Today's Three Things: Braves bats help to secure series win against the Guardians
Braves score ten runs as they have now won eight on their last ten
The Atlanta Braves secured their third straight series as they beat the Cleveland Guardians 10-1 on Saturday night.
Here are Today’s Three Things.
The Turning Point
The turning point of today’s game, to me, is the top of the fourth. Cleveland had just scratched a run across on a Brayan Rocchio homer, cutting the lead to 3-1. It felt like Atlanta needed to respond and they did.
Nacho Alvarez started off the one-out rally with his second hit of the game, a single to right field. This was followed by a Carlos Santana throwing error on a Nick Allen ground ball. Jurickson Profar then walked to load the bases.
A spiked, 0-0 Slade Cecconi changeup then went to the backstop, scoring Nacho Alvarez and moving everyone up a base. Three pitches later, Matt Olson lifted a sac-fly to left field, scoring Nick Allen.
Profar was thrown out advancing, but not before Atlanta took a 5-1 lead. This felt like the answer Atlanta needed to put this one out of reach and secure a series win.
Today’s Player of the Game
Joey Wentz. The left-hander followed Hurston Waldrep’s six scoreless innings with six innings of one-run ball of his own.
Wentz limited the Guardians' bats to just three hits, with the one run coming on a middle-middle fastball to Brayan Rocchio, which he deposited into the seats. The other two hits came from Steven Kwan, which both ended up being harmless singles. He also struck out five Cleveland batters.
This outing builds on his start in Miami, where he went five and a third innings of one-run ball. His ERA with the Braves is down to 2.60 and opponents are hitting just .175 off of him.
Honorable Mention: As if we haven’t talked about him enough, Michael Harris II. Harris extended his multi-hit game streak to eight tying a Braves franchise record. He sits just five games back now of HOF’er Rogers Hornsby.
Harris delivered a 452-foot, three-run homer in the fifth inning (with a Curious George bat, may I add).
Just one inning later, he extended the streak with a double down the right field line, this time with a Scooby Doo bat. Harris continues to swing a scorching bat, showing ZERO signs of slowing down.
What You’ll Be Talking About
Nacho Alvarez. The rookie third basemen had three hits tonight, all singles. He got the scoring started at the top of the second with an RBI single to left field, scoring Drake Baldwin. This was his second straight night with an RBI. He added a single to right field in the fourth and another single to left in the fifth. He also scored a run and started a pretty impressive double play in the first inning to erase one of those Kwan singles.
It’s also worth mentioning that Nick Allen had three hits of his own tonight, two singles and a double with two RBI.
This begins to spark the conundrum of what the Braves will do not just now, but in the future. The immediate transaction will most likely be an option to Gwinnett for Alvarez when Riley is activated, potentially on Monday.
However, you have to think that this stint may have served as a “mini tryout” for Alvarez for the 2026 second base position, with Ozzie Albies’ future undecided. Prior to this most recent call-up, Nacho had gotten some starts at second base for the Stripers, so it’s clear that at a minimum, they want him to be comfortable at the position. The Braves could go multiple routes at second base next year, but the three-hit game for Alvarez surely can’t hurt. We will have more on this in a newsletter next week.
Looking for more discussion about this game?
Lindsay went live over on Locked On Sports Atlanta to break down the win with Locked On Braves host Jake Mastroianni.
What’s Next for the Braves?
The series will wrap up Sunday at 1:40 ET. Erick Fedde (4-12, 5.40 ERA) will take on Cleveland left-hander Logan Allen (7-9, 3.94 ERA) as Atlanta looks to complete the sweep.