Today's Three Things: One Does Not Simply Pitch a Perfect Game Against the Atlanta Braves
Atlanta went from being perfect game'd to taking a 3-0 lead and winning the game across the final three innings
The Atlanta Braves took down the Pittsburgh Pirates 3-0 in PNC Park on Wednesday night, tying the series at one game each.
Here is Today’s Three Things from the contest.
The Turning Point
Pirates starter Jared Jones, who has been trying to get back to form this season after elbow surgery, was literally achieving the pinnacle of pitching tonight: a perfect game.
But a perfect game is nine innings, and Jones, who has yet to exceed 81 pitches in any start this season, was done after 77 pitches and six innings. Ozzie Albies almost immediately broke up the perfect game with a one-out single in the 7th inning.
But the real turning point was the 8th inning.
Reliever Dennis Santana picked up two quick outs, getting Mauricio Dubón to strike out (ending his 15-game on-base streak) and inducing an Austin Riley groundout. But Santana gave up a five-pitch double to Mike Yastrzemski, getting got on a slider that could not have been more middle-middle had they set it on a pitching tee.
And then Santana’s former batterymate, Joey Bart, came to bat.
Bart has been behind the plate for 221 of Santana’s career plate appearances, and so he knew that one of Santana’s recent tendencies was throwing first-pitch sinkers. Bart was ready.
Bart said after the game that he was just trying to be aggressive in that situation, with a simple game plan: “Get something early in the count across the plate and put a good swing on it.”
I’d say that swing was pretty good, yeah.
Today’s Player of the Game
With 69% of the vote on the Postcast, Joey Bart won his second Player of the Game award of the season.
The Buford, GA native and Georgia Tech product hasn’t been in Atlanta that long, appearing in just ten games, but he’s already making an impact with the Braves. Bart has two home runs and a .716 OPS, which in that small sample makes him one of the most productive Braves catchers this season not named Drake Baldwin.
We’re not quite there yet, but with the struggles of Dominic Smith (.594 OPS since May 5th), there’s a world where the Braves keep Bart on the roster once Sean Murphy returns. Baldwin could serve as the primary designated hitter, possibly rotating through with Ronald Acuña Jr. and/or a deadline acquisition, while Murphy mans the plate on most nights and Bart rotates in after pinch-hit opportunities and provides high-level insurance. Given his ability to hit lefties (a 111 wRC+ in that split going back to the start of 2023), he could get starts behind the plate in those situations if the team wanted to give days off to Murphy (who also hits lefties well, a 115 wRC+ in that same split).
What You’ll Be Talking About
With all due respect to the offense rebounding from being perfect game’d to win, I’d like to talk about Grant Holmes.
A lot of digital ink has been spilled about his inability to navigate the second trip through the order, with his OPS allowed in those situations (1.051 OPS) being nearly double what it is the first time through (.568 OPS).
Holmes bucked that trend today.
The first time through the order, he issued one walk, gave up one single, and hit one batter, striking out four. The second time wasn’t much worse: two singles and one strikeout, with no walks.
It was clear that the Pirates had a specific game plan of attacking Holmes early in the at-bat and making him labor, firing off a season-high 35 foul balls off the righty. But Holmes adjusted his pitch mix tonight, eschewing his curveball for more cutters and sinkers, and generally not allowing Pirates hitters to get comfortable in their at-bats.
More importantly, he stuck to that modified pitch mix instead of preemptively changing things for the second time through the order. Pittsburgh bent but never broke him, and he got through five innings for just the second time in his last six starts.
Not to be overlooked, Atlanta’s bullpen stepped up to close out the final four innings of the game with just one hit allowed, striking out six with one walk. Dylan Dodd stepped up for some leverage work, following Didier Fuentes and giving the Braves a scoreless seventh inning, before Dylan Lee and Raisel Iglesias took the final two frames.
With Robert Suarez due back sometime soon after the All-Star Break, this Braves pen has the potential to be one of the deepest it’s ever been, with potentially six or seven relievers all having spots in the Tree of Trust. While the rotation needs to give more than five innings consistently, having an elite bullpen on the backend can help mitigate that lack of length somewhat, provided it’s not every single night.
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?
The Braves will look to win the series tomorrow afternoon, with Bryce Elder (5-6, 4.01) squaring off with veteran Mitch Keller (6-6, 5.02) at 12:35 PM ET.