The Atlanta Braves swept the Houston Astros with a 4-2 win on Sunday afternoon in Daikon Park, officially winning the National League East for the first time since 2023.
Here is Today’s Three Things from the contest.
The Turning Point
The top of the 6th inning.
Atlanta wasn’t able to get much of anything going against Houston staff ace Hunter Brown, who struck out ten batters but needed 98 pitches in just five innings to do it. And once he left, replaced by lefty Bryan King, the Braves got to work.
Michael Harris II led off the inning with an eight-pitch walk, one of two on the game for the centerfielder, with Mauricio Dubón immediately doubling him to third with a ball to left. Ozzie Albies came up and got sawed off by King, but the baseball gods bestowed the BABIP luck on Ozzie and his 64 mph bloop fly ball landed in shallow right field, scoring a run to tie the game at one each.
And that brought up Mike Yastrzemski, left-on-left for just the 36th time all season. It didn’t make a ton of sense at the time, with multiple righties on the bench like Austin Riley and Sean Murphy. But manager Walt Weiss stuck with Yastrzemski and was rewarded for his trust in the veteran.
Yastrzemski got down 1-2 and fouled something off before getting an elevated fastball, middle-up but still in the zone, and did not miss it - the roof scraper came off the bat at 101.4 mph and landed half a dozen rows deep in the right-center seats, pushing Atlanta to a 4-1 lead.
It was Yastrzemski’s first left-on-left homer of the season.
Today’s Player of the Game
No shock here; it was Yastrzemski, getting 86% of the vote.
The veteran free agent signing had a rough start to his season, hitting just .179 with a .474 OPS in April. He then dealt with another slump in June, .148 w/ an .468 OPS, but he’s rebounded nicely down the stretch. He’s hitting .300 with a .939 OPS so far in September, hitting two home runs in this series alone and scoring nine times this month already. With the loss of Lane Thomas (oblique) for what we believe will be the entire postseason, Yastrzemski's ability to handle lefties gives Atlanta more flexibility with the roster.
What You’ll Be Talking About
The job that Walt Weiss has done this season, and how today exemplified that.
We’ve already mentioned Yastrzemski getting the big hit today, but that wasn’t the only lever that Weiss correctly pulled (or didn’t, in Yaz’s situation).
After Pérez got BABIP’d in the 5th, with Brice Matthews reaching via bunt and Yordan Alvarez getting a 70 mph single to left, Weiss pulled Pérez and went to Victor Mederos with the bases loaded and only one out.
It worked; Mederos struck out future Hall of Famer José Altuve and then got a weak groundout of Yainer Diaz to escape the inning.
AJ Smith-Shawver got two innings of relief, trying to bridge to the bullpen, and struck out four of the seven batters he faced, allowing only an Alvarez ground ball single to right. The youngster looked excellent, dotting 100 mph fastballs and burying splitters for chase. He’s likely going to be a great weapon out of the bullpen this October, especially if this improved control and Stuff shows up in a relief role.
And Dylan Dodd earned his second career save (and first in a conventional save situation) by striking out the side, including Jeremy Peña, to secure the win.
Looking for more discussion about this game?
Here’s today’s Postcast, where I went live to break down the contest.
What’s Next for the Braves?
The Braves will have a much-needed off day tomorrow before they take on the Cincinnati Reds in Truist Park this week. Here are the pitching matchups for the series:
Tuesday: JR Ritchie vs Brandon Williamson
Wednesday: Chris Sale vs Andrew Abbott
Thursday: Tyler Mahle vs Brady Singer
Six months ago we didn't know what to expect, especially with Schwellwnbach out. Then it was Strider and Waldrep. Although it has been a bit of a roller coaster ride, to stay in first place most of the season is a real tribute to Weiss. I do worry about a Game 3 SP (if needed) but being at Truist for all three games of the Wild Card level should help.
Thanks for the great coverage and insight all season. But, please get your cap rotation in order for the playoffs! (Fingers crossed the no cap today doesn’t matter since tomorrow is an off day). No way Braves make a run wothout a strong Lindsay cap performance on the podcasts. Use the next 2 series to figure out what’s working (geel frew to try a cap you haven’t used this season) and show up strong for the playoffs!