Today’s Three Things: Braves Win Opener in Washington, but Deal With Acuña Injury Scare
The Atlanta Braves lost their starting right fielder after his 2nd hit by pitch of the night, but initial tests came back clean.
The Atlanta Braves took down the Washington Nationals 9-4 in Nationals Park on Monday night…but at what cost?
Here is Today’s Three Things from the contest.
The Turning Point
The top of the 6th inning.
With Atlanta trailing 3-2, Jake Irvin was one inning away from a quality start. He didn’t get it.
Mike Yastrzemski reached on a throwing error to put immediate pressure on Washington, and Irvin then hit Ronald Acuña Jr. in the left hand for the second time in the game, ending his night. (More on that later.)
Despite Washington turning to lefty PJ Poulin for matchup reasons, the Braves handled their business anyway. Drake Baldwin laced a sinker to left, clearing the bases and giving Atlanta the lead. Matt Olson added a sacrifice fly, Riley drew a walk, and Albies drove in Baldwin with a single to left batting from the left side against new reliever Brad Lord. Harris and Smith each added RBI of their own in what became a five-run frame.
Washington got one back in the bottom of the inning but never closed the deficit below three. The Braves put it away for good with two insurance runs in the top of the 9th.
Today’s Player of the Game
By vote of the Postcast, it’s Bryce Elder.
Things didn’t start off very smoothly for the sinkerballer, who issued two walks in the first frame, both with two outs, and saw them both driven in for a two-run deficit after a 32-pitch inning.
But Elder figured out what went wrong in the dugout between innings and almost immediately locked in, needing just 32 pitches for the next three innings combined. The key to knowing when Elder has his command is when he throws a sinker to lefties, which is outside of his normal sequencing (~10% usage). He opened the 2nd inning with a strikeout looking of catcher Drew Millas, surprising him with a front hip sinker that broke back over the plate.
It’s a hard pitch to command, so he only throws it when he’s confident in his locations.
Elder ended up pitching into the 7th, being pulled for groundballer Aaron Bummer with two outs. Elder finished with four runs (three earned) on three hits and two walks, striking out six. He picked up the win, his third, but raised his ERA…to a whopping 1.50.
What You’ll Be Talking About
Ronald Acuña Jr. leaving the game.
Irvin hit Acuña on the bright yellow elbow pad in the 4th inning with a 92-mph sinker, adding insult to injury by almost immediately picking him off at first base.
But in the 6th, Irvin hit Ronald on the hand. It was a 1-0 sinker at about 91 mph that ran up and in on Acuña, one that he couldn’t get away from in time.
Braves trainer George Poluis came and checked on Ronald, but he stayed in the game to run the bases and even ended the inning in the on-deck circle. After Atlanta scored five runs in the inning and it ended with a four-run lead, however, they sent Eli White out to play right field for the rest of the contest.
Initial X-rays, done at the ballpark, were negative, and the Braves announced that the outfielder was officially day-to-day. Team officials told the traveling beat, including MLB.com’s Mark Bowman, that there were currently no plans for Acuña to get an MRI on Tuesday morning. We’ll see if anything changes after he sleeps on the injury.
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/loss.
What’s Next for the Braves?
The Braves are sending a well-rested Reynaldo López (1-0, 2.18) to the mound opposite lefty Foster Griffin (2-0, 3.05) at 6:45 PM ET.