in Monday’s win over Washington, while getting three of those home runs this week (two on Tuesday in the win).

Hopefully, the strong finish to the year (.298/.315/.535 with 14 homers and 8 SBs after the All-Star Break) helps Harris be comfortable in his new mechanics and start the 2026 season as the potential 30/30 bat that we all suspect he could be.

What You’ll Be Talking About

Joey Wentz no longer being a starting option.

The lefty went just four innings tonight, allowing four runs on eight hits and two walks. While he did strike out three, he also gave up a two-run homer and generally struggled to miss bats with his fastball (one whiff in sixteen swings and nine balls put into play.)

After a hot streak early, one where he allowed just three earned runs in his first 18 innings with Atlanta, Wentz not only came back to earth but sunk into the ground. In his last seven starts, he’s allowed 25 earned runs on 47 hits and 11 walks. Given that all that production happened in just 29.1 innings, it’s a 7.67 ERA and 1.977 WHIP during the seven-game span.

Some of the speculation from earlier in the season was that Wentz could be a candidate for the final rotation spot entering next season, but given how he’s struggled down the stretch, it really feels like his best and highest use is bulk reliever and occasional spot starter. He’s out of options, so if he doesn’t make the team out of spring training, Wentz would either need to be passed through waivers or traded, similar to how Ian Anderson was last year.

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 loss.

What’s Next for the Braves?

Spencer Strider (7-13, 4.45) is going to look to even up the series, but it’s a tall task: Young phenom Bubba Chandler (3-1, 4.56) and his 99 mph fastball take the mound for the Pirates. First pitch is scheduled for 7:15 PM ET.