Today's Three Things: Braves Have A Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day of Baseball
The Atlanta Braves struggled to score or keep runs off the board across 16 innings of baseball on Wednesday
The Atlanta Braves dropped both the resumption of Tuesday’s game one and the regularly scheduled game two against the San Francisco Giants in Truist Park on Wednesday night. The series loss is their third consecutive, and second in a row against a team with a winning percentage below .500.
Here is Today’s Three Things from the contest.
The Turning Point
In the nightcap, it was the final innings. For the top of the ninth, Atlanta stuck with longman Carlos Carrasco for a fourth frame. ‘Cookie’ had allowed only two hits and no runs, providing length after the bullpen covered the final seven innings of game one. But things finally unraveled for Carrasco in the 9th, with the righthander allowing two runs on two hits, a HBP, and a sac bunt.
The Braves worked on getting some of the back in the home half of the 9th, with 27th man Jair Camargo doubling and being driven in by Mauricio Dubón’s homer to left-center. The third run for the Braves came after back-to-back singles from Drake Baldwin and Matt Olson, followed by a wild pitch that scored Baldwin from 3rd. Unfortunately, though, the Braves couldn’t complete the drill, with Ozzie Albies grounding out and Austin Riley striking out to end the game.
There are folks blaming Walt Weiss for the loss, citing Carrasco's remaining in the game for the final inning as proof that Atlanta “punted” the game. And on the surface, I see why they think that - he gave up two runs, and Atlanta’s ninth-inning rally ended two runs short. But remember, judging a decision shouldn’t be done with the benefit of hindsight, only with what you knew at the time.
Heading into the 9th inning, Atlanta’s offense had scored two runs all day, both coming in the 6th inning of game two. They finished the resumption of game one with only four hits, one double and three singles, and had nothing but scattered singles across the first eight innings of game two.
There was no reason for Walt Weiss to rationally think that he needed to insert a leverage reliever for the 9th, because there was no indication for the offense that they had a rally in them. Never mind that the lineup was a bit different from the one that he started with, with defensive substitutions and pinch-hitters meaning that he had Rowdy Tellez at first base, Matt Olson in right field (for the first time since 2017), was on his third shortstop of the game, and had 27th man and 3rd catcher Jair Camargo behind the plate.
It feels anathema to say that the offense lost you a game in which you scored five runs on twelve hits, but any signs of life from the offense outside of game two’s sixth inning (two runs on three singles and a sac fly) and Atlanta likely goes with a better pitcher for the 9th, one who could have kept it closer.
Today’s Player of the Game
We’re giving it to Mauricio Dubón.
Dubi hit a big two-run home run in the 9th inning of game two, a needed bit of good fortune for him, given that he had flown out to the warning track twice in this game. He also played both centerfield and shortstop tonight, kicking into the dirt for the 9th inning after the Braves pinch-hit Rowdy Tellez for Ha-Seong Kim with two outs and two on in the 9th inning.
Austin Riley had three hits and an RBI scored tonight, as well as several hard-hit balls and a hit in the resumption of game one, so he was a candidate here. I couldn’t pull the trigger, however, after how poor his final at-bat of the game went. Representing the tying run, Riley fouled off a fastball in the zone before flailing at two sweepers off the plate to strike out and end the game. As he discussed recently, it’s been “one good day and then take two steps back”, and that last at-bat unwound much of the goodwill from his earlier performance.
What You’ll Be Talking About
The offense was not great today in any regard, but the roster construction isn’t exactly helping things. Heading into tonight’s game two, the additional 27th man meant that Atlanta’s bench consisted of two designated hitters who can cover first base, three catchers, a struggling Ha-Seong Kim, and an outfielder somewhere between unavailable and explicitly injured in Michael Harris II.
The flexibility has been used and is running out.
The Braves have been trying to get Ha-Seong Kim up to speed after he missed all of spring training and the first few months of the season for surgery on his finger. It hasn’t happened - the shortstop has one hit in his last fourteen at-bats, which cover a span of over two weeks. He’s 4-40 in the last month, with more than double the strikeouts (11) than walks (5).
Despite Mauricio Dubón being needed in the outfield to both cover for the injured list placement of Ronald Acuña Jr. and the unavailability of Michael Harris II, Kim should still be relegated to the bench in favor of Jorge Mateo getting regular starts at shortstop. The time to get Kim going at the plate has passed; he’s had 66 plate appearances this season and has more strikeouts (16) than walks and hits combined (7+5).
I don’t know what the breaking point for Atlanta is on designating him for assignment or placing him on waivers - it’s possible they want to wait for Harris to return to the lineup, or they may carry him all year - but devoting any more playing time than they already have to him would be a bad decision. This lineup is struggling too greatly to devote more at-bats to a struggling shortstop. That sort of thing works when you’re 23 games over .500 and your division lead is larger than 10 games. Right now it’s only 6.5 games over Philadelphia, which is about to start a series against the last-place Mets, while you are welcoming the first-place Brewers to town this weekend.
What I Want To Talk About
JR Ritchie’s game didn’t go too well, and I’m not sure how I feel about it. The righthander allowed five runs on five hits (three homers), walking three and striking out four.
One of my biggest complaints about Ritchie has been his inability to miss enough bats; he entered this start with a 22.2% whiff rate, 28th percentile in baseball. Tonight? Eight whiffs in 36 swings, a whiff rate of…22%.
That sort of thing can work if you’re getting groundball outs, minimizing hard contact, and not allowing extra baserunners via walk. Ritchie isn’t currently doing any of those things. He had more flyball outs (5) than groundball outs (4) tonight, he walked three batters, and gave up three home runs on poorly located pitches in the zone.
Here’s the problem: There’s no other option right now.
The Braves are without Spencer Strider, who moved to the 60-day injured list today, and are still waiting for Hurston Waldrep to finish building up in the minors. AJ Smith-Shawver has yet to start a rehab assignment from last season’s UCL repair, while Spencer Schwellenbach is still in the early stages of a throwing progression after his own elbow cleanup.
Ritchie’s going to get at least two more starts, at this rate, to show that he belongs. And he’s trying to force it - the youngster averaged 95 mph and touched 97.8 on his fastballs in the first inning, hoping to make up for his movement profile with additional velo. It wasn’t enough, manifesting more as overthrowing (and it likely led to his velo drop in his final inning), but it’s a sign that he’s aware of the need to be better at avoiding bats in the strike zone.
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?
Assuming the weather holds out, which is in no way guaranteed, the Braves will attempt to stave off a series sweep tomorrow evening. Veteran lefty Martín Pérez (5-3, 2.90) gets the ball opposite Landen Roupp (5-7, 4.24) at 7:15 PM ET.