3 Takeaways from Friday night’s Atlanta Braves big comeback vs the Phillies

3. Changes During the ABs

Let’s review the events of the bottom of the 9th inning for a moment:

• Swanson singled to left
• Freeman struck out swinging
• Donaldson grounded out to 3rd (advanced Swanson)
• Markakis walked
• Riley doubled to left (scoring Swanson)
• McCann singled to left center (scoring Markakis and Riley)
• chaos ensues

With all I just said earlier about the Philly bullpen, there’s something I left out:  Hector Neris did not pitch badly.

The Philadelphia strategy failed, but Neris’ effort was on point.

Neris lives and dies with a split-finger pitch.  He threw…

• 3 to Swanson (100%)
• 6 to Freeman (100%)
• 2 to Donaldson (100%)
• 2 to Markakis (50%… more on that in a second)
• 3 to Riley (75%)
• 4 to McCann (80%)

They were working, too:  he got Freddie Freeman to chase; he got Donaldson out quickly; he nearly had McCann and Riley as well.

The key AB may have been Nick Markakis‘.  Without him there, Philly would doubtless done something differently.

Markakis owns Neris… bats over .500 against him.  Nick didn’t chase those 1st 2 splitters.  As a result, the Phillies chose to walk him (technically pitched around him) with those last 2 fastballs.

The Riley AB

This is highly unusual, and effectively put the winning run at the plate in the form of Austin Riley.

The figuring was likely that the rookie would have no chance at the splitter, and indeed, his profile suggests that he has somewhere between an “exceptionally high” and “disastrously high” likelihood to swing and miss at fastballs or breaking pitches.  A splitter represents the best of both.

Riley was briefed – no doubt:  expect the splitter.  As it happens, they tried a “show me” fastball to start that AB.  It worked, too: Riley missed the 95mph heater.  He then took the next splitter for a ball.

The 3rd pitch was another splitter right at the bottom of the zone.  Whiff.  2 strikes.  One more oughta finish him off.

Except that this last pitch may have been partly his worst split and partially Riley making an adjustment to go down lower to get it.  It was up into the strike zone by a few more inches.

Either way, it was ripped for a double.  Heckuva job by the rookie.

The McCann AB

At this point, the Braves are still down by a run, though a single would win the game.  Early on, the start of McCann’s appearance looked good:  he ignored the 1st splitter, then watched as a lonely fastball floated outside.  2-0.

Then Brian went fishing.  Splitter low.  Whiff.  Splitter low.  Whiff.

2-2 and he really didn’t look good on either swing while simultaneously seeming to mutter to himself a chastisement for going after those pitches.

Then there was an educated guess… at least that was appeared to be the case.

Neris hadn’t hardly thrown any fastballs at all this inning, and none that had been strikes.  McCann anticipated that another splitter was coming and he set up to try and steer it to the opposite field.

Neris obliged with yet another pitch at the same height as before, with a lean to the outside part of the plate.

It was a perfect pitch.  But McCann knew what was coming – everybody in the park knew what was coming – and he didn’t miss this one.

About 100 seconds later, he welcomed in a Gatorade bath all over his red jersey.

So the takeaway here?  The Atlanta Braves beat the best Philly reliever while he was throwing his best stuff.  That will leave a mark.