Today's Three Things: Braves Make Fish Food of Marlins to Take Series
The Atlanta Braves teed off of Miami pitching en route to a series-clinching win
The Atlanta Braves took down the Miami Marlins 6-3 to win the series on Wednesday night in Truist Park.
Here is Today’s Three Things from the contest.
The Turning Point
Top of the 6th inning.
Bryce Elder came into the inning red hot - he had allowed just three hits and no runs to that point of the game, with the Braves leading 2-0. But Otto Lopez got a line drive single to center on an elevated slider to open the inning, and Elder had traffic to work through.
He responded by doing what he does best: getting groundballs.
Elder erased Lopez by getting catcher Liam Hicks to beat a slider into the ground for a force out at second base. He then erased Hicks with a sinker that righty Connor Norby pulled to third base, with Austin Riley throwing to second to get the lead runner. But with slugger Owen Caissie coming up, Walt Weiss didn’t want to risk it. He came out and got Elder, explaining after the game that he would have let Elder work out of the jam if not for the game situation. “I just felt like, if it wasn’t the tying run (at the plate), I wouldn’t have done it. Caissie’s a dangerous hitter.”
To Weiss’ point, in the previous at-bat by Caissie, he hit a 109.1 mph rocket to right-center that tied up Michael Harris II for a moment before he made the catch.
It wasn’t just the threat of Caissie in that spot that made Weiss pull Elder, however. He admitted that going to Lee at that exact time was also a bit of gamesmanship on his part, as well, trying to cement an advantage for his team in the late innings. “Also, I figured they’d pinch hit there, and then you’d get a right-handed run for the back of our bullpen.”
Weiss was right. Austin Slater came in to pinch-hit for Caissie and that same string of hitters came to bat in the 8th inning, although Osvaldo Bido couldn’t take advantage of the right-on-right matchup.
Back to the 6th, though: Lee walked Slater, although he then froze Heriberto Hernández with an elevated slider - I don’t think that was the target, but the miss worked in his favor because Hernández clearly was looking down in the zone - to get out of the jam and preserve Elder’s line.
Today’s Player of the Game
Bryce Elder.
Elder was one out shy of a quality start, allowing no runs and only four hits across 5.2 innings, striking out seven with two walks. The slider was the star of tonight’s show, with Elder picking up nine whiffs on it plus four additional called strikes. Across seventeen swings on the slider, just six were put into play, and only two were hard-hit - the only hard-hit balls allowed by the sinkerballer in the entire outing.
Elder was manipulating the velocity a bit on the slider tonight, picking up some horizontal sweep at times in exchange for a few ticks of velocity. Here’s his standard slider, thrown to Heriberto Hernández at 84.5 mph but with the standard gyroslider vertical break.
And here’s the other, laterally-moving version he broke out at times, punching out Otto Lopez at 83 mph.
Filthy.
I’d argue that this was one of the best versions of Elder that we’ve seen in Atlanta. While we’re in no way saying he is now a mid-rotation starter, it’s clear that he’s a different pitcher since both his biomechanical work over the offseason and his time spent with Greg Maddux.
What You’ll Be Talking About
Atlanta’s offense.
Eight of Atlanta’s nine starters had hits tonight as part of an 11-hit effort. Michael Harris II, the lone starter to not record an official hit, still reached via force out and stole a base, although Atlanta wasn’t able to bring him around to score.
Three Braves had home runs tonight, with Ozzie Albies (4) taking Marlins starter Chris Paddack deep and both Matt Olson (5) and Austin Riley (his first!) doing it off of the Miami bullpen. Those insurance runs were crucial, as Miami got three runs in the top of the 8th off of longman Osvaldo Bido to force a save situation and Atlanta’s use of the high-leverage relievers.
Amazingly, not only did every Braves starter have a hard-hit ball (95 mph or harder) tonight, all but two of them had multiple hard-hit balls. Atlanta finished with eighteen, including three each by Riley (2-4, HR, 2B) and Olson (1-4, 2R HR).
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 win/loss.
What’s Next for the Braves?
The Braves are heading to Philly tonight for an off day tomorrow before Friday’s opener versus the Phillies. Manager Walt Weiss confirmed after the game that Atlanta’s starter for game one will be Martín Pérez (0-1, 3.14), who is set to take on Taijuan Walker (1-2, 7.36) at 6:40 PM ET.