Today's Three Things: Braves Lose Both Series Opener and Ronald Acuña Jr.

The Braves saw Ronald leave with left hamstring tightness, then lost their lead, and then got walked off in extra innings.

The Atlanta Braves lost their series opener to the Chicago White Sox, being walked off in the 10th inning by the score of 6-5 in Chicago’s Rate Field on Tuesday night.

Here is Today’s Three Things from the contest.

The Turning Point

There were so many swings in this game - I mean, look at the Win Probability Chart.

But technically, the turning point was the entire 10th inning. Atlanta had a runner with decent speed on second base in the form of Ozzie Albies to open the frame, and it didn’t take long for the Braves to get him in.

Mauricio Dubón, befitting his status as the best clutch-hitting player on the roster, showed bunt but then slashed a first-pitch four-seamer down the right field line. Ozzie had to wait to make sure it cleared the glove of Jacob Gonzalez at first, but scored ahead of the throw home (which allowed Dubón to advance to second).

The problem is, Atlanta’s offense stopped there. Dominic Smith moved Dubón over with a groundout to first, but the Braves attempted the contact play with Austin Riley up to bat and Dubón was easily thrown out at home on the slow roller to third. Mike Yastrzemski’s shallow flyout ended the top half of the inning with only one run on the board, never a good thing when you’re the road team.

In the bottom half, despite the Braves asking closer Raisel Iglesias to pitch a second inning, Chicago found a way. Iglesias punched out Gonzalez before Chase Meidroth’s grounder to short allowed ‘Manfred Man’ Andrew Benintendi to advance to 3rd.

And then Braden Montgomery came to the plate.

The rookie, who was making his debut tonight, took a first-pitch changeup and then swung at the second, sending the ball corkscrewing down the left field line and into the bullpen for a walkoff two-run homer. It was an improbable walkoff winner - just 98.6 mph off the bat, it had an expected batting average of only .470 and would have been a home run in just two ballparks: Houston Daikon Park, where it would land in the Crawford Boxes, and this one.

Today’s Player of the Game

Matt Olson.

Atlanta’s veteran first baseman hit a first-inning two-run homer and added a solo shot in the third inning. Olson then almost had a third home run in his next at-bat, with only a robbery from Tristan Peters keeping the slugger from his first career three-homer game.

104.4 mph off the bat feels like it should always be a homer, unless you hit it to the deepest part of the ballpark.

Not deterred, Olson tried again in the 4th, hitting one to right field, but it was caught on the warning track after Olson just missed getting the full barrel on it.

After a brief slump in mid-May, Olson’s back to producing in the last two weeks with a .283/.333/.583 line and five homers across his last 15 games.

What You’ll Be Talking About, Part 1

Ronald Acuña Jr’s injury.

The former MVP left the game in the fourth inning after pulling up in his final few steps of attempting to beat out an infield grounder. He had a noticeable limp and was attempting to keep weight off of his left leg, immediately leaving the field of play without even stopping to be looked at by the training staff.

You can see the frustration Acuña has as he walks off the field.

The Braves announced that he had been removed with “left hamstring tightness”, a scary initial diagnosis when you consider this is the same hamstring that sent him to the injured list earlier this season.

After the game, Jesus Cańo of The Athletic talked to Ronald about the injury, with the outfielder admitting that this injury wasn’t as bad as last time but expressing frustration about the constant injuries. “I'm disappointed. I don't know how many injuries we need to pass in this sport, but it's part of the game.”

Manager Walt Weiss confirmed that Acuña is not automatically being placed on the injured list but rather will get imaging tomorrow and be further evaluated at that time, terming this a ‘day-to-day’ injury for now.

What You’ll Be Talking About 2: Electric Boogaloo

Atlanta’s pitching decisions tonight.

Sunday’s sweep-clinching win over the Pittsburgh Pirates got a bit hairy due to manager Walt Weiss giving Robert Suarez some extended time off - with how heavily the Braves have ridden their high-leverage arms, Weiss wanted to rest them a bit. Suarez received three days off, counting the off day, after pitching in three games over four days. Tonight was a similar situation, with Weiss confirming after the game that both Dylan Lee and Didier Fuentes, who also made three appearances over four days, were unavailable tonight for extended rest.

So after Grant Holmes was pulled with the bases loaded and two outs in the fourth, with Dylan Dodd getting the final out and coming back out for a scoreless fifth, Weiss had to get creative.

Facing the bottom half of Chicago’s lineup, Weiss went to veteran Carlos Carrasco. Cookie hadn’t pitched in the majors since being added back on June 2nd, so Weiss decided to gamble. Carrasco got through the bottom of the order with only two singles allowed, being bailed out of a run scoring thanks to a great throw from Eli White in right field.

So Weiss doubled down and sent Carrasco back out for the seventh.

It didn’t go as well.

With the top of the order up, Carrasco surrendered a walk and two consecutive singles, scoring the game-tying run. Cookie ended up getting out of it, inducing a ground ball double play and then a lineout to end the frame, but not until he had picked up a blown save.

Folks will tell you that this loss is on Carrasco. They’re wrong.

Some will go a bit deeper and put the blame on Holmes, for continuing to change his sequencing for the second time through the order and needing to be pulled early.

But the truth is that it was, once again, the offense.

What You’ll Be Talking About 3: Revenge of the RISP

Atlanta’s offense picked up twelve hits tonight, including two homers and a double, but finished with just five runs.

Part of it was some bad BABIP luck on well-struck batted balls that didn’t fall for hits, including Olson’s near homer (xBA of .800), a Michael Harris II 111.8 mph lineout (xBA of .750), and three total outs on two hard-hit balls from Dominic Smith (103.6 mph) and Eli White (104.1 mph)

But a lot of it was either self-imposed errors or a lack of clutch hitting.

Austin Riley was picked off in the 8th inning, gifting the struggling Seranthony Domínguez an out when he was unable to throw a strike. (Of his eleven pitches in the inning, exactly TWO were in the strike zone).

Another easy out for Dominguez came from Mike Yastrzemski, when he chased a 2-0 fastball that was below the zone for a lazy flyball out.

All told, the Braves went 1-for-11 with runners in scoring position, with their only hit in those situations coming in extras by Dubón. They stranded ten runners on base, just refusing to cash in their opportunities. They got runners on 1st and 2nd in the first inning after Olson’s homer and not only didn’t bring either of them in, failed to even advance them up 90 feet. Runners on 1st and 2nd in the 3rd, after a run already came in on a fielder’s choice? Strikeout looking to end the inning. Runners on first and third, one out in the 6th? An out in a rundown after Mike Yastrzemski broke for the plate on hard contact to first and was hung out to dry. Runners on 1st and 2nd with no outs in the 7th? Pop fly, double play, and the inning’s over.

Sure, Cookie gave up a run in the seventh and Walt Weiss took a lot of the blame for running him back out there for a 2nd inning. But if the offense can get one more hit in these leverage situations, the Braves still have a narrow lead when they decide to go to the leverage arms in Robert Suarez for the 8th and Raisel Iglesias for the 9th.

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 even up the series tomorrow night at 7:40 PM. Chris Sale (8-4, 2.23 ERA) gets the ball for Atlanta, while Chicago has yet to announce their rotation plans for game two of the series.