Today's Three Things: Ill-Timed Balk and Quiet Offense Dooms Atlanta to a Series Loss
The Atlanta Braves have dropped a pair of one-run games to open this road series versus the Yankees
The Atlanta Braves dropped their second straight game to the New York Yankees, losing 5-4 at Yankee Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
Here is Today’s Three Things from the contest.
The Turning Point
The fifth inning is where this game turned for Atlanta.
Atlanta got two off of Gerrit Cole in the top half of the inning on two doubles and two singles in the span of seven pitches, but should have had more - with runners on first and second, Atlanta had two strikeouts and a line-out from the top of the order that let Cole off the hook. Both strikeouts, coming from Drake Baldwin and Matt Olson, had only one swinging strike paired with two takes in the zone.
And in the bottom half of the inning, everything turned against the Braves.
Yankees prospect George Lombard Jr. opened the bottom half of the inning by successfully challenging a strikeout into a walk via ABS. He was immediately driven in via a triple off the bat from Spencer Jones, and then things got weird.
Chris Sale was called for a balk.
It’s the little front leg lift after coming set that they flagged, but that has always been a part of his delivery and he did it during every single pitch while Jones was on third.
At worst, it violates the letter of the law instead of the spirit of the balk rules, which are designed to prevent intentional deception towards any runners on base.
Crew chief Dan Bellino, speaking to reporters after the game, explained that Sale was called for the balk because he didn’t establish that he was going to the windup despite runners being on base.
“Chris Sale failed to declare that he was going to be pitching from the windup for the second batter, and he's required by rule to make that declaration as a hybrid pitcher."
Walt Weiss slammed the call after the game, saying that the umpires “can’t make that call right there, at that point in the game, in a game like that.”
The balk and ensuing argument got Weiss ejected, which was deliberate on the manager’s part to shield and protect his player from being run, and Sale gave up a double and a walk before getting a double play to end the inning. He came back out for the 6th at 93 pitches and needed just ten bullets to log his 14th quality start of the season and fourth in a row.
Today’s Player of the Game
It’s Chris Sale, with his team-leading 14th of the season.
Atlanta entered this game in a BAD spot with their bullpen, likely down to just the trio of Victor Mederos, Danny Young, and new addition Brent Suter for anything but a save situation (and even Suter’s an open question, given his 36 pitches on Thursday night).
Sale rebounded from that tough fifth inning to give Atlanta a quality start, being charged with three runs on five hits, two walks and the balk while striking out nine. It was more of the same from Sale - 15 whiffs and a 28% CSW, along with an average exit velocity allowed under 90 mph on the day.
He looked a little bit shaky early, likely some rust from having nine days between starts, and the team may need to find a way to keep him a bit more on schedule than this, but it’s nothing to be concerned about. He’s Atlanta’s ace, and they’ll go as far as he takes them in his starts in October.
What You’ll Be Talking About
The postseason atmosphere so far this weekend.
The first two games of this series have seen fantastic starting pitching and incredibly slim margins, with both games being one-run victories and one of those coming in extras.
I don’t know whether to be heartened or dismayed by it.
The Braves were never out of either game, but they also didn’t win either game. And the margins that kept them out of the win column were incredibly small - a balk today, a 1st inning baserunning error and a blown save on Friday.
If this was a Wild Card series, the season would be over.
I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.
On the one hand, it validates all the concern about the Braves not meaningfully enhancing the rotation via trading for a playoff starter on Monday - one blowup start and you can be a game away from elimination.
But on the other hand, one of the reasons you lost on Saturday was a balk being called with a runner on third base. It’s just the third of Sale’s career, despite the lefty pitching in 414 games and facing almost 4500 batters.
That’s the very definition of small random event that can drastically alter the landscape of an entire postseason series, and there’s absolutely no way to prepare for that.
So, the Braves were in both games, but didn’t win either one. Do you feel less or more concerned about their chances in October after the first two games of the series?
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?
Atlanta’s looking to avoid a series sweep on Sunday afternoon, with Grant Holmes (7-4, 3.67) taking on Cam Schlittler (10-6, 2.26) at 1:35 PM ET