In a game that first crawled due to a deluge of walks (but few runs) and then saw dueling late-inning paroxysms in each team’s final time at the plate, the Braves eventually emerged victorious. But boy, was it a winding path to get there.
At the beginning of this contest, things seemed like they were going to drag on forever with little to show for it. After a one-walk, no other action first from Martin Perez, the Braves took aim at Michael King, who dominated them a few weeks ago in San Diego, and…
…he did not dominate this time. In fact, King walked the first three batters he faced, grimacing and looking generally uncomfy all the while. A groundout from Michael Harris II plated a run, but both Austin Riley and Mike Yastrzemski kind of lost the plot and went down looking. Yastrzemski, in particular, looked at five straight pitches to end the inning… the Braves’ track record with guys skimping on rehab assignments this year is looking abysmal.
Staked to a small lead, Perez did his normal thing — it just happened to work out this time. He walked two in the second, but then recovered with two punchouts. The Braves got a couple of singles against a resurgent-ish King in the bottom of the inning, but Ozzie Albies struck out on a changeup that was literally in the other batter’s box. There was another walk from Perez, this time of the leadoff variety, in the third, but nothing else. King followed suit, but again, nothing doing from the bats. Perez had a quicker fourth, three up and three down thanks to a double play. Meanwhile, the Braves kinda-sorta tried to rally against King with a leadoff double from Mauricio Dubon and an infield single by Brewer Hicklen, but two weak flyouts kept it a 1-0 game.
Some combination of “Perez didn’t have a rehab assignment and had thrown 75 pitches” and “Perez had a 3/4 K/BB ratio in four innings” ultimately convinced the Braves to go to the bullpen for the fifth. Dylan Dodd came in and was delicious, throwing an 11-pitch frame with two strikeouts and a first-pitch groundout. King stayed in, and worked around a two-out single. Didier Fuentes followed Dodd and had to work a little harder (18 pitches), but had his two strikeouts, one groundout inning all the same. King’s night finished with a flourish, a nine-pitch frame that featured a strikeout of Hicklen. He rebounded and once again mystified the Braves despite the rocky start, with a 7/4 K/BB ratio — a 7/1 K/BB ratio after the first three batters.
Needing another frame to presumably bridge to Dylan Lee and Raisel Iglesias, the Braves stuck with Fuentes. It was a solid tactical decision, but of course, those must inevitably be punished, and Jackson Merrill took Fuentes’ third pitch in his second inning of work, an 0-2 offering over the plate, and demolished it for a game-tying solo homer. The Padres later collected a couple of one-out bloop singles, but pinch-hitter Gavin Sheets flied out. With Fernando Tatis Jr. batting, the Padres pulled off a double steal (that probably would’ve been an inning-ending out had Drake Baldwin’s throw to third not been way high). This just had the effect of taking the bat out of Tatis’ (.331 wOBA, .357 xwOBA) hands, and giving the inning to Luis Rengifo (.260 wOBA, .299 xwOBA). Sure, Rengifo had the platoon advantage against Fuentes, but he’s a switch hitter and is a career .300ish wOBA/xwOBA guy. He popped up a first-pitch, down-the-middle fastball to end the innings. Thanks, Padres!
Adrian Morejon, one of San Diego’s lockdown arms, came on for the bottom of the seventh. The Braves again attempted to rally, as both Drake Baldwin and Matt Olson mashed singles despite lacking the platoon advantage. Unfortunately, Morejon easily struck out Albies and got a groundout for Harris, putting Austin Riley in the limelight. Riley’s looked much better of late, but tonight wasn’t a great showing for him, and his PA against Morejon was emblematic of his struggles. Morejon tried to get a chase and fell behind 3-0; Riley then took a pitch down the middle. Taking 3-0 is fine, but Riley was apparently dead-set on swinging 3-1 and waved at a pitch in the dirt. He then wheeled back around to dead-set taking for whatever reason, striking out on another changeup that was broadly in the zone. There’s a process thing here that’s just not fully percolating with Riley, and maybe he’ll figure it out, but it wasn’t really heartening to see him fail miserably on that specific sequence. If you’re going to swing, wouldn’t the 3-0 pitch or 3-2 pitch be a better one to swing on?
Anyway, with the game still tied, it was time for the other Delicious Dylan (Lee). He matched his partner in left-handed bullpen crime with an 11-pitch inning of his own, even if Merrill gave another ball a ride to deep center for the third out.
And, with all that, a 1-1 tie in the bottom of the eighth, this became a completely and utterly different game.
Wandy Peralta came on for the Padres. After pinch-hitter Eli White grounded out, Dubon singled to right, bantering with Tatis, who had robbed him of a hit yesterday on a similar drive that was hit further towards the wall. Jim Jarvis then came through, softly yanking a slider despite the lefty-lefty matchup down the right-field line for a well-placed, go-ahead double as Dubon rumbled, stumbled, but still made it home without a throw. Hicklen then got a hanging changeup and hit a more conventional, rocket double to left to make it 3-1. After a walk, Peralta gave way to Randy Vasquez. Albies and Olson then proceeded to dunk balls onto the outfield grass, and it was 5-1. Riley followed later with a single up the middle, and then Dominic Smith pinch hit for White (two pinch hitters in the same spot in the same inning!) and bounced a grounder over the first baseman to score the seventh run. Three of those runs in the six-run eighth seemed like ridiculous tack-ons… except they somehow ended up being needed.
The hero of Game One of this series, Victor Mederos, came on given the six-run differential in the ninth. Fate and BABIP were not as kind to him this time. With a rain shower materializing, the Padres went walk-double-single, and then Harris tried to make a sliding catch on a ball in front of him and whiffed it, turning it into a triple. It was suddenly 7-4, which meant that it was Raisel Iglesias time.
So, Iglesias came on, and Rengifo, the guy who popped out with the sacks packed against Fuentes on a hittable fastball, got another hittable fastball from Iglesias and obliterated it into the stands in right. It was now 7-6. Hmm. But, all’s well that ends well. Iglesias diced up Manny Machado on a few pitches, getting him to whiff on an up-and-away fastball that still clipped the zone. Ty France I guess took note and didn’t swing at the same pitch, except it was called a strike anyway to end the game.
So, the Braves have guaranteed they won’t lose this series to the Padres at home. They haven’t won a home series against the Padres since 2018, but they can do so with a victory tomorrow… and they have Chris Sale pitching, so that helps. The Phillies got bonked by the Dodgers again, so the division lead is back to four. All in all, a pretty good night in Atlanta, even if it seemed interminable at first, and wheeled from “hahaha” to the nervous version of “hahaha” pretty quickly in the eighth and ninth. Tomorrow’s game is a very early 12:15 pm ET start, so don’t miss it unless you have to do things like “work” or “eat lunch” or whatever.
