The Atlanta Braves walked off the Los Angeles Dodgers 6-5 in Truist Park on Wednesday night.
Here is Today’s Three Things from the contest.
The Turning Point
Excluding the walkoff in the 9th, which we’ll get to when we discuss the Player of the Game in just a moment, it’s worth discussing what Didier Fuentes did in this one.
Dylan Lee started the seventh and gave up three hits and a walk, scoring one, against the top of the order without recording a single out. It was mostly leaving his pitches up for the stars to hit, which has seemed to be a theme recently.
I’m not sure how I feel about it. On the one hand, it’s Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman, and Mookie Betts: All former MVPs who are likely bound for the Hall of Fame. On the other hand, this is your job, Lee. This is what we are trusting him to do, and our only hope is that he can figure out what’s wrong (fatigue, perhaps?) before October.
So, Fuentes entered in the seventh with bases loaded and no outs. He was rushed in, too, and immediately walked the first hitter he faced on four pitches, scoring the tying run. But from there, Fuentes got a weak lineout to shallow left (not deep enough to score the runner from third) and a groundball double play to end the inning without LA taking the lead.
Fuentes then came back out for the 8th and almost immediately had to do it again. Teoscar Hernandez led off the frame with a swinging bunt single, but after two quick outs, the Braves decided to get cute. The dugout called for an intentional walk of Freddie Freeman in favor of Mookie Betts, but then Fuentes walked Betts as well, loading the bases.
No matter, he started a battle with Max Muncy. After a first-pitch splitter for a ball, Fuentes threw seven straight fastballs, getting Muncy to 3-2 but seemingly unable to put him away. Catcher Sean Murphy, seemingly remembering how Tanner Scott just kept grooving fastballs to Ozzie Albies last night until Albies finally got one into play for the winning run, then called for a 3-2 splitter. Fuentes executed it, getting Muncy to chase despite it being both outside and down, likely because he was geared up for an eighth-straight fastball that just never came.
That was LA’s last at-bat of the game with a runner on base.
Today’s Player of the Game
I kid you not, it’s Ha-Seong Kim.
Atlanta almost emptied the bench in this one. Sean Murphy, whose single in the 7th was his third hit of the game, was pinch-ran for by Brewer Hicklen. With the Braves having already used Lane Thomas to swap out for Mike Yastrzemski earlier in the game and Drake Baldwin having to vacate DH to go work behind the plate, Atlanta had a decision to make in the 9th after LA intentionally walked Austin Riley to get the #9 spot in the order to the plate:
Let Victor Mederos hit, or go to the bench? Despite Mederos having an RBI hit on the season already, manager Walt Weiss went to the bench and summoned the righty Kim to hit instead of the lefty Dominic Smith with lefty closer Tanner Scott in the game.
Just to reiterate: Runners on 1st and 2nd in a tie game with two outs, against the two-time defending champions, and Weiss went to Ha-Seong Kim, who hadn’t had an at-bat in eleven days and hadn’t registered a hit since June.
And Kim did the dang thing.
Kim battled, getting up 3-0, fouling off multiple fastballs in the zone, and then scalding the eighth pitch of the at-bat 102 mph to left for the winning run.
It’s undoubtedly the win of the year, given the stakes, the opponent, and the improbability of it all.
What You’ll Be Talking About
With all due respect to the catchers being dominant tonight - Sean Murphy and Drake Baldwin combined to go 6-8 with a homer (Murphy), three doubles (two by Baldwin), two runs scored, three RBI, a walk, and a won ABS challenge - let’s talk about Ronald Acuña Jr.
He was the only Braves starter to not get on base today and one of two to go hitless, finishing 0-5 with two strikeouts. He once again had a hard-hit out, scalding a 102.8 mph grounder in the first, but also had two sub-80 mph groundouts in this one, including a 35 mph jam shot to first with runners on 2nd and 3rd in the 8th inning.
He also committed a defensive gaffe against Shohei Ohtani in the top of the 7th, failing to get the ball in to second base in time and allowing what started off as a single to become a double.
On the mid-home angle, you can see that Ohtani slams on the brakes around first, as the ball takes a ricochet off the side wall straight to Acuña, but when Ohtani headfakes like he’s going back to first, Ronald drops his arm and points to first instead of immediately making the throw to second, giving Ohtani the time he needs to break for second and beat the eventual throw.
In a slight defense of Ronald, Olson wasn’t at first to receive a throw because he had gone into foul territory trying to field the ball, but the throw should always have been going into second base as quickly as possible. It’s a frustrating lapse in judgment for a player who hasn’t been playing up to his usual standards for most of the season, and it’s something that I’m guessing will be addressed by Walt Weiss directly (and privately, as is his style).
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, improbably, has already won the season series against LA and is in line for a sweep of this series on Thursday. It won’t be easy, though: Atlanta has their ace on the mound in Chris Sale (12-9, 2.20), but so does LA in Yoshinobu Yamamoto (12-7, 2.61). First pitch is scheduled for 7:15 PM ET.