Back to basics (i.e., three-run homers): Braves blast Rockies, 12-4

Michael Harris II and Marcell Ozuna hit three-run bombs in consecutive innings to turn another potentially blah affair against the Rockies into a rout

A lot of different intros come to mind for this recap. Lucky you: you can have all of them.

• Earl Weaver was all about pitching, defense, and the three-run homer. Well, the Braves got the three-run homer part down pat tonight, and it was more than enough despite lacking the other two.
• Bryce Elder had pretty much the best start of his career last time out. The Giants are a relatively poor offensive team, but they’re nowhere near as bad as the Rockies… and yet, Elder followed up his performance with one of the worst starts of his career. Fortunately, the Rockies lived up to their speed bump billing and helped the Braves bail him out.
• The Braves’ season went off the rails at Coors Field in late April, as the Rockies out-xwOBAed and outhomered the Braves in all three games (even as the Braves won two of them). This time, though, the Braves got back to basics: big bombs to swing the game in their favor, everything else be damned.

In short: Elder was bad, the Braves looked dead in the water, and then Michael Harris II connected for a three-run shot off Jake Bird, the Rockies’ ace reliever, to tie the game. An inning later, it was Marcell Ozuna’s turn to put three on the board with one swing, and the Braves didn’t look back. All that said, this game really had three phases.

The “here we go again” phase

Yeah, this game didn’t start out well. Elder got two quick outs, but then a hard liner single led to a down-the-middle 1-1 changeup (what? why?) to Ryan McMahon, who would not be blamed for cackling maniacally (he didn’t, as far as I know) while he easily blasted it over the fence in center for a two-run homer. The Braves immediately tried to battle back against German Marquez, but without homers, it wasn’t really going to happen. Ronald Acuña Jr. barreled a double to left-center on the first pitch he saw, and Alex Verdugo, whose placement in the two-hole tonight caused much confusion/consternation/ennui/dread/conversions to nihilism this afternoon, actually hit a ball hard to put runners on the corners. However, the rally fizzled: Marquez struck out Austin Riley, got a weak pop sac fly from Matt Olson, and then struck out Marcell Ozuna.

Another disaster awaited Elder in the second, but because it’s the Rockies, they didn’t actually pile on (yet). First there was a bloop double that resulted from Verdugo messing up a sliding catch on a weak pop in left. Then, not-so-old friend Orlando Arcia hit a routine grounder towards the guy who supplanted him, Nick Allen, only for the latter to fail to convert it into an out. Elder then plunked Keston Hiura, loading the bases with two outs. The Braves escaped with no damage, though: Tyler Freeman hit a down-the-middle 2-2 sinker weakly to Elder for a 1-2-3 double play, and after a walk, a hard-hit grounder was hit at an infielder for once to end the inning. Both teams squandered chances afterwards — McMahon had a one-out double to right in the third, making me wonder why the Braves don’t play hitters to pull when the hitters have the platoon advantage and the pitchers are coming inside.

It was the fourth where the bottom fell through for Elder. He started the frame by hitting Hiura again, and then walked Freeman. At that point, Elder had faced 18 batters, walked three, hit two (well, hit one twice), and struck out one. I’m not sure why you let him continue there, but we’ve seen this song and dance with everyone, not just Elder, at this point. What followed could’ve been worse, but it’s hard to feel pity for the Braves given that it was largely self-inflicted. First, there was a weak grounder up the middle that turned into an infield single when Allen couldn’t dive, glove it, and flip to second base in time. Then came a hard-hit single to make it 3-1, and after Aaron Bummer relieved Elder, McMahon got his third hit of the game by hitting a 50-50ish grounder hard and not at a fielder. Bummer escaped the inning thanks to a weird play where a bouncer was hit to Austin Riley, who stepped on third and then chased the runner down between third and home, which required replay review because I guess the third base umpire missed Riley stepping on the bag or something. In any case, the Braves were down 4-1.

After squandering another single in the fourth, the Braves had a weird thing where Bummer and Pierce Johnson combined to have three singles but no runs against them in the fifth. The Braves didn’t do anything with another single in the fifth (the single was Acuña’s and he stole his first base of the year easily on a 3-2 pitch with Verdugo striking out) and the Rockies also stranded some baserunners, and boy, this was feeling a lot like those games at Coors, just worse.

The “yay dingers” phase

But, things can and do change in a hurry when homers are involved. After five innings, super-reliever Jake Bird (31 ERA-, 52 FIP-, 69 xFIP- coming into this game) took over for Marquez, who finished with a 7/1 K/BB ratio in what was easily his best start of the year (and one of the best of his career, really). That seemed like it was going to doom the Braves, but for once, it didn’t! Matt Olson started the inning with a barreled double, and after two outs, Sean Murphy coaxed a walk. Bird got Harris to wave at a curveball, and then bounced once to allow the runners to advance, and then switched to the slider, except… oops! all hangers (for once), and Harris did not miss.

Honestly, that was less a hanger and more a barrel-seeker. Tie ballgame.

Enyel De Los Santos cruised through the top of the seventh, and then the Braves victimized one-time farmhand Victor Vodnik (who was traded for Pierce Johnson, once upon a time). Acuña started the frame with another barreled ball to left, but this one was turned into an out via jumping catch. No matter: Verdugo had another hard-hit single, and Olson followed suit. Up came Ozuna, who had faltered with chances earlier, but not this time: in a 1-0 count, it was Vodnik’s turn to hang a slider, and bingo bango, 7-4 lead.

The “we’re playing the Rockies and this game devolves into Spring Training” phase

Far be it from the Braves to blow a three-run lead late, but that’s not what happened. Instead, things got kind of ridiculous in the “they may as well just call it” sense. The Braves went on to plate five more runs, all with Ryan Rolison pitching in the eighth. The first run came via Harris, who singled, moved all the way to third on a series of bad throws that started with an errant pickoff, and scored on a sac fly. But, that wasn’t it. A walk, three straight singles, and another sac fly were what it took to cap the scoring.

Dylan Lee was the only guy in this game to retire McMahon, striking him out in the ninth. Arcia made the final out of the game, fouling out behind home plate.

The box score in this one was funny, as the teams combined for 29 hits. The Rockies were charged with four errors, but the Braves made multiple defensive misplays as well. Acuña and Olson each had three hits; Murphy and Verdugo reached base thrice, while Albies (one reach on error) and Allen were hitless and walkless. Acuña now has a 211 wRC+ on the season. Raisel Iglesias threw a scoreless frame that involved a misplay from Allen to put the leadoff man on, but then instant redemption with a nice snag on a hard shot that turned into a double play.

The Braves are still closer to dead in the water, overall, than in contention. If they do suborn the Fates to change their minds once again, then this game will be part of the early stage of their redemption tour, the one in which they beat up on a weak opponent using their team strength: dingers. If not, well, at least we got to see what dingers can do.