Today's Three Things: Michael "Kirk Gibson" Harris Does It Again
The Atlanta Braves got a clutch three-run triple to get them back into it and then Michael Harris provided yet another massive homer off the bench.
The Atlanta Braves scored eight unanswered runs in an 8-6 comeback win over the Colorado Rockies on Friday night in Denver’s Coors Field.
Here is Today’s Three Things from the contest.
The Turning Point
Let’s go with the top of the 8th inning.
Atlanta was down six runs early - we’re getting to that - but got one back on a solo shot from Matt Olson in the 4th and another on an RBI groundout by Jonah Heim in the 7th.
But the 8th inning is where they made this one into a game again.
The inning started off with Ronald Acuña Jr. and Ozzie Albies drawing walks, sandwiched around a Drake Baldwin strikeout. Colorado, sending danger, went from middle reliever Zach Agnos to flamethrowing youngster Jaden Hill.
Didn’t matter. Matt Olson guarded the zone, drawing a six-pitch walk to bring up Mauricio Dubón. The utilityman had a five-pitch at-bat with exactly one in the zone, but it didn’t matter - sitting at 2-2, he extended for an elevated fastball on the outer third and shot it down the right field line, clearing the bases and ending up on third with a triple.
Austin Riley continued his hot night with an 0-2 sacrifice fly to right, scoring Dubón from third and tying the game at six apiece.
Michael Harris II, once again held out of the game with his left quad tightness, came up as a pinch-hitter in the 9th after catcher Jonah Heim drew a walk. And once again, baseball’s hottest hitter proved to be the hero for Atlanta, launching a 1-2 inside sweeper over the right field wall.
The homer staked Atlanta to a two-run lead, a margin which closer Robert Suarez held in the 9th for his fourth save as a member of the Braves. Didier Fuentes, who was warming up to enter a 6-2 game in the 8th and ended up in a 6-6 game, was credited with his first MLB win after being the pitcher of record when Harris hit his homer.
Today’s Player of the Game
In the closest vote to date on the Postcast, Mauricio Dubón was tonight’s MVP.
Dubón finished the game 2-5 with three RBI and a run scored, accounting for all the runs scored in the 8th inning. It was a nice surge of production for the utilityman, who had dipped a bit from his unsustainable early-season pace to the tune of hitting only .218/.271/.327 across his last fifteen games. Most importantly for the offensive role Dubón’s playing this season, he’s struck out only two times in the last seven games.
He also started the game in centerfield in lieu of Harris, one day after starting in left field in place of Mike Yastrzemski. On the season, Dubón’s already made 23 starts at shortstop, four in left, three in centerfield, and one at third base.
Between his contact-heavy approach and ability to deliver quality defense at any position on the diamond, it’s beginning to feel more and more important that Atlanta locks up the utilityman before he makes it to free agency this upcoming winter.
What You’ll Be Talking About
The rough start from Grant Holmes, even though it wasn’t as bad as it felt like it was.
Holmes was charged with five runs in the first innings and another in the second, but this was more Coors Field than Holmes. He opened with a six-pitch walk to noted Kevin Youkilis devotee Edouard Julien, but after that, Holmes executed some good pitches that were put into play by some really good bits of hitting. Mickey Moniak singled on a 0-1 fastball up and away, one that seemed to catch a bit too much of the zone because heaters lose some induced vertical break at altitude. He then laid an 0-2 slider on the black away from Hunter Goodman, but the former All-Star catcher went out and got it for a ground-rule RBI double. TJ Rumfield then singled on a four-seamer below the zone, with Tyler Freeman bunting a run in on a fastball above the zone that he went up to get. The final base hit of the inning came on a 0-2 fastball well above the zone, with DH Troy Johnston going up to get it and shooting it to the opposite field to load the bases.
Five hits, but exactly one baseball was entirely in the strike zone when it was put into play. While there are probably some locations that Holmes would admit he wants back - Goodman’s slider could have been farther off the plate with two strikes, for instance - none of these were bad pitches, hung in the heart of the strike zone.
And credit goes to Holmes here. After Mickey Moniak took him deep in the 2nd inning for a six-run lead for Colorado, he buckled down and made it through five total innings before leaving at 87 pitches. Atlanta had the bullpen starting to work in the 2nd inning, preparing to make the contest into an impromptu bullpen game, but Holmes settling in meant that the pen was spared from being burnt in game one of a three-city road trip.
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?
It’s one of the more exciting pitching matchups of the year, with veteran ace Chris Sale (5-1, 2.31) squaring off with young flamethrower Chase Dollander (3-2, 2.25) at 8:10 PM ET.