The Atlanta Braves dropped the season finale to Miami 5-3 in loanDepot park on Sunday afternoon, finishing the regular season 94-68.
Here is Today’s Three Things from the contest.
The Turning Point
The bottom of the 6th.
JR Ritchie was working on a good start, having allowed just one run through five innings thanks to a Miami lineup that was, for some reason, righty-heavy. The sinker was the star, with Ritchie throwing it a season-high 40%.
But when you pitch to contact versus missing bats, sometimes it doesn’t work, as we saw today.
Ritchie gave up three runs in the 6th inning before finally being lifted for AJ Smith-Shawver, despite almost every batted ball being on the ground. Heriberto Hernández led off with a hard-hit liner back up the middle, but after that, Ritchie rebounded for two quick groundball outs from Augstín Ramírez and Graham Pauley.
And then the wheels fell off: Esteury Ruiz slapped a grounder back up the middle. Devyuson De Los Santos did the same, with Jared Serna scoring both men on a ground ball through the left side.
Three ground balls, but all in the exact spot to beat a defender and find open grass.
Smith-Shawver came in and got the inning-ending strikeout of #9 hitter Biran Navarreto, but Ritchie’s budding quality start turned into a four-run outing in the span of four pitches.
Today’s Player of the Game
We’re giving it to Mauricio Dubón - the utilityman was one of the few regulars who was both in the starting lineup and played the entire game, with Ozzie Albies and Matt Olson being lifted after the 3rd and 4th inning, respectively.
Dubón parlayed the full game of playing time into his career-best 12th homer of the season, taking starter Janson Junk deep with two outs in the 3rd, and then driving in another as part of a two-run 7th inning for the Braves.
And as Dubón does, he played some infield, too, taking over at third base after Riley was lifted in the 8th inning. His defensive versatility has been one of the reasons Atlanta was able to weather so many outfield and infield injuries to win 94 games, with Dubón getting starts at five different defensive positions this season, including the two toughest in shortstop (62 games) and center field (16 games).
What You’ll Be Talking About
The season that was for Atlanta.
Despite the preseason pitching injuries, with Atlanta losing three starters during spring training (Spencer Schwellenbach, Hurston Waldrep, and Joey Wentz) and seeing Spencer Strider, Reynaldo López, and Bryce Elder all go down during the season with injuries, the Braves finish the regular season with MLB’s 6th-best rotation ERA at 3.76.
On the other hand, the offense that we all expected would be this team’s strength has been anything but for most of the season. They finished eighth in runs for the season with 742, powered by a 7th-place finish in homers. Their batting average of .246 is 10th-best, and Atlanta’s .718 OPS is 16th in the league.
But that OPS kinda gives up the game, doesn’t it? The Braves were dreadful at drawing walks this year, with MLB’s third-worst on-base percentage at .309, and they tied for 21st in offensive strikeouts. “Three true outcomes” was more so “two true outcomes”, as the walks weren’t a big part of what they did this season.
And so, as they head towards a Tuesday matchup with divisional rival Philadelphia, Atlanta’s offense needs to find the form that they flashed early in 2026 but that eluded them after May. More on that tomorrow.
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?
Atlanta’s back in action in the Wild Card on Tuesday, with both of the first two games against Philadelphia being scheduled for 2:15 PM ET. Which makes total sense — when you can put two big markets full of stars into a midday window so that you can feature MLB’s first losing-record division winner in Houston at a coveted 5 PM ET time slot, you gotta do it.
Lindsay - Thank You for the outstanding coverage this season! I very much appreciate the effort, insight and joy you to bring to Braves baseball! You’re in my Braves commentators HoF along with Milo Hamilton and Skip Carey.
"when you can put two big markets full of stars into a midday window so that you can feature MLB’s first losing-record division winner in Houston at a coveted 5 PM ET time slot, you gotta do it." HAHA!! Lindsay, you're the king of Facetious!!!