Today's Three Things: Chris Sale, Multiple Homers Power Braves to Easy Win
The Miami Marlins inserted a position player to pitch after Atlanta's offense exploded early and often
The Atlanta Braves took down the Miami Marlins 9-1 in loanDepot Park on Wednesday night.
Here is Today’s Three Things from the contest.
The Turning Point
The top of the 6th.
Atlanta’s winning 3-1, with the top of the lineup batting for their third time against Marlins starter Janson Junk. And despite him not having many tendencies to be exploited, the Braves found a way to make it happen.
Ronald Acuña Jr. opened the inning with a single. First pitch of the at-bat.
Michael Harris II singled to left, this one on the second pitch of the at-bat. Credit to Ronald here, going first to third ahead of the throw from left fielder Heriberto Hernández.
Matt Olson then singled Ronald in, with his line drive coming on…the second pitch of the at-bat.
Ozzie Albies then scored Harris, and his single came on the third pitch of the at-bat.
Atlanta clearly picked up that Junk was throwing hittable pitches in the zone to get back into the at-bat early, and set out to ambush them.
But then Dom Smith came up and had a very different type of at-bat. 12 pitches, 7 foul balls, and a massive homer to right-center to score three more and push the lead to five.
The homer came on Junk’s curveball, just like several of Atlanta’s hits in the inning. While this one wasn’t early in the at-bat, it was clear that the Braves finally figured out how to attack Junk and get him out of the game.
“I know my first at-bat I jumped on the heater early, kind of got myself out, and then, second, I missed the heater,” Smith said after the game. “For me, I was really trying to simplify it. Trying to get a good pitch over the heart of the zone, but [with Olson on] third base with less than two outs, I knew that I didn’t have to do much, just hit the ball in the air somewhere and drive the run in. […] He hung a curveball and I was able to just really ride my swing through it and it left the park.”
Today’s Player of the Game
I thought it’d be Dom Smith, who homered and added the wildest little league home run that was actually ruled a triple + a throwing error I’ve seen this season, but the postcast gave the award to Chris Sale with a plurality of the vote.
Atlanta’s veteran starter went seven innings, and just like Martín Pérez last night, was a bit shaky early before locking in. He gave up a run on two hits and a sacrifice fly, but settled in. Sale ended up going seven innings, striking out eight with no walks. He allowed just two more hits the rest of the way, leaning on his superb slider. The breaking ball had an absurd 54% whiff rate, with 14 whiffs in 26 swings, and he finished with 18 total whiffs and a 38% CSW.
Sale’s ERA is now down to 1.89, and he’s solidly in the Cy Young conversation for the National League.
What You’ll Be Talking About
Atlanta’s big offensive night. The Braves finished with eleven hits, five for extra bases, and cashed in several of their scoring chances, finishing 4-for-7 with runners in scoring position.
Riley, who was dropped to 7th in the order for only the third time since 2021 (with both of the other two also coming this season), had the three-run homer in the 2nd and added a walk while only striking out once.
Michael Harris and Ozzie Albies both had two hits in the contest, with Albies scoring twice and driving one in while Harris scored once and added a great catch up against the centerfield wall to keep a run off the board.
Even the guys who didn’t have hits were not bad at the plate - Mike Yastrzemski was hitless but hard a hard-hit flyout at the right field wall in the 2nd, for instance, while Sandy León made some quality contact but the balls didn’t fall.
While the Braves only drew one walk in the contest, they also struck out only six times and stranded just three runners on base, finishing with 11 hard-hit balls.
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?
Thursday’s a fantastic pitching matchup, with Spencer Strider (1-0, 2.45) taking on Sandy Alcantara (3-2, 3.53) at 6:40 PM ET.