Today's Three Things: Braves Get Walked Off in Extras For Series Split with Arizona
Atlanta's offense just couldn't seem to find the final run it needed to win
The Atlanta Braves got walked off in the 10th inning by the score of 6-5 to drop the series finale against the Arizona Diamondbacks in Phoenix’s Chase Field.
Here is Today’s Three Things from the contest.
The Turning Point
Let’s go to the 9th inning. Trailing 4-3, Atlanta had the bottom of the order up against leverage arm Jonathan Loáisiga, in for closer Paul Sewald. The Braves opened with three consecutive singles to get a run on the board and tie the game - Jorge Mateo and Ronald Acuña Jr. both singled to left, and then Drake Baldwin’s single to center scored Mateo from 2nd and advanced Acuña into scoring position.
But from there, it spiraled quickly on Atlanta. Matt Olson swung through a changeup at the bottom of the zone, Mike Yastrzemski flew out to left on a sinker on the black outside, with Ronald advancing to third on the play. But Michael Harris II was unable to do much with a 1-2 changeup well off the plate, weakly rolling over it and grounding out to second to end Atlanta’s best chance of taking their first lead of the game.
The top of the 10th was just as frustrating. With Harris as the designated runner at second, he advanced to third on an Ozzie Albies groundout but was stranded there on a Mauricio dubón hotshot to short and an Austin Riley flyout to center.
For the game, Atlanta’s offense finished just 2-for-14 with runners in scoring position, stranded 10 on base, and ended an inning with RISP four different times.
Today’s Player of the Game
Drake Baldwin, again.
Atlanta’s sophomore catcher went 3-5 in this one, hitting his 4th homer of the season in the first inning and adding two singles later, finishing with four runs batted in.
His full-season stats are, frankly, absurd. Heading into Sunday night’s game, Baldwin is tied for 2nd in the league with four homers and tied for the MLB lead with 12 runs batted in. His three strikeouts are tied with Luis Arraez for the fewest in baseball among hitters with 40 or more ABs, while he’s the only player in that cohort with more walks (4) than strikeouts.
What You’ll Be Talking About
The veteran lefty allowed four earned runs in his 5+ innings, allowing five hits, one walk, and one strikeout. But the way in which those hits happened was rather frustrating - the first four of his five hits were all on pitches outside of the zone, including a Ketel Marte double and an Ildemaro Vargas triple. The only hit that came on a ball even remotely close to the zone was the final one, when Pe2rez came back out for the 6th to face Corbin Carroll for the third time and the rightfielder laced an elevated inside sinker on the black back up the middle. That run would eventually come around to score against reliever Tyler Kinley.
For the game, Pérez finished with just four whiffs, although he picked up sixteen additional called strikes for a close-to-average 27% CSW. It wasn’t a great outing by any stretch of the imagination, but the Braves were still in it when he left. I’d imagine he’ll get to do it again next weekend at home against the Guardians.
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 are flying to Anaheim for three games against the Angels this week. Here are the pitching matchups for the series:
Monday: Chris Sale vs José Soriano
Tuesday: Reynaldo López vs LHP Yusei Kikuchi
Wednesday: Grant Holmes vs LHP Reid Detmers