Today's Three Things: Walt Weiss Gambles Poorly With Injury-Shortened Bullpen in Loss
The Atlanta Braves couldn't execute the late-game bullpen plan due to an injury, so Walt Weiss went in the exact opposite direction and it backfired.
The Atlanta Braves lost game two against the San Diego Padres 7-6 in ten innings from San Diego’s Petco Park on Tuesday night.
Here is Today’s Three Things from the contest.
The Turning Point
This was a crazy game, with Atlanta batting around in the top of the 2nd and knocking Griffin Canning out of the game with four runs after he recorded only two outs, just for San Diego to score five of their own in the bottom-half of the inning off of JR Ritchie.
(We’re going to get to the decisive 7th inning, don’t worry).
But the Braves had a chance to take lead back in the 8th inning and weren’t able to execute. Michael Harris got to second base with one out after Fernando Tatis Jr. sprinted over to a ball at the foul line and then just…didn’t catch it. It’s possible that he saw first baseman Ty France charging in and briefly took his eyes off the ball, but it’s still a play that a two-time Platinum Glove winner should make. After Ozzie Albies moved Harris over to third via groundout, Matt Olson came to the plate with a chance to retake the lead for Atlanta.
Instead, he got jammed on a 1-1 inside slider and popped it up to third, ending the threat and stranding the go-ahead run on base. The Braves would get another opportunity to bring that run home in the 10th, when pinch-runner Ha-Seong Kim advanced to third on Austin Riley’s leadoff flyout, but Rowdy Tellez struck out and Eli White grounded out to short to end their half of the first extra frame with no runs. Manny Machado then walked the game off on the first pitch he saw with a grounder back up the middle, which scored ‘Manfred Man’ Jackson Merrill from second base for the win.
Today’s Player of the Game
Moved up to the leadoff spot, Harris delivered. He finished with three hits, including two doubles, while scoring a run, driving in another, and making a key catch or two in the outfield.
Mike’s season stats are back in his usual exemplary range, erasing any lingering questions about if last season was a fluke or not. This year, Harris is hitting .310 with a .863 OPS, just a shade below Matt Olson’s .868 for the best on the team. And with Olson’s uncharacteristic off night (0-4. 2 strikeouts) and Drake Baldwin’s cold bat since returning from the injured list, it’s safe to argue that Harris is Atlanta’s best hitter at the moment.
What You’ll Be Talking About
Walt Weiss’s bullpen decisions.
With JR Ritchie looking rocky after a lengthy second inning, one where the Padres scored five runs, veteran longman Carlos Carrasco started to stretch and toss. Atlanta finally went to him after Ritchie finished five innings, asking the veteran to handle the bottom of San Diego’s lineup in the sixth inning with the Braves leading by one.
It’s the rare high-leverage inning for Carrasco, but Cookie got through it just fine, inducing a pop-out, a fly-out, and a ground-out.
And then Walt Weiss left him out there for the seventh inning, with the top of the order due up, and it did NOT work out.
Carrasco gave up a leadoff homer to Fernando Tatis Jr., which tied the game at six.
This wasn’t a workload issue - Atlanta’s entire high-leverage cadre was relatively well-rested, having not thrown since either Friday or Saturday.
This wasn’t a “no-alternatives” issue- Dylan Lee was actively warming up in the bullpen and could have entered the game for the 7th.
But instead, Weiss left Carrasco in the game to give up a homer…and then let him continue to pitch, allowing a single, a sacrifice bunt, and a lineout before finally going to Lee for the final out of the inning.
After the game, Weiss explained that Robert Suarez was unavailable with a bout of forearm tightness, and so, extrapolating from there, you can figure out how Weiss came to the conclusion that Carrasco needed two innings:
Robert Suarez is unavailable, so that opens one of the final three innings, with Dylan Lee getting one and Raisel Iglesias getting another.
Didier Fuentes pitched on Tuesday (although he only threw four pitches) and so, as a newly converted reliever for this season, they don’t want to ask him to get hot two days in a row (and three of the last four).
James Karinchak threw 22 pitches last night and was only available in case of an emergency.
Dylan Dodd (39 on Monday) and Reynaldo López (58 on Sunday) were both down today.
All that being said, it’s really hard to justify skipping over Fuentes or not trying to stretch Lee and Iglesias into four or five outs each just to avoid using Carrasco against Fernando Tatis Jr. in a one-run game.
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 hoping to avoid a sweep in tomorrow evening’s series finale. Martín Pérez 6-3, 2.78) will take on today’s call-up, lefty JP Sears (2026 debut) at 8:40 PM ET.