The Atlanta Braves dropped game three of their series against the Arizona Diamondbacks, 2-1, in Phoenix\u2019s Chase Field on Saturday night.<\/p>\n
Here is Today\u2019s Three Things from the contest.<\/p>\n
Believe it or not, the bottom of the 2nd inning. <\/p>\n
Holding a slim 1-0 lead, Bryce Elder<\/a> had runners on first and second after two ground ball singles got through his defense. Infielder Jose Fernandez<\/a>, in the game at first base for a slumping Carlos Santana<\/a>, led down a really well-executed bunt that died about a third of the way up the third base line.<\/p>\n Elder tried to field it anyway, not taking the time to plant his feet before throwing to first and sailing the throw up the right field foul territory. <\/p>\n (In retrospect, Elder would have been better off eating the ball and just dealing with a bases-loaded situation. He got a strikeout and a groundout of the next two batters, representing the last two spots in the order, although with bases loaded, they likely approach those at-bats differently.)<\/p>\n Because Ronald Acu\u00f1a Jr.<\/a> hadn\u2019t rotated down to back up the play, it allowed catcher Gabriel Moreno<\/a> to score from second and veteran Nolan Arenado<\/a> to score from first. <\/p>\n Look at where Ronald begins the play and how he doesn\u2019t really begin coming down towards the infield until after the ball sails wide of Olson. <\/p>\n The Diamondbacks wouldn\u2019t score again in this one, but neither would the Braves. <\/p>\n Despite the defensive error, I\u2019m giving the POTG to Bryce Elder. <\/p>\n Pitching seven strong innings, Elder allowed just four hits and the two unearned runs (that should really be charged to him, as it was his error they scored on.) Elder struck out eight and walked just one batter, a five-pitch AB versus Corbin Carroll<\/a> in the third inning where he just momentarily struggled to land anything in the zone. <\/p>\n But it\u2019s the way Elder got through these seven innings that is worth rewarding. <\/p>\n Elder allowed fifteen balls to be put into play. Only five of them were hard-hit balls and just three of them were in the air. Of the three hard-hit balls that did fall for hits, all three were singles and the righty didn\u2019t allow a single extra-base hit on the day. <\/p>\n He did well in just about every respect, finishing with 13 whiffs (seven on the slider) and a 31% CSW but also allowing just an average exit velocity of 84.1 mph on his batted balls. He got whiffs on all five pitches, although he continued to only throw his cutter to lefty hitters. Other than the throwing error, there wasn\u2019t much to be disappointed about from Elder in this one. <\/p>\n Austin Riley<\/a>. <\/p>\n The third baseman entered this game having been the final out of the inning six different times this season. He added four more tonight.<\/p>\n But more than that, just as with Elder, it\u2019s the way in which Riley\u2019s doing it. In the first inning with a runner on, he had a seven-pitch at-bat but watched a middle-middle fastball for strike three. In the third, with a runner in scoring position, he chased a slurve that bounced in the opposite batter\u2019s box for strike three. In the fifth, with runners on the corners, he at least put it into play, grounding out to shortstop. He added to that with a foul pop fly out behind the plate in the 8th, meaning none of his batted balls left the infield in this one. <\/p>\n I\u2019m not saying that the Braves should bench him or anything, but I\u2019m starting to wonder how much longer the self-professed \u201cimpatient\u201d Walt Weiss<\/a> will continue to let him bat 4th or 5th before moving him down a bit in the lineup. <\/p>\n Here\u2019s tonight\u2019s Postcast, where I went live over on Locked On Sports Atlanta to break down the loss. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n The Braves are sending veteran lefty Mart\u00edn P\u00e9rez<\/a> (0-0, 0.00) to the mound for tomorrow afternoon\u2019s finale, opposite righty Brandon Pfaadt<\/a> (0-0, 7.50). First pitch is scheduled for 4:10 PM ET. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Atlanta Braves dropped game three of their series against the Arizona Diamondbacks, 2-1, in Phoenix\u2019s Chase Field…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":663953,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2394],"tags":[191,46,4166,5,192,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-663952","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-atlanta-braves","8":"tag-atlanta","9":"tag-atlanta-braves","10":"tag-atlantabraves","11":"tag-baseball","12":"tag-braves","13":"tag-mlb"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116350019851930233","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=663952"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663952\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/663953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=663952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=663952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=663952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}