Braves Lose Series on Saturday Night After Being Hacked by the Dodgers
The Los Angeles Dodgers hammered the Atlanta Braves, and they lost tonight’s game 11-2 to officially lose the series to LA. What you need know about the competition is as follows. In his third career start against the Dodgers, Atlanta’s resident sinkerballer struggled in his third start of the season. Elder gave up seven hits (three home runs) and four walks in just 3.1 innings, while only managing four strikeouts.
Elder pitched 71 pitches tonight, 41 of which were strikes, yet he barely managed to avoid Dodgers hitters. On twenty-eight swings, he picked up just nine whiffs and gave up six hard-hit balls. Elder appeared to have trouble with locations tonight as all three of his home runs came off of pitches that were left waist-high.
After entering the game, Dylan Lee gave Atlanta some innings, pitching 2.2 innings in which he gave up three hits, no runs, and three strikeouts. Thanks to his lengthy bullpen appearance, Atlanta was able to close the game with just Jackson Stephens and Tyler Matzek (0.2 IP, 3R/1ER), sparing some of their more formidable pitchers who appeared in relief last night and might be needed again tomorrow. Recently, Matt Olson, Austin Riley, and Ronald Acuña Jr.—the Braves’ “Big Three”—have been struggling.
Acuña seems as though he might be recovering. He scored a run while going three for four. Acuña recorded three hits (one of which was a double) and three of his four batted balls were officially hard-hit balls: a 105.2 single off reliever Gus Varland in the seventh inning, a 107.7 mph double off Tyler Glasnow in the sixth, and a 103.4 mph single off the pitcher in the fourth. In order to advance to scoring position, he also stole a base—his 24th of the season.
Riley only managed one hit, but he still managed to score Acuña from the second base with a brilliant single at 108.2. Ronald only managed three hits in this game, which accounted for half of the team’s six hits overall. Tyler Glasnow, who came into this game as MLB’s leader in strikeouts and won’t give it up after striking out ten Braves in this one, just baffled Atlanta. While the Braves went only one for ten with runners in scoring position and left six baserunners stranded, he recorded fourteen whiffs and a 32% CSW.
Max Muncy, a third baseman for the Dodgers, outperformed Atlanta’s offense on his own tonight, hitting three home runs and totaling four RBIs. He hit a combined 1,187 feet of home runs against Bryce Elder in the second inning, Tyler Matzek in the seventh, and Jackson Stephens in the eighth. On Sunday in the late afternoon timeslot, the Braves complete the series. Ace Max Fried (2-0, 4.02) of Atlanta will take the mound to face off against James Paxton (3-0, 3.51), an offseason addition. The first pitch is set to begin around 4:10 PM ET.
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