The Atlanta Braves took down the Pittsburgh Pirates 10-5 in PNC Park on Thursday afternoon to win the series, two games to one.
Here is Today’s Three Things from the contest.
The Turning Point
Atlanta led for a large portion of this game, but it wasn’t exactly smooth sailing. The Pirates threatened in virtually every inning, requiring Bryce Elder and a parade of relievers to constantly navigate through traffic.
The Braves finally pulled away in the 9th.
With Dennis Santana on the mound for the second time this series, Matt Olson drew a leadoff walk and Drake Baldwin singled. Someone, not sure who, then made the decision to have Mauricio Dubón bunt them over. He didn’t give it away until Santana was in his pitching motion, but the sacrifice gave Atlanta two in scoring position with one out.
And then things got interesting. The Pirates intentionally walked Dominic Smith to get to Austin Riley.
Yep, they intentionally walked a guy who is hitting .183 with a .507 OPS in the last 30 games, because the guy who was due up behind him, Austin Riley, was a better matchup.
And the tough part of it is that they were right! Riley struck out on four pitches, fouling off a center-cut sinker and a slider in the same spot, before taking a slider off the plate away and swinging through one well below the zone.
I genuninely don’t know what to do with Riley at this point, other than hope that going home to Mississippi over the All-Star Break provides him the mental break he needs. Extend it a few days after the break, if needed - we can cover third for a series or two using Jorge Mateo and Mauricio Dubón.
But Mike Yastrzemski, hitting behind Riley with two outs, got up in the count 3-1 and forced Santana to come attack him. It didn’t work out. Yaz got an elevated four-seamer and demolished it, at 104.8 mph off the bat and 403 feet to right, clearing the bases for his third career grand slam.
With the lead now at five runs instead of one, the Braves sat down closer Raisel Iglesias in favor of longman Victor Mederos, who worked around a leadoff single to seal the victory (and impressed in the process, hitting 100 mph and picking up six whiffs in 11 swings).
Today’s Player of the Game
Let’s hear it for Jimmy Baseball!
The book on shortstop Jim Jarvis both entering the season and when he was first called up was that he’s going to give you some good defense, make plenty of contact, but there wasn’t much power in his game.
There’s still not much power in his game…except for one swing.
Jarvis hit his first big league homer today, getting an elevated first pitch fastball from reliever Cam Sanders and depositing it in the right-field seats at 101.7 off the bat.
Jarvis, who finished a triple shy of the cycle, credited the team’s hitting coaches and their pregame work with him after the game for his three hits. “You should have seen the BP I was taking before the game,” he told BravesVision sideline reporter Paul Byrd. “Me and Tim (Hyers), DC (assistant hitting coach Darnell Coles), and Eddie (Perez) were in there working and they got me a little feel that, y’know, worked. All the credit goes to the coaches.”
Not to be one-dimensional, Jarvis also made a difficult inning-ending double play look easy, fielding a ball on the second base side of the bag, beating the runner, and then making an off-platform throw to first.
Said Jarvis to Byrd, “I try to take deep breaths before each pitch. My heart rate’s still going; I’ve got a lot of adrenaline out there. (But I’m) just trying to slow my brain down and not let everything speed up on me.”
It’s at the point where Atlanta likely needs to let Jarvis play every day between now and the trade deadline, to see if consistent playing time can unlock a quality bottom-of-the-order performer. While outside outlets have been linking Atlanta to any potentially available shortstop, from CJ Abrams to Corey Seager, the answer might be sitting right under their noses and they’ll hopefully find out one way or the other over the next month.
What You’ll Be Talking About
Acknowledging the dreadful performances of both Austin Riley (0-5, 4Ks) and the Braves going 0-2 on ABS, blowing their challenges by the middle innings after missing 0-1 and 0-0 pitches, let’s talk about Bryce Elder.
I wrote before the game about how he needed to figure out what pitch mix was right for him - the four-seam and slider-dominant one he had earlier this season, or the sinker-heavy one that he’s mostly used during this slide.
He went with neither today, instead going slider/4S/cutter the first time through the order and then making his cutter the primary pitch the second time through. And the cutter performed, getting six whiffs in 19 swings, as well as two more called strikes, with the entire arsenal seeing only nine whiffs on the day.
The batted ball inputs weren’t great: of Elder’s 14 batted balls today, seven were hard-hit and his average exit velocity was 90.6 mph. The batted results followed the inputs, with Pittsburgh tagging him for four runs (three earned) on five hits and two walks in four innings. He gave up three home runs, including back-to-back solo shots in the bottom of the third, and a two-run shot in the 4th.
Truth be told, not everything was Elder’s fault - Reynolds should have struck out on a front hip cutter that Drake Baldwin wouldn’t challenge before the hanging slider that was hit for a homer, as well as the last homer being for multiple runs because the previous batter reached on catcher’s interference by Drake Baldwin.
But at the end of the day, Elder has to execute better and he didn’t - both of the solo homers were on pitches left out over the plate, and he consistently struggled to get the third out in several innings, pushing up his pitch count and making these scenarios possible.
Looking for more discussion about this game?
Here’s today’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 heading to St. Louis for their final series before the All-Star Break. Here are the scheduled starters for their matchup with the Cardinals this weekend.
Fri: LHP Chris Sale vs Kyle Leahy
Sat: Reynaldo López vs LHP Matthew Liberatore
Sun: Hurston Waldrep vs Dustin May
I almost forgot what winning a series felt like!
I agree HEARTILY on two of your comments. First, give Jimmy Baseball his op. Rid yourself of the $20MM/year IR project. Second, Riley has gone from pitiful to disgusting: and its not his fault. The Braves need to sit him. GET DUBON to 3rd. But for goodness sakes, DO SOMETHING!!