Today's Three Things: The New Guys Lead Braves to Win vs Mets

Deadline acquisitions Tyler Mahle and Lane Thomas were the catalysts of a series-clinching Braves win

The Atlanta Braves took down the New York Mets 6-3 in Truist Park on Wednesday night, winning the series two games to one.

Here is Today’s Three Things from the contest.

The Turning Point

Let’s talk about the bottom of the seventh.

Atlanta was holding a narrow 3-2 lead as the Mets moved from lefty starter Zac Thornton to the bullpen. With righty Dedniel Núñez coming on, the Braves went from the LHP-mashing Lane Thomas (who opened the scoring with a home run in the 2nd) to RHP-mashing Mike Yastrzemski.

That was the right lever for Walt Weiss to pull.

Yastrzemski got a mistake pitch from Núñez, a 1-0 center-cut fastball, and Yaz just barely got it out, depositing it into The Chop House’s flower box at 102 mph off the bat.

Austin Riley then came on and got a mistake pitch of his own, an upper-rail slider, and absolutely obliterated it - 438 feet into the left-center stands at 108.5 mph off the bat.

After an ABS-assisted strikeout, Ronald Acuña Jr. hit a fly ball off the wall in right; he thought it was a homer off the bat and admired it for a beat too long before taking off, but still made it safely to second on the play.

With Jefry Yan coming on to replace Núñez, Drake Baldwin singled Ronald home with a flare single to shallow left field, pushing Atlanta’s lead to 6-2. New York would threaten only one more time all game, with the crooked number all but ending the contest.

Today’s Player of the Game

Receiving just over 50% of the vote on the podcast, it’s Tyler Mahle.

Coming off six scoreless innings against the Yankees with nine strikeouts, Mahle showed mercy on the Mets…but just a little, striking out seven and allowing a single run in his six innings of work.

Mahle rode with the simplified fastball/splitter pairing at the behest of catcher Sean Murphy, picking up 13 of his 15 whiffs on the pairing and throwing his cutter and slider only a combined 13 times among his 93 pitches.

It’s hard to find fault here with the outing: he had more groundball outs (five) than flyouts (three), kept his average exit velocity allowed under 90 mph at 89.8, and put up a 35% CSW thanks to the 15 whiffs and another 18 called strikes.

His ERA in Atlanta through two starts is a minuscule 0.75, and he’s lowered the 5.13 he had at the time of the trade to 4.64 through two outings.

What You’ll Be Talking About, Part 1

Atlanta’s offense tonight, both the good and the bad.

The Braves had twelve hits tonight, mashed three homers with six total extra-base hits, and went 3-for-7 with runners in scoring position. Riley was a triple away from the cycle, while Drake Baldwin had three singles of his own and both sides of the left field platoon hit homers.

But at the same time, the Braves had opportunities to hang some crooked numbers on Zac Thornton and mostly biffed them. Runners on first and third in the 3rd with no outs? Matt Olson gets one in on a double play (no RBI’s get awarded on a GIDP) and Ozzie Albies flies out. Runners on 1st and 3rd with no outs in the 5th? Acuña singles one in but gets hung up between first and second, and then a groundout (Baldwin) and strikeout (Olson) end the threat with only the one run scoring.

It’s mostly the little things that are keeping the Braves from blowing these innings open, and I’m still a bit worried that they won’t get cleaned up by October.

And yes, the offense was mostly quiet against the New York Yankees, which was to be expected against the caliber of the opponent and that awesome rotation. But to not cash in these opportunities against the 2026 Mets? To have the middle four in the order (Olson through Dubón) go a combined 0-16 with three strikeouts? It’s frustrating, and hopefully this is just me kvetching about something that won’t be an issue in October.

WYBTA, Part 2: Electric Boogaloo

The bullpen, and I’m not talking about the solo shot given up by Dylan Dodd in the 7th.

To caveat this from the jump: I’m not worried about Raisel Iglesias.

But my goodness, we’ve got to stop asking the man to pitch in non-save situations. He gave up a home run in the 9th to Bo Bichette on a poorly sequenced five-pitch at-bat where nothing was elevated, at all. Is it really a surprise that Bichette was ready to go down and elevate a sinker when he saw two sliders, a sinker, and a four-seamer all down?

Iglesias then followed that up with a 2-0 double on a changeup that caught entirely too much of the zone before issuing a seven-pitch walk, all without a single out in the inning. Only a very Mets-like sequence - groundout, pop-up, groundout - was able to get him out of the inning and strand the runners on 1st and 3rd.

Again, I’m not worried about Raisel Iglesias. He’s only blown three saves this season, and has consistently been one of the best closers in the game outside of that usual two-week stretch every season (a month last year).

But this was avoidable. Atlanta pushed the lead to four in the seventh inning. They had time to finish getting Tyler Kinley warmed up and ready to pitch, and should probably just sit Iglesias down in those situations rather than asking him to pitch in a non-save situation. Anecdotally, he feels like one of those closers that aren’t nearly as effective in those game states.

“LOLMETS” Moment of the Game

In the fourth inning, outfielder Carson Benge got a ground ball past a diving Matt Olson and into right field, and despite Ronald Acuña Jr. needing to run 212 feet to the warning track near the corner to get it, he decided to hold up at first…which was good, because Ronald’s throw to second base was 90.7 mph and would have easily beaten him to the bag.

(Ronald doesn’t get enough respect on defensive metrics for plays like this, where the runner just doesn’t even attempt to advance.)

So what did first baseman Jared Young do the very next inning when he hit a line drive that one-hopped in front of Acuña and died at his feet?

He tried for second base.

Ronald uncorked a laser that got to the bag when Young was still at the edge of the grass cutout and just beginning his slide, with Mauricio Dubón easily making the tag to erase a leadoff base hit.

The outfielder won’t try to run on Ronald but YOU, a first baseman, think it’s a good idea? What did you think was going to happen here, exactly?

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?

Atlanta has a sorely needed off day before hosting the Diamondbacks for three in Truist Park this weekend. Both teams have announced their rotation for the series:

Fri: Chris Sale vs Brandon Pfaadt
Sat: Grant Holmes vs LH Eduardo Rodriguez
Sun: Bryce Elder vs Michael Soroka