The Atlanta Braves dropped game three of the NLDS 3-1 to the Los Angeles Dodgers in Truist Park on Tuesday night.
Here is Today’s Three Things from the contest.
The Turning Point
The bottom of the 5th inning.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto was cruising in this one, but the Braves had him somewhat on the ropes in the fifth. Mauricio Dubón and Lane Thomas both singled off of the righty, giving the Braves their best opportunity respond to LA’s three-run fourth.
After an Austin Riley pop-out and pinch-hitter Rowdy Tellez drew a four-pitch walk to load the bases, the lineup turned over. Primed to put a few runs on the board and make it a game, right?
About that.
Drake Baldwin swung at the first pitch, a splitter on the outer third, and weakly grounded out to first. Had LA been playing the infield in, it’s likely an inning-ending double play, but they were content to trade one run for an out. Ronald Acuña Jr. then battled to a 3-1 advantage, taking several fastballs up and in, before scrolling over a splitter down and away and weakly grounding out to second base to end the threat with just one total run scoring.
More on the top of the order in a minute.
Today’s Player of the Game
Mauricio Dubón.
The utilityman got the start in left field, and his defense was needed early. After Mookie Betts led off the 3rd inning with a single, Freddie Freeman (who was boo’d in Truist Park for the first time in his career) absolutely launched a center-cut fastball towards the Los Angeles bullpen. 101.3 mph off the bat and 346 feet.
It needed to be 347.
Dubón was tracking the ball the entire way, timing his leap to go up and over the wall to bring back the would-be home run for a routine flyout.
Dubón later shifted in to shortstop after Tellez pinch-hit for Ha-Seong Kim, who committed a defensive error in the first inning. Dubí finished with a single and a run scored, showing his value to this roster and making the case that Atlanta needs to bring him back for 2027.
What You’ll Be Talking About, Part 1
The complete obliteration of Chris Sale.
Let’s clear up what this was - he was charged for three runs in five innings, which is hardly a blow-up outing on its face.
But the way it happened was complete domination by Los Angeles.
Sale started off hot, getting six strikeouts the first time through the order, but LA was merely calibrating their looks at the lefty. The next time through, LA teed off - five hits, including two homers, on their way to a three-run lead.
And again, while the results weren’t good, the process was even worse.
LA finished Sale’s five innings with sixteen balls in play off of the lefty. Ten of them were hard-hit, with Sale’s average exit velocity allowed being an absurd 97.9 mph.
Reminder: 95 mph is a hard-hit ball. LA averaged 95 or harder against each pitch type vs Sale.
Sale credited Los Angeles after the game for adjusting after the first time through, saying that he’d really only take back one pitch, the doubled-up changeup to Kiké Hernández that resulted in a two-run homer to open the LA scoring.
"Really only one pitch I'd take back from that whole entire outing. This is a game of adjustments. They seemed like they made the adjustment. They were battling, but again, really just one swing changed the whole trajectory of that game."
And you could tell that LA put in the work against Sale, as after he left the game, the bullpen quartet of Dylan Dodd, Dylan Lee, Brent Suter, and Raisel Iglesias held the Dodgers to just a single and two walks across four innings, striking out five and giving the offense a chance to battle back and make it a game.
It’s domination of Sale to an extent I’ve never seen during his time in Atlanta. He’s an ace, and he found a way to survive his five innings without the Braves being completely out of the game, but it was hardly enough to cash in Sunday’s gamble.
What You’ll Be Talking About, Part 2: Electric Boogaloo
About that.
The trio of Drake Baldwin, Ronald Acuña Jr. (who is nursing a sore knee) and Matt Olson continue to let the team down this October, with postseason OPS of .405, .451, and .535, respectively.
A charitable Braves fan could point out that Acuña hasn’t been the same since fouling a batted ball off his shin in the final week of the season, going just 5-33 since then, but there aren’t many who are feeling very charitable about the performance of the trio at the moment.
If it helps, neither is Baldwin. Talking to the media after the game, he expressed frustration both with their performance in general and the team’s persistent inability to give Chris Sale any meaningful run support this season.
“I think we hold ourselves to a high standard, and we couldn’t get some runs across. We’re not really too happy about it. Whenever Sale goes out there, we want to give him run support. And only giving him one run, we wish we could have given him more runs.”
But as I said on the postcast, this offense can weather one of these guys underperforming. It can’t handle all three. This team will go as far as the offense takes them, and those three are the straws that stir the drink. The trio has combined for two extra-base hits this postseason, with one being the “double” by Baldwin to Philly’s Bryce Harper.
It’s not good enough, and the Braves are one loss from elimination because of it.
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?
Atlanta’s facing their second elimination game of the postseason tomorrow evening, with Tyler Mahle (7-10, 3.99) taking on Tyler Glasnow (5-2, 3.53) at 6PM ET.
We didn't lose this game because we gave up 3 runs. We lost this game because we didn't score but 1 run. Once again, our "aircraft carriers" played more like PT boats.
All season long we wrung our hands and gnashed our teeth over what AA didn't do in the offseason and what he didn't do, with the exception of Tyler Mahle, at the trade dead line... But the problem with this team for most of the year and certainly after the scorching start to the season has been the LACK OF CONSISTENT OFFENSE!!!
No, we are not eliminated, but even the most optimistic Braves fan thought we HAD to win the Sale start tonight. Yes, somewhere in the Metaverse the Braves will win game 4 and go back to LA and win game 5. But right now, I wouldn't give you a plug nickel for our chances with our offense.
What a let down. Most of my frustration is related to Acuna. Olson and Baldwin were lame too, but Ronald seems unable to grasp that being ready for a middle/middle fastball on the first pitch might be a good idea or that making a foolish ABS challenge in the first inning with the bases empty might have negative impact on the team later in the game. He hasn't had a clue all season and I blame Weiss et al for letting that continue. I am certain that with his inability to hit with RISP and poor plate discipline, if he were playing for Pat Murphy he would batting ninth or riding pine.