© Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports
TAKEAWAYS: López Shines, Offense Mashes Late to Take Series Versus Astros
The Atlanta Braves are in prime position for a series sweep in the finale tomorrow
The Atlanta Braves won the middle game of the series against the Houston Astros 6-2 from Minute Maid Park on Monday night, giving Atlanta the early series win and positioning them for a sweep tomorrow afternoon.
Here’s what you need to know about from the contest.
Reynaldo López continues to excel
The former reliever, who signed a three-year deal worth $30M this offseason to convert back to a starter, is looking more and more like a bargain. Entering the night with a 1-0 record and 0.75 ERA in his first two starts, it’s actually going down after this one. López gave Atlanta six innings of scoreless baseball, allowing four hits and one walk while striking out seven.
14 total whiffs in this one, five on the fastball (on 51% usage), eight on the slider (38%), and one on a changeup (5% usage, as was the curveball). His velocities were good, too - we knew there’d be some natural reduction in velocity from single-inning relief stints to a starting role, but he averaged 95.5 mph and was able to reach back to get 97.5 when he needed it.
I thought he’d be good - I had no idea he’d legitimately be great to start 2024.
Ronald Acuña Jr. gave us an early scare
The Braves lost Ozzie Albies to the injured list on Tuesday afternoon, being placed on the 10-day after last night’s 2nd-inning HBP resulted in a broken toe.
Ronald looked like he might be joining Ozzie, coming up limping after a sliding catch attempt in the 2nd inning in this one. The flyball hit him squarely on the knee and caromed all the way to left field, where it was retrieved by Jarred Kelenic. Head athletic trainer George Poulis checked Acuña out and he stayed in, finishing the contest without incident.
Ozzie stayed in last night, as well, just to go on the injured list after lingering soreness and x-rays revealed the broken toe today. We’ll be watching this one closely.
Orlando Arica, have yourself a night
The Braves shortstop, back in the lineup after getting a night off on Monday, hit a 2nd inning homerun to put Atlanta on the board and then stretched the lead to two runs in the 7th with a sacrifice fly RBI.
The Braves shortstop was an All-Star in 2023 before fading down the stretch, but he’s started off incredibly hot in 2024 - he’s batting .368 and has reached base in all but four of the team’s games to open the season.
Marcell Ozuna also extended his league-leading hitting streak to fifteen games with a ninth-inning single, part of a Braves rally that once again scored multiple runs in the 9th inning. Scoring four more runs tonight in the final frame, Atlanta’s now scored 17 runs in the ninth inning alone this season.
Tyler Maztek is almost back
The Braves lefty reliever is working his way back from Tommy John surgery, but don’t confuse the fact that he’s out there and competing with him being BACK.
The fastball’s both still missing a tick of velo and the underlying characteristics that made it so good - the induced vertical break isn’t quite where it used to be, and it’s coming from a different angle that’s not as good as what it was when he was the hero of the 2021 NLCS.
(Induced vertical break, referred to as “IVB”, is the ability of a fastball’s backspin to resist gravity. Seventeen inches of IVB or more is generally considered the differentiator; he averaged over 18.5 inches in the past and is around 16.5 right now. Vertical Approach Angle, or “VAA”, is the angle from the release point to the plate - as the pitcher is throwing from an elevated mound, he’s throwing down, but the closer to zero you can get that angle to be, meaning it’s almost a perfectly straight line rather than significantly angled down, the more that the IVB can confuse a hitter because the ball not only appears to resist gravity, it could actually look like it’s rising.)
But Matzek looked good tonight. He got a scare from Jeremy Peña to open the 7th - the Astros shortstop absolutely launched a ball to deep center field, coming off the bat at 102.8 mph and flying 400 feet. It had an expected batting average of .800 and would have been a homer in several MLB ballparks, but it was nothing but a flyout tonight.
Matzek then got Jose Altuve to strikeout on a slider, which does look as good as it was in Matzek’s heyday, followed by getting Yordan Alvarez to groundout on a changeup to put up a clean sheet.
What’s next for the Atlanta Braves?
Atlanta’s finishing the series against the Astros tomorrow afternoon. First pitch is scheduled for 1:10 PM ET, and the pitching matchup is Max Fried versus Houston righty J.P. France.