Today's Three Things: Braves rally to even up series with White Sox

The first two games have seen 43 runs scored on 58 hits

The Atlanta Braves scored the final seven runs of the game to comeback against the Chicago White Sox, 11-10, in Truist Park on Tuesday night.

Here’s Today’s Three Things from the contest.

The Turning Point

The bottom of the 8th inning.

After rallying back to make the game a one-run contest with a second consecutive late rally, Atlanta entered the next-to-last frame down by a single run.

For a while, it looked like they wouldn’t get it.

Jurickson Profar walked to start the inning, with Matt Olson doubling him to third. And then Chicago decided to intentionally walk Ronald Acuña Jr. to get to Michael Harris.

It’s a defensible position, walking a former MVP to get to one of MLB’s worst hitters, but only if you haven’t watched a single inning of baseball since the All-Star Game.

Harris bailed out manager Will Venable, though, choosing to drop a surprise bunt on the first pitch. With Profar not immediately breaking for home and the bunt rolling right back to pitcher Tyler Alexander, the out was made at home with (conservatively) ten feet to spare. More on this later.

After Marcell Ozuna popped out to third, it looked to be over…until Drake Baldwin had his say. Locked in a tight battle with Isaac Collins for NL Rookie of the Year, the catcher laced a line drive to right field that scored two and gave Atlanta a 11-10 lead.

Today’s Player of the Game

Despite Drake Baldwin’s heroic final hit, we’re giving this to Matt Olson.

The big first baseman went 4-5 with two doubles and three runs scored. Olson’s 34 doubles are tied for third in all of baseball and lead the National League, with everyone above him being a speedy youngster. While the power production hasn’t quite been there, with just 19 homers on the season, Olson still has a .431 slug and has coupled that with a close to career-high .370 average. With him still contributing his stellar defense at first base, where he feels like a shoe-in for the NL Gold Glove, he’s been far and away Atlanta’s most valuable contributor by bWAR at 4.4, dramatically outpacing Chris Sale (2.6 bWAR), Ronald Acuña Jr. (2.5) and Drake Baldwin (2.4).

What You’ll Be Talking About

That disastrous bunt call, but it’s part of a bigger problem with this team.

Harris confirmed to reporters after the game, including Brady Penn of 680 The Fan, that it was his decision to bunt, not a call from the coaches. “I felt it was the best thing to do in that situation, I just didn’t execute the way I planned.” Harris elaborated that his plan was to take the ball up the first base line with him, and even if he was out, the tying run would have scored and the team would have two in scoring position with only one out.

But it’s a symptom of a larger problem: Fundamentally, the Atlanta Braves aren’t that good, and they haven’t been for a while.

One inning earlier, Vidal Bruján got a pinch-hit opportunity and laced one into left field…just to immediately get back-picked off of first base on a designed play with first baseman Miguel Vargas and catcher Edgar Quero.

We’ve seen bad baserunning, poorly executed bunts, and several other offensive issues not just in this year, but in each of the last several.

In the last few seasons, this team has relied on the home run ball to score. In the second half of this season, after the influence of new hitting coach Tim Hyers has fully taken root, they’re better at working counts, stringing together multiple hits, and drawing their walks.

But they still do too many of the little things wrong. For all the credit that Braves fans give now-departed third base Ron Washington for his on-field instruction, that was focused on defense. You can see the fruits of his labor in the team’s infield defense, which remains among the league’s best. I hope whoever the new manager is finds the offensive Ron Washington for his staff so we can get that same attention to detail on the other side of the ball.

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 win.

What’s Next for the Braves?

Hurston Waldrep (3-0, 1.02 ERA) gets the ball against lefty Martín Pérez (1-2, 3.09) with the series on the line. First pitch is scheduled for 7:15 PM ET from Truist Park.