Today's Three Things: Drake Baldwin powers Braves to comeback win
The Atlanta Braves rallied late against the Marlins bullpen to start the series off with a victory
The Atlanta Braves took down the Miami Marlins 8-6 in Truist Park on Thursday night to start their weekend series with a win.
Here’s Today’s Three Things from the contest.
Today’s Player of the Game
Catcher Drake Baldwin.
One day after watching rival Rookie of the Year candidate Isaac Collins of the Milwaukee Brewers go 6-10 with a homer, a triple, a double, and five RBI in their series, Baldwin decided to reassert himself as the ROTY favorite.
Baldwin accounted for five RBI tonight, hitting a solo homer in the first, another homer in the sixth, and then driving in a run to tie the game in the 7th.
It’s Baldwin’s second game with five RBI in the last calendar month, and he’s now third in RBI for all qualified rookies and second in the National League. The FanDuel odds, appropriately, have already shifted a bit more in Baldwin’s direction after tonight’s performance, but it still remains a close race with Collins for the award with two months remaining on the schedule.
The Turning Point
The bottom of the 7th inning, right after Baldwin’s RBI single.
With Jurickson Profar on 2nd and new reliever Anthony Bender in the game, designated hitter Marcell Ozuna came up to bat. He hit a ground ball to shortstop Otto Lopez, fielded cleanly by the shortstop, but Profar rounding third like he was heading home caused both Bender and Lopez to react, with the rushed throw from Lopez to first sailing past the outstretched glove of Eric Wagaman and allowing Profar to trot home, smiling.
It was a heady play by the veteran Profar to create a run that mattered for Atlanta.
What You’ll Be Talking About
The offense.
Atlanta scored eight runs on twelve hits, with only five of them coming off of three home runs. The lineup was particularly deep tonight, with everyone but Nick Allen and Michael Harris reaching base, and the team as a whole struck out just four times - impressive when you consider that Marlins starter Eury Perez throws 98 mph fastballs and backs them up with wicked sliders.
They also seemed to do a good job of working counts until they got their pitch, being rewarded with sixteen hard-hit balls in the contest. If Atlanta can combine this offense with what they saw out of the bullpen tonight, who pitched three and a third innings with just one hit and no walks, striking out five, this team would absolutely be in the postseason picture next season.
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?
Game two is tomorrow night at 7:15 PM ET. Bryce Elder (4-6, 6.03) gets the ball opposite Edward Cabbera (5-5, 3.24).