The Atlanta Braves took down the Los Angeles Dodgers 1-0 in Truist Park on Thursday night to secure a sweep of the three-game series.
Here is Today’s Three Things from the contest.
The Turning Point
Being cheeky here, it ended up being the very start of the game.
Ronald Acuña Jr. was given the day off by Walt Weiss, ostensibly for a mental reset while he’s been pressing at the plate, so Drake Baldwin as tonight’s leadoff hitter.
And he apparently reads Braves Today.
In The Scouting Report for today’s game, we discussed two specific quirks for Dodgers starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto: How he’s been “gettable” in the first inning of games (3.91 ERA and .663 opponent OPS) and the fact that unlike a lot of splitter-reliant starters, he’s not afraid to throw the splitter in the zone early in the at-bat.
Drake Baldwin got a first-pitch splitter in the zone, thigh-high, and did NOT miss it - 106.2 mph off the bat and 402 feet into The Chop House for an early 1-0 lead.
That’d be the last run of the game, scoring on the 10th pitch that was thrown by these two starters.
Today’s Player of the Game
Duh. It’s Chris Sale.
Atlanta’s veteran ace went the distance tonight, throwing a complete-game shutout on 109 pitches (80 strikes). With the nine scoreless innings, his ERA is now down to 2.06.
He showcased the ability to miss bats, picking up 20 whiffs and a 39% CSW. A big key to this was Sale getting ahead of most batters he faced; 26 of the 34 batters he faced saw a first-pitch strike, and only one batter got to a three-ball count in the game. Sale didn’t walk anyone, although he did pull a Charlie Morton and hit two batters in the foot with breaking balls.
He showed elite stuff, reaching back for 100 mph to strike out Shohei Ohtani in the 3rd inning. The 100.1 mph fastball he threw in the AB was the 7th-hardest pitch of Sale’s career, and the first time he’s broken 100 mph since July of 2018. He got Ohtani later with 99.5 mph, one of his five hardest pitches of the season. His final pitch of the game, #109, was a 98.6 mh fastball.
He gave the Braves length, obviously, crucial on a night where the bullpen was virtually empty after being ridden hard in the series. Said Sale after the game, “Our bullpen’s done just an unbelievable job this year. They’ve picked up slack when we’ve needed them to and they’ve shut the door time and time again. […] Anytime us as starters can give them a day off, it’s huge.”
He also showed the contact management ability that separates a strikeout pitcher from an ace. Sale allowed 21 balls to be put into play tonight; only five of them were hit, and his overall exit velocity allowed was an anemic 86.5 mph.
But most importantly, he showed the mentality you want from your ace in the postseason. Heading back out for the ninth, despite knowing that his pitch count was already pretty high and that he had to work out of a mini-jam in the 8th, Sale admitted he told manager Walt Weiss, “I’ve got this one.”
Shades of Tom Glavine’s “Just get me one, because they’re not getting any back in Game Six of the 1995 World Series. In my mind, he’s the greatest pitcher in baseball and it’s not particularly close.
What You’ll Be Talking About
As much as I want to talk either more about Chris Sale or about Ha-Seong Kim’s single and stolen base tonight (one of only four Atlanta hits in the game three win) and speculate if Wednesday night’s walkoff is the thing to ignite his season, let’s zoom out a bit.
The Braves are now 79-55, one game behind the Dodgers for the second seed in the National League, and hold the tiebreaker by virtue of going 5-1 against Los Angeles. While it’s improbable that Atlanta takes the 2nd seed, owing to the schedule - the Braves have the 11th-hardest remaining strength of schedule, including seven against Philly and three against both the first-place Rays and second-place Cubs, while LA’s remaining strength of schedule is 28th - the Braves don’t need to finish with a better record than the Dodgers, just the same one.
But more importantly, for all the gnashing of teeth and consternation across Braves Country after Atlanta lost series to likely playoff teams in Milwaukee, Arizona, and New York (Yankees), it’s important to acknowledge that they just swept the two-time/defending World Series champions. Even when the breaks didn’t go their way, they still found a way to win.
Anything can happen in the postseason. And after this week, it’s hard to deny that the Braves can beat anybody that might step into Truist Park this October.
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?
The Braves are in for a classic trap series, with the Colorado Rockies coming to town for a three-game set this weekend. Here are the pitching matchups for the series.
Fri: Grant Holmes (8-5, 3.64) vs Tomoyuki Sugano (12-7, 4.96)
Sat: Martín Pérez (8-8, 3.12) vs Ryan Feltner (5-8, 6.08)
Sun: Tyler Mahle (5-10, 4.41) vs Mason Adams (0-0, 2.25)