The Atlanta Braves gave up two runs in the 9th en route to a 10th-inning 3-2 walk-off loss to the New York Yankees on Friday night in Yankee Stadium.
Here is Today’s Three Things from the contest.
The Turning Point
There’s nowhere else to look but the bottom of the 9th inning. Atlanta was 59-1 when leading after 8 innings, per Atlanta’s comms team, but that stat needs to be updated.
Raisel Iglesias got a leadoff strikeout of Spencer Jones before disaster struck. Newly promoted shortstop George Lombard had a swinging bunt up the third base line, and despite the youngster’s speed, Iglesias thought he could make the play at first base.
Spoiler alert: He could not.
While rushing and off-balance, Iglesias threw the ball up the first base line and into foul territory adjacent to right field, where Ronald Acuña Jr. hadn’t gotten over to back up the throw.
In lieu of just holding onto the ball and letting Lombard have first, Iglesias’ error allowed the shortstop to end up on third. After a strikeout of Ryan McMahon, Iglesias gave up an RBI double off his vaunted changeup, finally putting New York on the board. Amed Rosario then drew an eight-pitch walk before Ben Rice ripped his own hanging changeup to right field, scoring Wells from second and tying the game at two.
After Iglesias then hit Heliot Ramos with a sinker to load the bases, manager Walt Weiss went to Dylan Dodd and he got an inning-ending groundout to send the game to extras.
Tyler Kinley, not Dylan Dodd, got the ball in the 10th, and due to the Braves not being able to score in the top half, eventually got walked off thanks to two walks (one intentional) and a sacrifice fly.
Today’s Player of the Game
Making his Braves debut, Mahle battled former Braves starter Max Fried blow for blow for six innings. Mahle left having allowed just three hits, walking two and striking out nine.
Just as Braves officials indicated would happen, Mahle went back to his pre-Giants arsenal, focusing on just his four-seamer and his splitter, supplemented with his cutter. Mahle rode the simplified arsenal, aided by some pinpoint locations and some good sequencing by catcher Sean Murphy, to 12 whiffs and a 30% CSW. He did start to allow some hard contact the second time through, ending with an average exit velocity allowed of 91.8 mph, but kept the ball in the yard and the Yankees off the board.
Mahle now has a 3.18 ERA in his last four starts, dating back to his time in San Francisco, striking out more than a batter an inning and with a WHIP of just 1.01.
What You’ll Be Talking About
The state of Atlanta’s bullpen, both good and bad.
This was Iglesias’ third blown save of the season, with two of them coming in the last two weeks. He’s now carrying a crisp 5.79 ERA in his 10 appearances since the All-Star Break, having walked five batters in his 9.1 innings. By contrast, he walked just seven in his 32.1 pre-ASB innings.
Tonight’s issue seemed to be his locations, most especially with the changeup, which was most often in the middle of the zone versus the lower third or below the zone altogether. It’s possible some of this is fatigue - Atlanta’s played several close games in the last few weeks, with Iglesias appearing in half of their post-ASB games.
It’s a similar issue to what we’ve been discussing with Dylan Lee, who is tied for 5th in appearances on the season with 54. He’s allowed two of his three homers in the last eight games, one of which came on his vaunted slider.
With Robert Suarez still reportedly feeling some elbow pain when he throws and the team consequently slow-playing his return, the state of Atlanta’s leverage group is more perilous than expected for August.
The reason it’s not worse, however, is this season’s emergence of Didier Fuentes and the recent surge by Dylan Dodd. The lefty Dodd is carrying a 2.02 ERA and 0.81 WHIP on the season, having emerged as a trusted back-end reliever. While his reverse splits are still there - lefties are hitting 40 points higher and producing a WHIP of 1.09 (versus 0.62 to righties) - Dodd’s shown the ability to step up and take leverage innings.
Looking for more discussion about this game?
Here’s tonight’s Postcast, where I went live to break down the contest.
What’s Next for the Braves?
The Braves are looking to even up the series in the best pitching matchup in all of baseball this weekend - Chris Sale (12-6, 2.08) versus Gerrit Cole (5-5, 3.42).
They would’ve likely won this game if Ozzie doesn’t make the 3rd out at 3rd base and the Baldwin run isn’t wiped off the scoreboard.
To paraphrase Charles Dickens... It was the worst of times...it was the best of times.
It was the worst of times - you're up 2 runs going to the bottom of the 9th with your all-star closer on the mound. You HAVE to win that game.
It was the best of times - Tyler Mahle pitched like a stud. Not ready to say he gets the ball in game 2 in the playoffs just yet, but it was an excellent first start. Fuentes and Lee were both rock solid in relief, as they have been nearly every time out this season. AR27 and Matty O hit bombs. It wasn't a LOT of offense, but it should have been enough to secure the win.
If you had to lose, at least the Phillies lost (lead in the East still 8.5 games), the Dodgers lost (lead for the 2nd bye still 1 game), the Brewers lost (deficit for the #1 seed remains 2 games).
And we got Chris Sale on the bump for game 2! Go Braves!!