Today's Three Things: Braves on wrong end of pitching duel with Brewers
Atlanta and Milwaukee both got one big hit, but theirs was with runners on base
The Atlanta Braves dropped game one to the Milwaukee Brewers 3-1 in Truist Park on Monday night.
Here’s Today’s Three Things from the contest.
The Turning Point
The bottom of the 8th inning.
Both teams already had a homer on the board - Atlanta’s came on the very pitch in the bottom of the first, with Jurickson Profar launching a cutter for a leadoff homer, but Milwaukee’s came in the fourth with two runners on base.
The Braves had a chance to take a lead, though. Marcell Ozuna, in as a pinch hitter for Nick Allen, drew a leadoff walk and had Luke Williams come in to relieve him as a runner. After Jurickson Profar struck out looking at a sinker down in the zone, Matt Olson laced a single through the right side, which advanced Williams to third base.
And there he would stay.
Drake Baldwin ripped a line drive up the middle, but shortstop Joey Ortiz made a leaping snag and then Sean Murphy sent a baseball on a ride, only to be caught at the centerfield warning track just feet shy of a lead-taking homer.
Today’s Player of the Game
As much as I’ve dogged him since returning (and taking over the leadoff spot), let’s talk about Jurickson Profar.
Not only did he channel his inner Ronald Acuña Jr. with a leadoff homer on the very first pitch he saw, he also channeled his inner Marcell Ozuna and drew two walks tonight.
While he’s only hitting in the 220s as a leadoff hitter this season, he’s also drawn fourteen walks in 24 games and generally found ways to get on base. He’s been a bit of a pest while there, as well, stealing two bases from the leadoff spot.
While I still have doubts he can be the guy Atlanta thought they were getting when they inked Profar to a three-year, $42M contract, he’s at least been able to do enough in the leadoff spot to give Atlanta options on how to configure the lineup next season.
What You’ll Be Talking About
Erick Fedde’s performance.
I’m going to be honest here: I’ve never seen an outing where a starter went more than five innings (5.1 for Fedde tonight) with ZERO strikeouts. I know it’s happened multiple times recently, including fifteen times this season, but I just can’t remember seeing it from a Braves starter.
Unlike Joey Wentz and Dane Dunning, Fedde is just here for this season as far as contractual control is concerned and unlike those two, there’s not much here to build off of. He picked up just two whiffs on 28 swings, one each on the sinker and sweeper. While he was effective at minimizing hard contact, with an average exit velocity on Monday night of just 80.7 mph on his 18 balls in play, it’s hard to see this gameplan and arsenal working against a team with better power potential that can punish the mistakes.
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?
Weather permitting, the Braves are back in action for game two tomorrow night. Lefty Joey Wentz (2-2, 5.20) takes on Freddy Peralta (12-5, 3.08) at 7:15 PM ET.