Today's Three Things: Spencer Strider struggles early as bats go silent
The Atlanta Braves, coming off a hot weekend in Boston, struggled in all facets on Tuesday night
The Atlanta Braves dropped game one to the Washington Nationals 5-3 in Nationals Park on Tuesday night.
Here’s Today’s Three Things from the contest.
The Turning Point
The top of the 8th inning for Atlanta.
With Atlanta losing 5-3, Stuart Fairchild entered the game as a pinch-hitter for Alex Verdugo and promptly hit a leadoff single…but the Braves didn’t do anything with it.
Austin Riley pulled an elevated slider down the left field line and to third baseman José Tena. With Fairchild not in motion prior to the batted ball, it was an easy double play for the Nationals. Marcell Ozuna followed that up with a groundout of his own, swinging on top of an elevated sinker and sending it weakly to second base.
More on the anemic offense in a moment.
Today’s Player of the Game
I genuinely don’t have one for Atlanta.
Matt Olson is a candidate, given the 2nd inning home run. But he followed that up with a flyout, a strikeout, and a GIDP, so he still accounted for four outs. He also threw high to third base after Strider threw wide of the bag on a 2nd-inning pickoff attempt, with Riley showing an impressive vertical to keep the ball from going into the stands and catch CJ Abrams in a rundown.
I can’t pick Riley for that, because he went 0-3 in this one. Sean Murphy threw out an attempted basestealer at 2nd base, but also went 0-4.
Eli White, I guess? He went 1-4, both picking up an RBI and scoring in the 2nd inning.
What You’ll Be Talking About
Panic about Spencer Strider?
Honestly, I’m not. It’s important to remember that this was just his second start since last April and only his fourth start since the 2023 postseason. No, his fastball velocity wasn’t the same; he touched 97 in the first inning, but settled in 93-94 in the 3rd inning and 92-93 in the 4th. But this is a process and I’m confident he’ll improve as the season progresses.
The thing you should be talking about it the offense.
Coming off a week where they hit .305, scoring over five runs a game on eleven hits, the Braves were held to just three runs on seven hits. More frustratingly, after tagging starter Mitchell Parker for three runs in the 2nd inning (a Matt Olson homer and back-to-back doubles from the bottom of the order), the Braves picked up only two more hits over the final seven innings. Facing a bullpen that came into tonight with a 6.55 ERA, the Braves didn’t record a single hit or draw a walk.
What’s worse, those two hits came from Nick Allen and Stuart Fairchild, who entered as a pinch-hitter in the 8th inning. Both of them were leadoff singles, hit by relatively speedy guys, and yet the Braves didn’t try getting them in motion or using the running game to pressure a suspect Nationals infield defense.
I was slightly concerned that the off day was somehow going to mess with the offense. While it’s too early to be confident in what caused them to struggle tonight, it sure is frustrating.
What’s Next for the Braves?
The Braves, now back to .500, are sending out AJ Smith-Shawver (3-2, 2.33 ERA) to the plate. The Nationals will counter with veteran Trevor Williams (2-5, 5.91). First pitch is scheduled for 6:45 PM ET.
For anyone that has been in my mancave, you would quickly see that Spencer Strider is one of my favorite Braves pitcher, if not the favorite. With that being said, the game Tuesday was painful to watch. Very painful. Two of the qualities that Strider had been very successful with was control, and a great fastball with movement. Tuesday he didn't have either one. He kind of went around the world with things not to do as a starting pitcher, such as walks, hit batters, wild pitches, home runs, and his velocity was not there with his fast ball making his other pitches very hittable. I think his performance was screaming with a lack of competitive pitching. His rust showed on all of his pitches. I'm hoping he will be ok, but I don't know if he was ready yet to be in a game at this level. I think this is one of those times when the coaches shouldn't have let Strider be in the decision making process, because of course he wanted to pitch, because he's a competitor. However, it was obvious he wasn't ready yet, and the Nationals benefited.