Today's Three Things: Braves Pitching Obliterated by Astros in World Series Rematch

Hurston Waldrep had his worst start of 2025, giving the Braves an opening if they need it

The Atlanta Braves were blown out by the Houston Astros 11-3 on Friday night in Truist Park.

Here is Today’s Three Things from the contest.

The Turning Point

The 5th inning.

Already up four-nothing, the Astros drove the dagger in both the game and Waldrep’s ERA. After a Carlos Correa leadoff single, Waldrep got two quick outs on a strikeout of Yordan Alvarez and a Jose Altuve flyout.

Those were the last outs he’d register in the inning.

Jesús Sánchez walked on four straight pitches, with only one even remotely close to the zone. Victor Caratini then wore a splitter to load the bases and get Atlanta’s pen warming. After a shallow fly ball to center was changed on review from a catch to a trap by Michael Harris II, with two runs scoring, the Braves went ahead and made the switch to Dane Dunning. He immediately struggled, though, allowing two hard-hit groundballs to tack two more runs on Waldrep’s line and a line drive to tack two onto his before finally getting the Braves out of the inning.

Today’s Player of the Game

With all due respect to Eli White’s pinch-hit homer and acceptable defensive play at first base, we’re giving this one to Ronald Acuña Jr, who shined both offensively and defensively.

Acuña hit a solo shot in the 6th, his second hit of the game, to finally get Atlanta on the board.

It was his first home run since August 22nd, continuing a minor statistical correction for the former MVP. He’s now hitting .227 in the last seven games and hopefully this can kickstart a rally for Ronald so that he ends the season strong.

What You’ll Be Talking About

Hurston Waldrep’s struggles.

Atlanta’s rookie phenom didn’t make it out of the fifth inning, having allowed six runs and eight hits before being replaced by Dane Dunning with runners on the corners and two outs. Another run came in on the first pitch Dunning threw, a sinker that was shot through the left side, and two more charged to Waldrep ultimately crossed the plate.

While the hits mostly stayed in the park - Waldrep allowed just one homer in the outing - he gave up eight hard-hit balls to Astros hitters, averaging 89.8 mph on the 17 balls in play he allowed tonight.

Three of the hits came on the splitter, with two on the cutter and one each on the fastball, curveball, and slider. Early swings were a theme, with Zach Cole’s homer coming on the first pitch and five of Houston’s eight hits coming prior to Waldrep getting to two strikes.

As I discussed on the podcast a few weeks ago, the scouting report is out: Don’t let Waldrep get to two strikes, where that splitter is maximally effective. When his control isn’t entirely dialed in, like it wasn’t tonight (only 48 strikes in 84 pitches, including only 45% of pitches in the strike zone), it’s even easier to jump on the rare strikes that Waldrep throws and send them for rides.

In Waldrep’s first start of the season without Sean Murphy behind the plate, he and rookie Drake Baldwin failed to adequately adjust to Houston’s gameplan and figure out a route forward. Can he make the requisite adjustments before he gets the ball again next week?

Looking for more discussion about this game?

Here’s tonight’s Postcast, where I went live to break down the loss and then took viewer questions in the second half of the show.

What’s Next for the Braves?

Bryce Elder (7-9, 5.35) gets the ball in game two, but he has a tall task ahead of him to even up the series: Houston’s sending Cy Young candidate Hunter Brown (11-7, 2.25) to the Truist Park mound as they look to take the series and build some space between them and the Seattle Mariners in the American League West.