Today's Three Things: Nobody Wins Three Straight One-Run Games Against the Braves

Atlanta came out on the right end of this sunday's pitching duel, keeping New York off the board in extras to avert a sweep

The Atlanta Braves held on to defeat the New York Yankees 2-1 in ten innings at Yankee Stadium on Sunday.

Here is Today’s Three Things from the contest.

The Turning Point

This game was incredibly close throughout, and nothing illustrates that more than the 10th inning.

Matt Olson, who got the Braves on the board with a solo shot in the 7th, opened extra innings as the ‘Manfred Man’ on second base, so Ha-Seong Kim was sent in to be the pinch-runner. Michael Harris II immediately cashed in the unearned run, battling Paul Blackburn to a 2-2 count and then ripping a sinker through the right side. After Ozzie Albies flew out to center, the Atlanta rally quickly died - Dominic Smith got down 2-2 and then struck out despite all five pitches being outside the strike zone, while Harris was thrown out trying to steal on strike three.

With the DH Smith grabbing a glove to play first base, Tyler Kinley was asked to come on and pitch the 10th, facing the bottom of the New York order. He got Spencer Jones to pop out on an up-and-in slider (!), George Lombard Jr. to ground out to third, and struck out former teammate Ryan McMahon with elevated heat to seal the win for Atlanta.

Today’s Player of the Game

Grant Holmes.

One of Atlanta’s most maligned starters and commonly the first man suggested to move to the bullpen, Holmes has shifted to more of a contact-management strategy the last two times out and is executing it flawlessly. He scattered just three hits across six scoreless innings, striking out two and walking two.

Of New York’s 17 batted balls today, just six were hard-hit and Holmes converted those BBEs into eight groundouts to just two flyouts, two lineouts, and one popout. While he still allowed an uncomfortably high average exit velocity of 92.8 mph, most of the hardest-hit balls were on the ground, with only two hits coming off of batted balls both over 95 mph and greater than a 10° launch angle.

Unlike last time out, where Holmes rode his sinker as his primary fastball, this time the attack was based around that exemplary slider for Holmes. He still finished with just ten whiffs and a 25% CSW, but was both very successful at getting ahead of hitters (14 of 21 first pitch strikes) and not pre-emptively changing up his sequencing, a persistent issue for Holmes this season.

While I’m still a bit worried about this contact management version of Holmes’ ability to get strikeouts in October, it’s hard to argue against the notion that things maybe aren’t as dire with the Braves rotation as they were portrayed to be just a week ago.

What You’ll Be Talking About

The “big game” nature of this bullpen.

Dylan Dodd was the first man out of the bullpen door to replace Holmes, getting two outs but walking one before Didier Fuentes was called on to strike out George Lombard Jr. Dodd’s rounded into a true leverage arm for Atlanta, having a 1.98 ERA on the season in his 36.1 innings and while still having a slight vulnerability to lefties, being pretty dependable no matter who is up to bat.

Fuentes stuck around for the 8th, getting got by Trent Grisham for a game-tying solo shot on an elevated fastball but otherwise looking filthy, striking out three of the five batters he faced. He maxed out at 99.9 mph and is likely going to play a major role in Atlanta’s attempts to recreate Detroit’s “pitching chaos” in October.

Raisel Iglesias rebounded from a blown save on Friday to pitch a clean ninth inning, striking out two of the three batters he faced, while Tyler Kinley not only pitched a clean 10th with one strikeout for the save, he didn’t allow the ‘Manfred Man’ to even advance to third base.

For the day, Atlanta’s pitching staff held the Yankees to an 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position (3-for-25 for the weekend) and stranded five on base. The lone run they gave up was on a solo shot, while the defense turned two double plays behind them.

For as maligned as the non-Chris-Sale rotation members have been, both of them left the Braves in a position to win their respective games in a weekend road series against the American League’s betting odds favorite to make the World Series.

What’s Next for the Braves?

The Braves are heading back home for three against the Mets. Here are the pitching matchups for the series:

Mon: Bryce Elder vs Christian Scott
Tue: Martín Pérez vs Noaln McLean
Wed: Tyler Mahle vs LHP Zac Thornton