Today's Three Things: Ugly Defense and Philly's Big 10th Inning Doom Atlanta
The Atlanta Braves allowed three triples, with two of them being terrible misplays.
The Atlanta Braves dropped the middle game of their series with the Philadelphia Phillies 8-5 in ten innings from Truist Park on Saturday night.
Here is Today’s Three Things from the contest.
The Turning Point
I’m going to go with the top of the 10th.
Tied at four each, Atlanta sent out lefty José Suarez, not closer Robert Suarez, to handle the top of Philly’s order.
It did not go well.
The long man is usually reliable in left-on-left situations, but wasn’t tonight. After walking leadoff man Trea Turner, also walked Kyle Schwarber and gave up a two-RBI single to left to Bryce Harper. After both runners advanced on a wild pitch, he finally recorded an out by getting a strikeout of Adolis García. But Brandon Marsh, who Philly aggressively protects from left-on-left matchups, worked a five-pitch at-bat and singled home both runners to push Philly’s lead to four runs.
With the decline of Aaron Bummer’s velocity (and subsequent Stuff+ scores), it really feels like acquiring a second leverage lefty reliever should be high on the team’s priority list between now and the trade deadline. As for Suarez, it’s feeling likely that he is reaching the end of his rope with the pending Spencer Strider return. Allowing twenty hits and ten walks in just 15.1 innings isn’t good enough. Reliever James Karinchak pitched three innings for Gwinnett on Friday, potentially a sign that the team’s preparing to move on from Suarez and potentially use Karinchak as a bulk arm.
Today’s Player of the Game
The dimunitive second baseman recorded three hits tonight, including two doubles, and both scored a run and drove in one more.
Truth be told, the process of the at-bats wasn’t actually good - Ozzie chased a lot tonight, but still came away from out-of-zone swings with some base hits. Zack Wheeler was busting him away, forcing a pop out, but Ozzie took Tanner Banks to the opposite field on a backdoor sweeper and got behind from chasing José Alvarado but jumped on a hanging cutter and pulled it down the left field line. Ozzie couldn’t complete the drill, though, grounding out in the 9th on a changeup both down and away.
It’s possible to recognize good performance while also acknowledging that the process was poor, and that was Ozzie’s night at the plate today.
Honorable mention goes to Bryce Elder, who logged another quality start with seven innings of three-run ball. He struggled to miss barrels, picking up only six whiffs and allowing 13 hard-hit balls, but he battled through to give Atlanta’s pen a half-day.
What You’ll Be Talking About
Atlanta’s outfield defense.
With Michael Harris II in the lineup at designated hitter while he nurses his sensitive left quad, Atlanta’s outfield defense left much to be desired today.
All three outfielders misplayed a fly ball that resulted in a triple, the first time Atlanta had allowed three in the same game since 2016. Mike Yastrzemski laid out for a two-out flare into left, diving short of the ball and watching it roll all the way to the wall. Ronald Acuña Jr. went up in the right field corner to catch one that bounced above his glove and rolled back to the infield, with Matt Olson retrieving the ball halfway out in right field, while Eli White badly misplayed a flyball and then slipped as he adjusted.
Unfortunately, the triples kept Philly in this game. Three of their four runs in regulation came off of those triples, one from each batted ball.
This was an ugly game all-around, and the weather definitely played a factor. Initailly delayed for about an hour, the rain picked up twice during the contest but the teams palyed through. White’s outfield misplay was partially due to him slipping as he tried to recover from a bad jump, and José Suarez notably had trouble gripping the ball in the tenth, which negated his slider.
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 win/loss.
What’s Next for the Braves?
Atlanta’s looking to win the series in a Sunday afternoon matinee. Chris Sale (4-1, 2.79 ERA) takes on Aaron Nola (1-2, 5.06) at 1:35 PM ET.