Today's Three Things: Braves Stars Struggle in Series Tying Loss to Athletics

Atlanta's modern "Big Three" just couldn't get going in a disappointing offensive night.

The Atlanta Braves dropped game two of their series against the Athletics 5-2 in Truist Park on Tuesday night.

Here is Today’s Three Things from the contest.

The Turning Point

Bottom of the 7th.

Down 5-2, the bottom of the lineup gave the Braves a chance to get back into the game. Dom Smith started off with a leadoff walk, followed by Mauricio Dubón reaching via fielders choice (and an error that allowed Smith to be safe at second).

Unfortunately, the rally would die there. Acuña struck out on five pitches, swinging through a cutter and a sweeper in the heart of the zone for strikes two and three. After Drake Baldwin lined out to left, Matt Olson also struck out, fouling off a belt-high fastball and an elevated cutter before swinging through a sweeper below the zone.

For extra credit here, a similar sequence happened in the bottom of the 9th. With two on after Michael Harris and Dubón both singled, Ronald swung at two splitters well below the zone as part of a four-pitch strikeout for the second out of the inning.

Today’s Player of the Game

For the first time this season, let’s give it to a position player.

Drake Baldwin hit his third homer of the season, a shot to right-center in the first inning. It was his Bobblehead Night, with the organization commemorating his Rookie of the Year win last season with a giveaway to the first 15,000 fans. That’s practically guaranteed to be a homer night for a young player. He also reached via a walk later in the game.

On the season, Baldwin’s put seventeen balls into play and ten of them have been at least 95 mph, with five of them being over 100 mph. He’s seeing the ball really well and making quality contact; if only the top of the order around him could give him either lineup protection or someone to drive in.

What You’ll Be Talking About

There are two things here to discuss.

The first is the pitching tonight. José Suarez, handed the ball as the interim 5th starter until Spencer Strider returns, was not good. In his 3.2 innings, he allowed four runs on five hits and three walks, albeit with six strikeouts. None of those hits were homers, but he did allow multiple doubles and four total hard-hit balls. When balls weren’t being rocketed across the yard, he was getting plenty of whiffs (9), including six on his changeup alone, but his relatively few called strikes (6) led to just a 23% CSW on the evening. With Martín Pérez looking better in long relief (4.1Ip, 2H, 0ER, 0BB/3Ks, it’s now an open question as to who starts for the team next Sunday in Arizona versus the Diamondbacks.

The other big talking point from the game was the anemic nature of the offense. It wasn’t the entire offense, mind you - Baldwin had the homer and reached twice while the bottom three spots of the order combined for four hits and a walk while only striking out twice.

But the veterans in the lineup didn’t carry their weight tonight. The Olson/Acuña/Austin Riley trio went just 1-11, striking out four times against just one walk and as we detailed above, frequently failing to even put the ball into play with runners in scoring position. Mike Yastrzemski and Ozzie Albies finished with no strikeouts, but no hits and only one combined walk.

It led the offense to a 0-for-8 night with runners in scoring position and leaving nine on base, not exactly a recipe to dig out of an early deficit. Anecdotally, the Braves seemed to be struggling with changes in velocity. Of Atlanta’s 14 whiffs on the evening, four came on offspeed pitches and four more came on the offering directly following an offspeed pitch. They also took a lot of curveballs for strikes, watching nine of them float into the zone without a swing.

Looking for more discussion about this game?

Here’s tonight’s Postcast, where I flew solo to break down the loss.

What’s Next for the Braves?

Chris Sale makes his 2nd start of the season tomorrow afternoon, trying to secure a series win at 12:35 PM ET opposite the Athletics’ Opening Day starter, Luis Severino.