The kind of game that certain teams win, and other teams lose

Good thing we were the home team. This game was a Rorschach blot: it contained a lot of good things and a lot of frustrating things in almost equal measure. It feels like the kind of game that good teams win and bad teams lose: for want of a good qualitative measure for things like “chemistry,” “clutchness,” “ability to win,” and so forth, this game feels like a pretty good illustration. In the years where it feels like it’s just not our year, this is the exact kind of game that slips through our fingers. If you’re apt to take a single game as a sign, this was a good sign.

Tl;dr: We came, we saw, we won! Good thing we’ve got an off day. We could use it.

What went well

Long, long ago, back before the interminable ninth inning and the wondrous tenth, Reynaldo Lopez pitched yet another really good game. He needed just 82 pitches to go seven sparkling innings, the only blemish coming on a solo homer by Jesus Sanchez. He probably could have gone out for the eighth, but the pen was fresh, and Joe Jimenez worked a perfect eighth inning.

What didn’t

Austin Riley did nothing at the plate – 0-4 with two strikeouts. He hasn’t had a multihit game since April 15; in his last eight contests, he’s got a measly four hits (two singles, two doubles) and four walks with nine punchouts. Fortunately, he would redeem himself. More on that later.

Frustratingly, the Braves only had three runs to that point in the game, having squandered a fair number of opportunities. In the first inning, Ronald Acuña Jr. led off with a walk and a stolen base, then Michael Harris II singled him to third, and he came home on a balk.

Then Riley struck out. Matt Olson hit by a pitch, Marcell Ozuna singled home Harris, and… Orlando Arcia and Jarred Kelenic grounded out. Two runs was lovely, but it felt like a missed opportunity.

In the third, the Braves got two singles and a double and only netted a single run, because Michael Harris II got caught stealing on yet another Riley strikeout. And Ronald grounded into double plays in both the second and the ninth.

Harris and Marcell Ozuna had three hits each, and all three of the Braves’ RBIs between them. (No RBI on the balk.)

Ronald is pressing. So are Riley and Matt Olson. It is, of course, remarkable that the team’s three best hitters are slumping while two other starters are injured, and the offense has mostly been Harris and Ozuna. It’s as though the magnetic field completely flipped: early in the year, the offense was scoring runs in bunches and the starting rotation was a mess, and right now, the pitching is carrying the hitters.

Oh, and Olson made a brutal error in the ninth.

Facing the top of their order, Raisel Iglesias loaded the bases: a single to Luis Arraez, which you can forgive; a single to Bryan De La Cruz on a poorly executed changeup; and a single to Jazz Chisholm Jr., who reached for a pitch way outside the strike zone and poked it through the hole on the left side as Arcia was covering second base. (Arguably, the defense shouldn’t have left a hole that size if they were going to pitch outside to Chisholm.)

That loaded the bases for Josh Bell, who hit a grounder to Olson that probably should have been a double play. Instead, the ball kicked high, and because his body wasn’t square to home plate, it bounced off his chest and into the camera well, allowing two runs to score.

How we won

At that point, there were men on second and third and no outs, and they brought the infield in. Incredibly, Iglesias kept it there. He induced a weak excuse-me tapper at the plate by Jesus Sanchez, followed by a grounder to Arcia, who hosed the runner at the plate, and finally a strikeout. It was the full Iglesias experience.

The bottom of the ninth was another missed opportunity. After Kelenic struck out, Snit decided to empty the bench, bringing in Adam Duvall and Travis d’Arnaud as pinch hitters. (Both the announcers and Gameday were confused about the order of the two, but fortunately there was no issue with one of them being mistakenly announced and burned.)

As it happened, Duvall hit for Chadwick Tromp and then d’Arnaud hit for Luis Guillorme, ensuring that he’d be catching if the Braves failed to score.

Duvall hit a pop fly into absolute no man’s land, winding up with a Texas League double, and d’Arnaud continued his hot streak with a full-count walk.

Then Ronald hit into a double play. The only silver lining was that meant he’d be returning as a ghost runner in the bottom of the tenth.

So then we went to extras, with A.J. Minter greeted by a Manfred man, and once again, things got a little too interesting. Minter’s first batter grounded out to the right side, moving the runner to third. Once again, Snit brought the infield in, and once again, it worked, as Cristian Bethancourt pulled a sharp grounder to third. Riley lunged, spun, and threw home from his knees, preserving the tie. But Arraez got another single, De La Cruz worked a walk, and Minter had to strike out Chisholm with the bases loaded to keep a zero on the board.

After a commercial break, we resumed play with Acuña on second and Michael Harris II at the plate. And, really, that’s all we could have hoped for. He hit the ball 94 mph, precisely into the gap between the left and center fielders, and though it hung in the air for what felt like forever, the poor Marlins outfielders couldn’t reach it in time, and as soon as it touched grass it was certain that the game was over.

(No matter how many times you rewatch the replay, I guarantee that one thought will recur in your mind: Andruw would’ve caught that.)

Onward

This is not a perfect team, but neither are any of the others, and the scoreboard says that the Braves have the best record in all of baseball. On Friday, they’ll face the team that’s a few percentage points in second place, the Cleveland Guardians. I knew that they were pretty good but I didn’t quite expect this: still, it’s not shocking to learn they have one of the best bullpens in baseball, effective defense, and are one of the better contact teams in the league.

Still, to this point in the season, their two best hitters by far have been leadoff man Steven Kwan and cleanup hitter Josh Naylor. Jose Ramirez is always dangerous but has slumped thus far, and the bottom half of the lineup is not nearly as imposing. Their starting pitching has been pretty good, but their bullpen has been superb. Let’s score some early runs!

Have a great night, everybody.