Today's Three Things: Braves give Justin Verlander his first win of season with anemic offensive showing
The Atlanta Braves, once again, let a struggling starter look like a Cy Young candidate
The Atlanta Braves were no-hit through four innings en route to a 9-3 loss to the San Francisco Giants on Wednesday afternoon in Truist Park.
Here’s Today’s Three Things from the contest.
The Turning Point
The top of the 5th.
With both starting pitchers throwing shutouts to this point, the Giants finally capitalized on their opportunities to score with a crooked number inning.
Rafael Devers started the scoring with an improbable homerun - sitting in a 3-2 count, he swung at a slider that was less than a foot off the ground and not only made contact, but the 92.5 mph pulled flyball cleared the right field wall for a homer.
Per MLB researcher Sarah Langs, it’s the second-lowest pitch to be hit for a home run this season at 0.90 feet.
After shortstop Willy Adames wore a fastball, Matt Chapman followed with his own hard luck homer. He got a 2-1 fastball up and away on the black, but got enough contact on it to push it out to the opposite field for a two-run homer.
San Francisco would go on to score three more runs in each of the 6th inning (off of Dylan Dodd) and the 7th inning (off of Dane Dunning), pushing their lead to 9-0 before Atlanta finally got on the board.
Today’s Player of the Game
Give me Eli White.
Starting in right field in place of Ronald Acuña Jr., who is healthy but was given a rest day ahead of tomorrow’s off day, he had a good day at the plate. White went 2-3, picking up a leadoff single in the bottom of the 5th inning and promptly stealing second base, later advancing to third on a Justin Verlander wild pitch. He then singled to lead off the 7th, ultimately coming around to score Atlanta’s first run after a series of singles and Drake Baldwin’s ground rule RBI double.
What You’ll Be Talking About
Once again, the offense.
Look, Spencer Strider wasn’t great - he walked three and just couldn’t consistently locate his fastball in the zone - but he wasn’t why Atlanta lost.
Veteran starter Justin Verlander came into this game with a 0-8 record and a 4.99 ERA and then walked three Braves to load the bases in a 40-pitch first inning…and not only didn’t give up any runs in the 1st, he didn’t give up any runs at all.
Verlander held Atlanta hitless until White’s leadoff single in the 5th inning, needing just 48 pitches for the final four innings. He walked five, struck out just three, and yet, Atlanta had no answers.
It wasn’t the whiffs - Verlander got just five, on thirty-seven swings. It was the lack of quality contact - Atlanta put 12 balls in play (as opposed to 20 foul balls) and only three of them were hard-hit balls, leaving the bat at 95 mph or higher exit velocity.
All of Atlanta’s extra base hits, consisting of a grand total of two doubles, and all their runs came off of the San Francisco bullpen. I’m not saying the Braves are running out the clock and/or mailing it in, but it’d be hard to put up a worse performance than what we saw if they were.
It reminds me of the common Simpsons meme:
This isn’t the worst loss of the season; it’s just the worst loss of the season so far. It feels like more are coming, especially if the team sells in the next week and it’s very clear and obvious that there’s nothing left to play for down the stretch except for personal pride.
Also, Marcell Ozuna had an opportunity to pinch-hit in the 9th inning and struck out looking. With the team heading on the road for the stretch prior to the trade deadline, it’s possible that was his final at-bat in Truist Park, as trade rumors are already swirling.
Looking for more discussion about this game?
Here’s today’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?
Atlanta’s flying out for Texas tonight, taking their off day in Arlington before starting a Friday series against the Rangers. First pitch is scheduled for 8:05 PM ET as Joey Wentz (2-1, 5.71) takes on Nathan Eovaldi (7-3, 1.58).