Today's Three Things: Braves Learn That Baseball's a Game of Inches, Too
The Atlanta Braves couldn't muster much offense, but still came within inches of completing their rally on Saturday night.
The Atlanta Braves mustered a 9th inning rally but fell just short, losing game two 3-2 to the Boston Red Sox on Saturday night in Truist Park.
Here is Today’s Three Things from the contest.
The Turning Point
Let’s talk about the top of the 8th.
With Atlanta’s pen running on the fumes of the fumes they pitched on Friday night, manager Walt Weiss made the bold decision to send Bryce Elder back out for a fourth time through the order.
It started off okay, too - Elder got a pop out of Jarren Duran and a groundout from Mickey Gasper. But he gave up a double to Wilyer Abreu on a well-placed sinker on the black down and away, upping the stakes for his fourth encounter with first baseman Willson Contreras.
The same Contreras who had a 113 mph single off of him in the 6th inning.
Contreras quickly got down 1-2, but went well below the zone to golf a slider into the left-center seats, staking Boston to a 3-2 lead.
It wasn’t a bad pitch, but it was a missed location - Sandy León was asking for that both down and away, but Elder left it over the plate and reachable for Contreras to go down and get. Ultimately a good piece of hitting, and not something I’m blaming Elder for.
It also should never have happened. After a normal week of games, Elder’s not even in there to face the top of the order a fourth time, but this week’s been anything but normal. Robert Suarez has thrown 42 pitches in the last three days, while both Dylan Lee and Raisel Iglesias have pitched three of the last four days.
Several of the depth options have also run up their pitch counts while covering for short starts from Grant Holmes and JR Ritchie, as well as a quick-ish hook on Spencer Strider on Friday night. Due to so many pitchers being down, Walt Weiss decided that Elder on a fourth time through was better than lefty groundballer Aaron Bummer.
It’s the piper coming for Atlanta after manager Walt Weiss’s aggressive bullpen usage of this week. And the piper is demanding more payment, too - since Martín Pérez relieved Elder for the 9th inning, Weiss confirmed that he will not start on Monday night in Miami as planned.
To both lose the game AND lose Monday night’s starter is frustrating. One has to ask: Why not just let Pérez pitch two innings in that case, and avoid Elder facing the lineup a fourth time completely?
Today’s Player of the Game
We’re giving it to Bryce Elder. His final line was still a quality start, with three runs allowed on seven hits with no walks, although only three strikeouts. And that lack of punchouts almost seemed intentional, like Elder understood the most valuable thing he could provide was length. The righty ramped back up his sinker usage, going from it being his 3rd-most used pitch this season at 23% all the way up to 37%, mostly at the expense of his slider. Elder’s 14 groundouts tie his career high, done four times, most recently on April 25th against Philly.
Elder’s eight innings was his longest start since last June, that one with one run allowed on three hits against San Francisco, striking out twelve with no walks. Elder’s ERA went up after this one, to a whopping 2.01.
What You’ll Be Talking About
Atlanta’s offense has been lacking in production recently. The Braves have scored just fifteen runs this week, going 3-2 and being shut out once. Atlanta finished with just four hits tonight, a homer and a single from Drake Baldwin and two doubles from José Azócar. The only walk they drew prior to the 9th was Baldwin’s as well, making him and Azócar the team’s only baserunners prior to the final frame.
And when you’re in the depths of an offensive slump, a few inches here and there can decide a game. Atlanta’s 9th inning was a microcosm of “what if everything was just off by an inch or two?”
After Ozzie Albies swung at a terrible pitch down and away, popping out to open the inning, Matt Olson ripped a fastball at 105.5 back up the middle…but into the glove of Andrew Monasterio for the second out.
After Austin Riley reached on a throwing error to extend the game (and was promptly replaced by pinch-runner Jorge Mateo), Mauricio Dubón and Michael Harris II walked on eight straight pitches to load the bases.
Ha-Seong Kim, looking for his first clutch moment of 2026, ripped a 0-2 sinker back up the middle at 103.9 mph, heading straight back to Chapman.
And again, the inches.
One more inch to the side and it likely goes through Chapman, probably for an out. Instead, it was off his leg and rolled towards first…but an inch or two short of buying Kim that extra split-second to beat Chapman’s scrambled underhand throw to first.
Honestly, it’s a heck of a recovery for Chapman, to be able to locate the ball and make the play despite taking 104 off the leg. And Kim slid into first, which was a mistake, but he’s likely still out even if he runs through the bag without a few extra inches of roll on that ball.
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?
The Braves are looking to win the series in Sunday afternoon’s finale. Grant Holmes (2-1, 4.35) gets the ball for Atlanta, while Boston announced righty Brayan Bello (2-4, 6.46) after the game. First pitch is scheduled for 1:35 PM ET.