© Mady Mertens-USA TODAY Sports
Braves Cruise To Easy Win Over Texas Rangers to Win Series on Saturday Night
The Atlanta Braves are in position to sweep the defending World Series champion Texas Rangers tomorrow night
The Atlanta Braves used early and late runs to knock off the Texas Rangers 5-2 in Truist Park to officially win the series between the teams and be positioned for a sweep on Sunday evening.
Here’s what you need to know about from the contest.
Charlie Morton's results don’t match the stuff
There was a curious trend in Morton’s first three starts of the season - he hadn’t made it out of the sixth inning in any of them, leaving after 5.2 in all three.
Not tonight, as Morton mostly cruised through this one. Minus some trouble in the 2nd, where Morton gave up his two runs on two of his four hits allowed, the veteran sailed through his six innings, striking out four and walking two on 91 pitches (53 strikes).
As usual, Morton threw almost 50% curveballs, getting four of his five whiffs on the pitch. And I don’t know what to think here. Only five whiffs and a 23% CSW (Called Strikes plus Whiffs) is extraordinarily low in both regards for Morton, but he also only issued two walks and didn’t give up a homer. The results outperformed the inputs, essentially, and I don’t know what to think about it - is this just an off night, or something we should worry about going forward? Just a confusing outing.
Atlanta couldn’t capitalize against Nathan Eovaldi
Rangers starter Nathan Eovaldi had a sloppy outing in this one - six walks and 2 HBP in 5.1 innings - but Atlanta couldn’t seem to ever break through with the big hit off of the veteran righty. The Braves went one-for-six with runners in scoring position off of Eovaldi, stranding six runners in some pretty big spots.
Atlanta loaded the bases in the first and came away with nothing, while they left a runner on third in the 2nd inning and a runner on second in the 6th and couldn’t bring them home. The three runs Atlanta scored off of Eovaldi earlier in the 2nd inning, though, ended up being enough to give Atlanta a lead they wouldn't give back.
Travis d’Arnaud is so hot right now
Fresh off the heels of his three-homer night on Friday, d’Arnaud got a second straight start in this one and, once again, proved impossible to stop. He was walked in his first two plate appearances, got on via HBP in the third, and then did this in a 3-2 game in the 8th:
The homer pushed Atlanta’s lead from one run to three, giving the Braves a much better cushion entering the 9th inning. It was the fourth homer of the season for the Braves catcher and despite the fact that he normally sits down for one game in a three-game series for load management reasons, it’s hard to imagine that Brian Snitker would willingly remove that bat from the lineup right now.
Michael Harris II also shined tonight - the centerfielder, restored to the #2 spot in the order, went three-for-five with an RBI.
In unfortunate offensive news, Marcell Ozuna’s MLB-best (and career-best) seventeen-game hit streak was snapped tonight - he went 0-3 with a walk and a strikeout.
What’s next for the Atlanta Braves?
Atlanta’s back it on Sunday, but again with a different broadcast than usual. First pitch on Sunday is scheduled for 7:10 PM ET on ESPN as part of “Sunday Night Baseball”, with Darius Vines set to take the mound against RHP Michael Lorenzen.