The Atlanta Braves used pitching and defense to take down the Milwaukee Brewers 4-2 in Williamsport’s Historic Bowman Field on Sunday night.
Here is Today’s Three Things from the contest.
The Turning Point
The bottom of the ninth inning.
Atlanta was sending Raisel Iglesias out for a second inning of work, having called on their closer for a single out to finish the 8th. The up/down seemed to impact Iggy in the 9th, as he wasn’t as sharp as usual and quickly got himself into a jam. Jackson Chourio singled on a 2-2 center-cut changeup, and then Brice Turang reached via a non-competitive four-pitch walk.
Iglesias then gave up a deep fly ball to former Brave William Contreras, incredibly loud on the ESPN broadcast but ‘only’ 380 feet to the right-center wall, where it was snagged by Michael Harris II for the first out of the inning.
And then with runners on the corners, Iggy clutched up and got himself out of the jam. Murphy called for a slider down and in on a lefty hitter (!) and all Jake Bauers could do was weakly punch it back up the middle. Iglesias snagged it, whirled for a short-hop throw to second base, where Mauricio Dubón made a great pick and then made his own short-hop throw to Matt Olson at first for a game-ending double play.
The alternate angle, shown by ESPN while they were waiting for the results of a desperation challenge by Milwaukee of the out at second base (you can’t take them home with you, so why not?), showed the great picks by both Dubón and Olson on the play.
Today’s Player of the Game
The people gave it to Tyler Mahle on the postcast, coming in at just under 50% of the vote.
Mahle continued the progress he’s made since being traded to Atlanta, finishing five innings with one run allowed and striking out four. His ERA with the Braves is now just 1.52, with Braves broadcaster CJ Nitkowski tweeting a graphic about how Mahle’s outpaced all of the starting pitchers traded at this year’s deadline with their new teams.
Today’s big revelation was that the fastball was able to carry the profile, with Mahle’s nine total whiffs coming more from the heater (six) than either the splitter (two) or cutter (one). He was able to sit 94 and touch 96 mph on the fastball, carrying his improved velocity all the way through the 94-pitch outing by averaging 93.8 in the final inning.
Walt Weiss was interviewed on the broadcast, discussing how Mahle and catcher Sean Murphy have very quickly gelled together and are working well at adjusting Mahle’s game plans from start to start.
He did get into a bit of trouble that led to him being pulled before recording an out in the sixth, giving up a single and a fielder’s choice that put two on. Didier Fuentes, once again, came in and cleaned up the mess, showcasing a new sinker to do it.
Today’s Player of the Game - Honorable Mention
I make the Player of the Game poll for the Postcast’s YouTube live chat on the fly during the 9th inning of a win, grabbing the notable stat lines that end up making the background and listing the top four on the poll.
As Jake pointed out in the show, I whiffed on not including the defense as a whole.
Despite Matt Olson getting tagged with an error when Andrew Vaughn ran way onto the grass while heading to second base to interfere with a potential double play, the Braves still turned three different bang-bang double plays today. Several outfielders had key catches, including an early diving catch on a sinking liner by Ronald Acuña Jr. and the aforementioned running catch at the wall on Contreras’ 9th-inning fly ball.
Atlanta’s ability to generate a ground ball seemingly on command tonight is partially what allowed them to hold an excellent situational offense like Milwaukee’s to just 2-for-12 with runners in scoring position, stranding 11 on base. In a close matchup against another playoff team, those little things matter.
What You’ll Be Talking About
On the whole, Atlanta’s offense wasn’t able to do enough of those little things, and while they managed to win in spite of that tonight, it’s a warning sign for October.
Ronald Acuña Jr. was thrown out trying to score from second base on an Ozzie Albies single to left. He committed to going home early, having his head down as he rounded third and missing the late stop sign from coach Tommy Watkins. When he finally realized he was being held, he smashed on the brakes (always nerve-wracking when both ACL’s are surgically repaired and one of them was torn while changing direction on the basepaths) and tried to get back to third base, with catcher William Contreras gunning him down.
Sean Murphy, who had a two-out RBI single in the 4th inning, missed a similar opportunity in the 2nd inning, popping out with a runner on third and only one out. Autin Riley struck out in that exact same runner-on-third situation before Murphy’s 4th inning single. Matt Olson grounded into two separate double plays in this game, in each of his first two at-bats, while Walt Weiss left LHP-mashing-specialist Lane Thomas in the game to ground out against a righty to open the sixth.
As we discussed on the postcast, these three playoff-caliber series that Atlanta has lost - the Yankees, Diamondbacks, and Brewers - were a Rorschach Test because it allowed people to project whatever their own existing beliefs about the team onto the results.
An optimist could easily look at how the Braves were never blown out by any of those teams, holding all of them to relatively close margins and lower scores, and conclude that one random break in Atlanta’s favor - Chris Sale not getting called for a balk in New York, for instance, or normal BABIP luck against Arizona - would be the difference in a loss and a win.
A pessimist, however, could easily (and correctly) point to the fact that while the games were all close, they didn’t get the breaks or do the little things and, consequently, didn’t win them. Were this a three-game postseason series, Atlanta would already be eliminated and planning out their offseason vacations.
The real team is somewhere in the middle. Can they push the Overton Window closer towards the March/April ‘best team in baseball’ side by the end of September instead of its current lean towards June’s ‘worst team in baseball’ alignment?
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.
Final Little League Classic Thought
In case you forgot, the Little League Classic is a great reminder that at the end of the day, this is a game. The broadcast, as frustrating as it was for not always trying to show and tell us about the game that was being played, brought frequent reminders of the reason this game is placed in Williamsport, PA every season.
We saw Ozzie Albies acting like a “proud dad” when working with the Curaçao team, Mauricio Dubón taking time out of his pregame prep to sit and talk to a group of Latin American youths, Ronald Acuña Jr. being swarmed by the kids, and several Braves in attendance watching the youth games from earlier in the day.
And as always, the game finished with the handshake line, which I wouldn’t be bummed to see brought to the Major League level on a regular basis.
What’s Next for the Braves?
The Braves have a much-needed off-day on Monday before preparing their slings for a bout against Goliath, with the Los Angeles Dodgers coming into town for a three-game set. Both teams have announced their rotations for the matchup:
Tue: Bryce Elder (8-7, 3.92) vs an injury-returning Tyler Glasnow (3-0, 2.72)
Wed: AJ Smith-Shawver (0-0, 6.23) vs Roki Sasaki (5-5, 4.42)
Thu: Chris Sale (12-9, 2.20) vs Yoshinobu Yamamoto (12-7, 2.61)
I’m taking the optimistic path, but Braves have to clean up the details to win the close games against playoff caliber teams. Several areas need improvement, but baserunning should be at the top of the list.
Fuentes needs to be in the NL ROY the discussion.
Welcome back, Lindsay.
1. Why didn't the Braves challenge the play where Vaughn ran into the grass to block the throw from Olson - was that not reviewable?
2. Acuna's running head-down around 3b is something the Little Leaguers, I'm sure, found incredibly T-ball like.
3. I wonder what AA thinks when he watches Contreras consistently bash the ball and Murphy consistently look overmatched at the plate.