Despite the fact that the Atlanta Braves were hot coming into this wekeend’s series with the New York Yankees and also that the Yankees themselves continued to be mired in a rut at the plate since losing Aaron Judge, this was still going to be a tough series up there in the Bronx. It always tends to be tough for Atlanta no matter which part of New York that they’re visiting and this weekend’s results proved to be another example.
Despite the offensive woes, the Yankees are doing some serious pitching
and it was on full display over the course of this weekend. Every run that the Braves scored was either scraped-and-clawed for or just a moment of brilliance via the homer. As such, Atlanta’s pitching staff needed to match New York’s level or this could’ve gone sideways. We ended up getting a series that was tight, tense and also weird at times. Let’s get into it, shall we?
Friday, July 7
Yankees 3, Braves 2
This one was (relatively) fun until it wasn’t! The story in the early portion of this contest was Tyler Mahle showing Braves Country just what he had to offer as a starting pitcher. Mahle proceeded to throw six shutout innings while striking out nine batters and going stride-for-stride with old friend and current Yankees starter Max Fried. The game stayed scoreless through seven innings largely because these two dominated while they were out there.
Circumstances changed in the eighth inning and initially it seemed like it would be the Braves starting the series off with a statement win. The deadlock was broken in the eighth inning by none other than Austin Riley, whose leadoff dinger broke the deadlock and then Matt Olson seemingly provided some insurance in the ninth inning when he led off that frame with a dinger of his own. Life was good, life was grand!
Then Raisel Iglesias entered the game for the save and the shakiness that he dealt with against the Marlins earlier this week followed him up to New York City. Iggy did get the leadoff man out which should’ve elicited a sigh of relief but instead, he ended up with George Lombard Jr. at third base thanks to a throwing error that was nobody’s fault but his own after he attempted to throw out Lombard at first instead of eating what would’ve been a tough play. Still, Iglesias was one out away from escaping with the save until he stumbled against Austin Wells for a double that put the Yankees on the board. Amed Rosario got on with a walk and then the recently-struggling Ben Rice came through with an RBI single to make it 2-2 and eventually send us to extras once Dylan Dodd finally put out the fire.
After Luis García Jr. decided to torment the Braves as a Yankees player (after doing so as a Nationals player not too long ago) by making a spectacular running catch to end Atlanta’s half of the tenth inning, Ryan McMahon went ahead and delivered the final blow by hitting a sacrifice fly with the bases loaded and one out to end a game that the Braves seemingly had in their back pocket. Blah.
Saturday, July 8
Yankees 5, Braves 4
Let’s fast-forward to the fifth inning. It’s 2-1 Braves heading into the bottom half of the inning and Chris Sale is moving along merrily. That changes immediately after George Lombard Jr. gets on with a leadoff walk after he managed to get two straight pitches overturned that home plate umpire Dan Merzel had initially called strikes. Sale’s dander was already up as a result of that and it was surely high after the light-hitting Spencer Jones picked this moment to hit his first big-league triple in order to plate Lombard and tie the game at 2-2.
Then, while Sale was dealing with Austin Wells with one out, Merzel called a balk on Sale and that allowed Jones to score the go-ahead run from third base. Sale was absolutely livid and Walt Weiss did his job by making sure that he went out there and got ejected instead of Sale. The apparent reasoning was that Sale didn’t declare that he’d be pitching out of the windup after having declared for the batter before Wells. Weird, but okay!
Anyways, Sale was done after six solid innings (which he ended with a 99.2 mph heater) and the Yankees celebrated his departure by giving Victor Mederos a very rude welcome to the game in the seventh. George Lombard Jr. once again made his presence felt as he hit an opposite-field blast to make it 4-2. Ronald Acuña Jr. countered with a dinger of his own in the eighth inning but then Ben Rice continued his unfortunately-timed revitalization by homering off of Danny Young to lead off the eighth. Atlanta nearly got something going in the ninth after Dominic Smith plated Mike Yastrzemski with a single but that was as close as they got and the series was dropped.
Sunday, July 9
Braves 2, Yankees 1
This one got off to a hilarious start because Chris Sale decided to let Dan Merzel hear some more of his thoughts about what happened during the previous afternoon. In a genius (and deranged) move, Sale got himself thrown out before Sunday’s game even started. Better to get thrown out of a game you’re not playing in than to have gotten the ol’ heave-ho while he was pitching on Saturday, right?
Anyways, I highly doubt that this fired up the Braves or anything like that but Grant Holmes apparently must still have a massive chip on his shoulder because he delivered another strong start. Fresh off of mitigating the Marlins for six innings earlier this week, Holmes proceeded to blank the Yanks as well for another six scoreless innings.
Holmes only struck out two batters but he only gave up three hits while he was out there. Considering how much of a problem the home runs have been for Holmes this season, the fact that he was able to keep New York so quiet (their own offensive struggles, aside) in that ballpark made for very impressive viewing.
The Braves needed Holmes to do what he did because Cam Schlittler was dealing while he was on the mound. Atlanta was left chasing ghosts until the seventh inning, which is when Matt Olson once again delivered a breakthrough blow. He turned around a 100-mph heater (Schlittler’s tenth pitch of the day that officially hit 100 on the gun — he had 12 other pitches that could’ve been rounded up to 100) and laser-beamed it into the seats in right field for a solo homer. Trent Grisham then responded with a dinger of his own off of Didier Fuentes in the bottom of the eighth inning and just like that, they were bound for extra innings in the Bronx. Raisel Iglesias did bounce back with a very quiet ninth inning that got the Braves to extras and that’s got to be mentioned.
The tenth inning ended up being pretty straightforward! Michael Harris II brought home Ha-Seong Kim with a leadoff single and was called upon to make sure that that one run stuck. This time, Tyler Kinley got the call to finish things off and this time, there was no drama or issues as he mowed down the Yankees in order to salvage a win for the Braves in the Bronx.
The best way that I feel like I can describe this series is that it felt like it was a big-time boxing match where it went the distance and was decided by the judges. There was very little separating these two ballclubs over the course of the weekend and it was extremely easy to envision a world where the Braves could’ve come out of the Bronx with the series win. It also could’ve gone incredibly poorly with the Braves getting swept, so I’d say that despite the disappointment from the first two games, Atlanta shouldn’t feel terrible about at least avoiding the sweep.
With that being said, this was definitely a frustrating one to watch. Iggy’s meltdown on Friday, the ump show on Saturday (and right before Sunday) and then the pitchers’ duel on Sunday definitely made for some tense viewing throughout and one of those series where it felt more like a grind than anything filled with thrills. Still, you’ve got to give props to the pitching staff for making sure that the Braves stayed in it while New York’s pitching staff seemingly dictated things throughout the week.
Tyler Mahle made a strong debut in a Braves uniform, Chris Sale was Chris Sale and Grant Holmes has continued to pitch like he’s got a chip on his shoulder. If Holmes in particular can continue to pitch like this then that’d be huge for the Braves. Now would certainly be the ideal time for Holmes to continue being able to get deep into games and maybe all the speculation surrounding the rotation could provide plenty of motivation for Atlanta going forward.
We’ll see if that’s the case as we start to get into the middle portion of July. Bryce Elder will be getting the ball to start the series against the New York Mets and hopefully he’ll be able to pick up where he left off and the Braves will be able to show that they can beat the other New York team for once. For now, Atlanta’s coming back home after an eventful three days in the Bronx and looking to put their feet back on the gas.
