Today's Three Things: Braves Walk It Off in 11th Inning Thanks to Approaching Trompical Storm
Chadwick Tromp hit his first career walkoff hit in Atlanta's extra-innings win over Washington
The Atlanta Braves walked off the Washington Nationals 5-4 in the 11th inning in Truist Park on Friday night.
Here is Today’s Three Things from the contest.
The Turning Point
The bottom of the 11th inning.
After each team traded two runs in their respective halves of the 10th inning, Tyler Kinley righted the ship with a scoreless top half of the 11th.
The bottom of the lineup made sure that effort by Kinley wasn’t in vain.
Eli White was the “Manfred Man” runner at second, but was almost stranded after Dominic Smith flew out to shallow center field and Ha-Seong Kim struck out after a seven-pitch battle. Chadwick Tromp was Atlanta’s only hope of scoring.
Tromp wasn’t even a starter in this game - he only entered for defense after Mike Yastrzemski pinch-hit for starting catcher Sandy León in the 6th inning.
But just because Tromp wasn’t a starter doesn’t mean he wasn’t ready. Facing reliever Paxton Schultz, Tromp quickly got up 2-0 before fouling off two inside fastballs. But Schultz made a mistake, leaving a four-seamer middle-away, and Tromp didn’t miss it.
Tromp’s line drive went back up the middle at 105 mph, landing just short of centerfielder Dylan Crews. The young outfielder came up firing, but his throw was well short of the plate (it hit short of the mound), giving Eli White plenty of time to slide in without a tag.
It was Tromp’s first career walk-off hit, per Braves broadcaster CJ Nitkowski, and the catcher explained his simple approach to BravesVision’s Wiley Ballard immediately after the game: “Trying to get a good pitch to hit, man. […] And I didn’t miss it.'“
Today’s Player of the Game
Receiving 83% of the vote from the Postcast audience, it was Chadwick Tromp.
Tromp’s first significant moment of this game wasn’t the walkoff. Tromp led off the 10th inning with a RBI single, scoring Ha-Seong Kim from second base. He then advanced to second when the Nationals pitched way around Ronald Acuña Jr., which only gave Tromp an avenue to show off his baserunning prowess.
Mauricio Dubón tried to shoot a ground ball through the left side of a drawn-in infield. CJ Abrams, who was playing close to second, turned and sprinted back to knock the ball down. Tromp was motoring around third, however, having picked up third base coach Tommy Watkins (who saw the trajectory of the ball).
A catcher scoring from second on a single is notable in and of itself, but when the ball never left the infield? That’s a good bit of baserunning and effort, befitting the Player of the Game.
What You’ll Be Talking About
Since we’ve covered Tromp’s big night and with all due respect to some of Atlanta’s other hitters - the three hits from Austin Riley and Dubón, or Dominic Smith and Ha-Seong Kim picking up big RBI singles in the 7th inning - it’s likely the pitching tonight…both good and bad.
Bryce Elder was quietly dominant tonight, allowing only one run on five total hits (one solo homer) in his six innings, walking just one. Elder’s 13 whiffs and 31% CSW led to only four strikeouts, but also eight groundouts as he had a 79% first strike percentage and was able to get ahead of Washington hitters. Elder’s ERA is now down to 1.97.
Due to the extra innings, the Braves ended up throwing all five of their leverage relievers, to mixed results. Didier Fuentes allowed two singles in his one scoreless inning of work (the 7th), while Raisel Iglesias had a perfect ninth inning with one strikeout on ten total innings. But Robert Suarez allowed two total hits, including a game-tying solo shot to CJ Abrams in the 8th. Nothing catastrophic here - he got behind 3-0 and had to bring a fastball back into the zone, with Abrams not missing it. Similarly, I’m not concerned with the two runs (one earned) surrendered by Dylan Lee in the 10th inning - the rain, which started in the 9th, was heaviest in the 10th, and Lee was clearly struggling with his slider shape in the wet conditions.
The most impressive pitching performance might have been the much-maligned slider specialist, Tyler Kinley, who came in to pitch the 11th. Throwing mostly sliders with some curveballs and only one four-seam fastball, Kinley struck out two of the three batters he faced and got a flyball for the other out, stranding ‘Manfred Man’ runner Daylen Lile at third base and setting up Tromp to be the hero. Kinley got three whiffs in five swings and had a 45% CSW, showing that perhaps he’s fixed some of the location issues that had been plaguing him recently.
(And what was fun in that 11th is Ronald Acuña Jr. almost gunned someone down at third base from the right field corner again, uncorking this 94.6mph throw and nearly getting Lile at third)
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 contest.
What’s Next for the Braves?
The Braves are looking to win the series early on Saturday afternoon, with Grant Holmes (3-1, 3.80) taking on Jake Irvin (1-4, 5.79) at 4:10 PM ET.