Today's Three Things: Braves Young Pitching Pounded by Mariners Bats

The Braves gave up five homers as Kevin Seitzer got his revenge on Atlanta

The Atlanta Braves were tagged by five Seattle Mariners homers in their 10-2 loss in Truist Park on Saturday night.

Here’s Today’s Three Things from the contest.

The Turning Point

The bottom of the 6th.

Atlanta loaded the bases with one out, thanks to back-to-back singles from Drake Baldwin and Ha-Seong Kim followed by a Ronald Acuña Jr. walk. Seattle responded by pulling Bryce Miller for Gabe Speier, who gave up four runs to Atlanta in last night’s eighth inning.

They got a total of one run out of it.

Michael Harris II hit a deep sacrifice fly to score Baldwin, but then a Sean Murphy groundout ended the frame. It was quality contact - 101.2 mph - but it was on the ground and Seattle ended Atlanta’s scoring opportunity at just one run.

The Braves wouldn’t get another runner in scoring position the rest of the night.

Today’s Player of the Game

Matt Olson.

‘Oly’ went 2-4 with a towering homer to right-center, his longest homer of the year at 459 feet. He also continues to be a potent defender at the cold corner, and I’m assuming that he’s already locked up the NL Gold Glove at first base.

Despite not having the standout homer numbers - tonight’s was just his 22nd of the year - he’s become one of the team’s best hitters under new hitting coach Tim Hyers. Olson is hitting .270 with a .367 on-base, both the second-best marks of his career. His slugging of .461 doesn’t raise eyebrows, but he’s contributed a NL-leading 36 homers and a single triple to his homer total.

Over the last 30 games, Olson’s hitting .308/.393/.504 with twenty runs and eleven RBI.

What You’ll Be Talking About

The young pitching.

Hurston Waldrep had issues getting Mariners to chase his splitter in the first inning, with Cal Raleigh taking three consecutive to draw a walk and then Julio Rodriguez launching one for a two-run homer. But Murphy and catcher Sean Murphy were able to adjust, ramping up his sinker usage and getting groundball outs. Despite walking four more batters after the first inning, he didn’t give up any more runs and made it through five innings with just the two runs from the homer allowed.

But everyone behind Waldrep struggled. Rolddy Muñoz faced three hitters and walked two of them, putting only three pitches in the zone out of fourteen thrown. Daysbel Hernández allowed three runs, including two homers, in just two-thirds of an inning, with Hayden Harris allowing two hits and a walk before finally being able to get out of the inning. Even John Brebbia, the geriatric of the group at the ripe old age of 35, allowed four hits (including two homers) in his final two innings.

But look, this is something you can live with in a lost season. If Atlanta were counting down a magic number and they brought a command-challenged flamethrower in Muñoz in a one-run game, I’d be mad. But in a season where the win and loss total does not matter, let these guys get run so that you have the information on how much investment the bullpen needs this offseason as you look to retool for 2026.

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 loss.

What’s Next for the Braves?

Tomorrow’s rubber match is incredibly early, scheduled for 12:05 PM EDT on Roku Channel (so 9:05 AM in the heads of the Seattle Mariners.) Spencer Strider (5-12, 4.97) squares off with Luis Castillo (8-8, 3.94).