Remember when we just complained about the third time through the order? We didn’t know how good we had it.
Holding on to a slim lead and wanting to give their top bullpen arms a break, the Braves opted not only to run Bryce Elder through the Red Sox order a third time, but also a fourth. While the first two outs of the eighth occurred with little drama, the Braves didn’t budge when a double put the tying run on second. Up came Willson Contreras, and not much later, a no-doubter of a two-run shot turned the game around. While the Braves rallied in the ninth, a ricochet didn’t quite go their way, and that was that. They’ll need to win tomorrow to take the series.
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The beginning of this game zipped along, though things got a bit muddy in the middle innings. Jarren Duran hit a double to start the game, but Elder held fast and struck out two to prevent him from advancing. Drake Baldwin then jumped all over a mis-located Payton Tolle sinker and smashed it to deep center for another leadoff homer. Ozzie Albies followed with a barrel of his own, but his didn’t carry out to left. The game then went into turbo mode. There were 13 straight outs before Jose Azocar ripped a double off Tolle. Baldwin then worked a walk, but Albies and Matt Olson made outs in the air to keep it a 1-0 game.
The Red Sox threatened with a couple of soft singles to start the fourth. A number of Braves losses this season have been precipitated by terrible defensive plays in key moments, and that also happened here: Contreras hit a routine, probably should’ve been a double play ball to Austin Riley at third, but Riley booted it and then didn’t even get a force at second in time. The next batter hit a lineout to left that worked a sac fly: the Braves inexplicably took forever to decide whether to challenge, ultimately opted to, but to no avail. (I’m not sure why they thought, if they took them so long to decide whether to challenge, that somehow the borked replay system currently in place in MLB would reward them with an overturn, but here we are.) Elder and the Braves were able to wriggle out of the jam with a couple of outs in the air, but the game was now tied.
And, thus it stayed tied, as there were ten consecutive outs before Azocar hit another double. Starting Tolle’s third trip through the Braves’ gauntlet, Baldwin then came through again, lashing a 108+ mph liner to left that gave the Braves another lead, though he was thrown out trying to take second.
The Braves have been somewhat inconsistent with the urgency of their pitching management this season. I think both sides are understandable, though understandable doesn’t mean pleasant to watch. Pushing the reliever button early could suggest needing to take it easy here and there, though the Braves have played a number of close games due to their great position player production on both sides of the ball, which has made it somewhat hard to find a place to do so. To his credit, Elder didn’t melt down the third time through, working around a two-out Contreras single in the sixth, and then getting three straight balls on the ground to strand a leadoff double in the seventh.
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Meanwhile, the Braves just weren’t doing much against Tolle. He wasn’t exactly defeating them, more just letting them hit the ball in the air over and over, but Cedanne Rafaela made a number of nice catches in center and the Braves just didn’t get any ball-in-play fortune, receiving a .130 BABIP on the night.
So, then came the fateful bottom of the eighth, which also heralded Elder’s foray into ye olde 4TTO. There was a pop-out. There was a groundout. Wilyer Abreu poked a double the other way, but the Braves didn’t press the bullpen button. Contreras fouled off a hanging changeup. He chased a buried slider. He took a buried slider. Elder threw a third straight slider. It was low, below the zone, but not so low that Contreras couldn’t demolish it for a game-winner.
Tolle went 1-2-3 in the eighth, finishing his night with a pretty weird line that included just a 3/1 K/BB ratio, a homer allowed, and a grounder rate below 20 percent. Elder was similar with a 3/0 K/BB ratio, but his grounder rate was over 50 percent. The part that would’ve made me gnaw on my shirt if I had pica or whatever was that the Braves ultimately summoned Martin Perez for the ninth, where he had little trouble. If you were going to use Martin Perez for an inning in a close game, why not just use him for two innings, and not have Elder pitch to a lineup a fourth time in the same game? On the one hand, these are the luxuries you can afford to partake in when you have the best record in baseball. On the other hand, I’d rather it be some other team engaging in the eff-ayy-eff-oh Olympics.
The Braves actually threatened in the ninth against Aroldis Chapman, though it didn’t actually result in a comeback. Albies popped out, and Olson hit a very hard liner that was unfortunately right at the shortstop. Riley then reached on a botched throw from that same shortstop, and Chapman floundered about a bit with back-to-back walks on four pitches each.
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That brought up Ha-Seong Kim, who hasn’t really hit at all since returning from his Injured List stint and rehab assignment. Kim had a chance to play hero, and he almost did, lining an 0-2 pitch back up the box and off Chapman, who tumbled to the ground but recovered and tossed it to first in time to end the game. If the ball had gone through Chapman, it’s likely an easy out; if it ricochets away a bit further, this game is tied and I’m probably writing some other flavor of recap, the massive 34TTO blunder/self-inflicted wound overshadowed by whatever else happened. But, as we’ve seen for a while now, the beneficence, or lack thereof, of a ricochet off the pitcher seems to be nigh-deterministic, and this one did not go the Braves’ way.
They can still win the series tomorrow. Hopefully they’ll go back to chasing wins and whatnot.
