Today's Three Things: Spencer Strider Looks DOMINANT in Atlanta's Win

The Atlanta Braves got six vintage innings from Spencer Strider and a four-run second inning to put this one away early.

The Atlanta Braves took down the Los Angeles Dodgers 7-2 in UNIQLO Field at Dodger Stadium¹ on Saturday night.

Here is Today’s Three Things from the contest.

The Turning Point

It came early today, in the 2nd inning.

Atlanta already had a prime scoring opportunity in the first inning, loading the bases without an out, but getting only one run in.

The 2nd inning wouldn’t go the same, but it looked like it would at first. A strikeout and a lineout sandwiched back-to-back singles from Eli White and Jorge Mateo, with Drake Baldwin then walking to load the bases.

And then Ozzie Albies got down 0-2, missing on two changeups from Blake Snell. One strike away from getting out of it, but Snell went back to the well one more time. Despite throwing that third consecutive changeup nearly on the plate, Albies went down to get it and shot the ball to left, scoring both White and Mateo.

Per Statcast, this changeup was just .66 inches off of the ground when Albies shot a low stinger into the second cut of left field with his four-iron.

After a passed ball moved Baldwin and Albies to 2nd and 3rd, Matt Olson then followed with his own RBI single that scored both men and staked the Braves to an early 5-0 lead, one they wouldn’t relinquish.

Today’s Player of the Game

It’s hard to even consider giving it to anyone but Spencer Strider.

Coming off one of the worst starts of his career in Colorado, where he went only 3.1 innings with three runs on four hits and five walks, expectations weren’t exactly high across Braves Country for what Strider would do against the defending World Series champions.

Expectations be damned, Strider was dominant tonight.

The righty came out throwing gas, striking out Shohei Ohtani with multiple 97 mph fastballs and finishd the frame with a soft single allowed but two punchouts. He then didn’t allow another hit in the next five innings, with his only blemish being two walks, while striking out a total of eight in the outing.

It’s hard to find much negative about the outing - Strider averaged 96.4 mph and 17 inches of induced vertical break on his fastball tonight, both relatively close to the metrics he identified for his four-seamer for it to be successful. He had 15 total whiffs, with five on the 4S and seven on the slider, and put up a 36% CSW for the contest.

If one were to nitpick, Strider’s pitch usage against righties is still incredibly four-seam reliant - while he threw just 38% heaters to lefties and mixed in both his curveball (15%) and changeups (11%), he was 61% four-seamer to righties and threw just two curveballs to those batters (6% usage). With the heater’s average velocity dropping to ‘only’ 95.5 mph in the final frame of the outing, Strider’s clearly not in midseason form but still able to be more than effective.

While it’s difficult to truly proclaim Strider “back”, it’s increasingly likely that he is a lot closer to 2023’s dominant form than the diminished version we saw last year, one with reduced velocity and just average fastball shape.

What You’ll Be Talking About

Woth all due respect to the tough offensive night for Sean Murphy (0-5, 3Ks), the bigger point of concern tonight was the struggles of Reynaldo López.

Now working out of the bullpen due to both diminished velocity and effectiveness, López was entrusted with preserving the shutout over the final two innings. LA even made things easier for the righty, removing Freddie Freeman, Kyle Tucker, and Max Muncy for load management reasons in the 7th inning.

López wasn’t able to do it.

The righthander allowed two runs in his two innings, coming on four hits and a walk. He struck out just one, but also allowed a two-run home run to Andy Pages. López averaged just 92.6 mph on his four-seamer and picked up just two whiffs on twelve swings against the pitch. Of the five fastballs put into play, the average exit velocity was 96.2 mph.

Both the shape and the velocity of his entire arsenal has regressed since he was involved in a fight with Angels DH Jorge Soler last month, and even a move to relief has not been able to help him find his own form. What will it take?

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 are looking to win the series on Sunday afternoon, sending breakout starter Bryce Elder (3-1, 2.02) to the Dodger Stadium mound opposite LA lefty Justin Wrobleski (5-0, 1.25) at 4:10 PM ET.

1. Yes, that’s really the name