Today’s Three Things: Riley 3:16 Says Atlanta Wins Game One

The Atlanta Braves nearly dropped the Chris Sale start, but struggling veterans Austin Riley and Ozzie Albies were the key performers when it mattered.

The Atlanta Braves rallied late against Philadelphia’s bullpen, beating the Phillies 5-3 in game one of the NL Wild Card from Truist Park.

Here is Today’s Three Things from the contest.

The Turning Point

The bottom of the 8th inning.

Atlanta had just lost the lead, scoring a single run in the 6th but stranding a runner on third and then watching Philly take two on a J.T. Realmuto triple. It was just one of many missed opportunities for Atlanta, who stranded six on base and went just 2-for-7 with runners in scoring position.

But against Philly closer Jhoan Duran, who was working his second inning in the 8th, they finally cashed in an opportunity. He got two quick outs in just five pitches, but then the Braves got to work.

Michael Harris II showed some rare plate discipline, taking a splitter away and a fastball in before Duran gave him a splitter over the plate. It wasn’t great contact, a chopper over the mound, but his speed made shortstop Trea Turner rush the throw, which was wide of the bag. Ozzie Albies then followed the single with a hit-by-pitch, taking a curveball off the foot but giving the Braves two runners on.

And then Austin Riley came to the plate. Duran started him off with velo, a 99.9 mph fastball, but it was middle-in instead of away, and Riley didn’t miss it.

It’s a similar dynamic to the final two runs charged to Sale, who reached via HBP and single in the 7th and then scored on Realmuto’s triple.

Today’s Player of the Game

With 98% of the vote, Austin Riley.

Riley said after the game that “it felt good, no doubt,” to get the home run. He was looking for something over the plate and was aware of the velocity, and Duran obliged. As we’ve said a few times down the stretch here, when Riley’s going the other way to the right-center gap, it’s a sign that he’s making quality contact and potentially getting into a groove.

I was prepared to name him the goat of the game if Atlanta lost - he had an opportunity to drive in a runner on 3rd with only one out, as I alluded to earlier, but he swung at a 2-0 pitch in the dirt before hitting a soft grounder to Edmundo Sosa at third. He redeemed himself with this home run, and quieted the conversation surrounding his difficult season for at least one more day.

What You’ll Be Talking About, Part 1: The offense

If I had told you that Atlanta won five runs without any of the top three in the order finishing with a hit, you might not have believed me. The trio of Drake Baldwin, Ronald Acuña Jr., and Matt Olson went 0-11 with three strikeouts. (Acuña did reach once in the game via HBP.)

To give some credit where it’s due, Michael Harris went 3-for-3 and scored twice, while Albies scored twice on one hit, a walk, and an HBP.

But overall, the Braves had no answers for Jesús Luzardo, who they clearly expected to be an opener but instead threw 77 pitches across five innings. They did scratch across a single run in the 2nd, with #8 hitter Mike Yastrzemski shooting a weak grounder back up the middle in the rare left-on-left at-bat for Yaz, but the Braves finished with just three hits and one walk while striking out six times against “Zeus.”

But as we’ve discussed ad nauseum this week, they immediately cashed in against the bullpen, getting another run off of reliever Alex McFarlane and then the big homer off of Duran to win it.

And now, there are questions about Philly’s pitching plan tomorrow. Cristopher Sanchez is the scheduled starter, and Andrew Painter not working out of the pen today means he might be the bridge to Duran tomorrow. And Duran blowing the save means that he didn’t need to pitch the 9th, so his 27 pitches thrown today don’t preclude him from coming back in a win-or-go-home game two for Philly.

What You’ll Be Talking About, Part 1: The Catching

This is beating a dead horse here, but I got frustrated with some of the game-calling from Drake Baldwin behind the plate today. He tends to stick with a similar theme throughout the AB, whether it’s soft stuff, a specific location, or a combination of both.

We saw it numerous times today, and it was frequently a mistake.

The first example I’m going to point out here was a two-out double by Edmundo Sosa in the 5th, though it was moot after Chris Sale struck out the next hitter. Baldwin was clearly working on soft stuff down, calling five consecutive sliders in the lower part of the zone. He then wanted to change things up, calling…for a changeup in the lower part of the zone. It was in a similar part of the strike zone and Sosa finally got it in play. Why not run up the ladder with a fastball? Change either the eye level or radically change the velocity band you’re in, not just a differently moving pitch in the same part of the zone in an adjacent velocity band.

It then happened again with J.T. Realmuto’s triple. “Fastballs away” was the prescription this time, and he overdosed on it here after using it in the previous Realmuto AB.

Walt Weiss confirmed before the game that Sean Murphy would be behind the plate tomorrow for game two, so that’ll install Baldwin as the DH and provide a bit better sequencing behind the plate.

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 have a chance to wrap the series tomorrow and advance, but they’ll need to overcome likely Cy Young finalist Cristopher Sánchez to do it. Tyler Mahle gets the ball for Atlanta at 2:15 PM on NBC & Peacock.