First off, we’re not going to waste too much time with pleasantries here. That’s because we’ve got to talk about the rain-shortened White Sox series. Do I necessarily want to talk about that series (or either one of these series)? Absolutely not but at the same time (to paraphrase a crazy person), these games must be documented so I will do a quick hit on those before we get more in-depth with the Mets series. Here we go!
This one was fun until it wasn’t! Atlanta had a four-run lead early on that slowly got whittled away due to a couple of factors: Grant Holmes continuing to struggle with going through lineups more than once and Carlos Carrasco being asked to cover high-leverage innings in a situation where the bullpen aparently needed some more rest. Things stayed 4-4 through the first nine, which is when Mauricio Dubón seemingly added to his Braves lore with an RBI single that gave the Atlanta the edge heading into the bottom of the tenth inning. Instead, that simply set the stage for the debuting Braden Montgomery to cap off a great night at the plate with a home run off of Raisel Iglesias to win the game. This was Raisel Iglesias’ first home run surrendered since July 19, 2025. Insane.
Atlanta also lost Ronald Acuña Jr. to his second Grade 1 hamstring strain in as many months. Just an awful night all around.
Chris Sale made it into the sixth inning with just two runs allowed on six hits and a walk. He also struck out six batters. On a normal night, that would’ve been enough to keep the Braves in it. Instead, Atlanta had no answers for Davis Martin and the rest of the Chicago pitching staff and only avoided a shutout due to the White Sox gifting Atlanta a run via a throwing error from Miguel Vargas. Despite collecting their fair share of hits, Atlanta was unable to deliver the big hits at the right time and so the Braves ended up suffering a rare series loss.
Atlanta would have to take that loss with them to New York without getting a chance to salvage the series, as rain ended up causing a postponement until August.
Spencer Strider got the ball in this one and it was nothing but bad news while he was out there. Strider ended up being responsible for all seven runs that the Mets scored in this one — including two homers from Bo Bichette (who annoyingly picked this weekend to suddenly start showing real signs of life at the plate) and a dinger from Juan Soto. Soto’s homer came in back-to-back fashion following Bichette’s homer in the first inning and then the second Bichette dinger was a grand slam.
The seventh run that was charged to Strider came after Strider had exited the game in the fourth with a leadoff walk and JR Ritchie was on the mound. By then, his velocity was down to 88-mph and the Braves decided that this was the time to take him out of the game. Strider went on the IL by the next morning and Atlanta now had to deal with two core members of the team going on the IL in the same week.
Fortunately, the Braves did show signs of life as they attempted to make a comeback against Nolan McLean and the rest of New York’s pitching staff. Atlanta was down 7-2 after four innings but a fifth-inning dinger from Matt Olson and RBI singles from Ozzie Albies and Eli White brought the Braves back into it. The tying run came up to the plate in the ninth inning in the forms of Michael Harris II and Matt Olson but Devin Williams struck both of them out to complete a four-out save and ca off another frustrating night on the road for the Braves this week.
Thank goodness for Eli White! The reserve outfielder for the Braves has made a habit out of providing some solid production when he’s called upon and Saturday was one of his finest moments, yet. White picked up three hits in this one, including an RBI double in the second inning and a solo homer in the fourth inning — both off of Mets starter Sean Manaea.
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Those ended up being the only two runs Manaea would give up through six innings of work as it was tough sledding for everybody else not named Eli White. Fortunately, Martín Pérez was able to keep pace with Manaea as he pitched into the sixth inning and only gave up one run. Atlanta’s bullpen was once again up to the task of making a slender lead hold up and they were aided in that task in the eighth inning when Michael Harris II popped one out for a solo shot that gave the Braves some breathing room.
Raisel Iglesias’ first appearance since that bummer in Chicago nearly saw him give up his second homer in as many appearances. This time, it would’ve been a bit more understandable since Juan Soto was the one bringing the pain but as it turned out, it was ruled via crew chief review that Soto’s long ball wasn’t a homer according to the ground rules of Citi Field. Despite Soto doing his best to legally relay what pitch was coming from Iglesias while at second base, his sign-stealing efforts went in vain as Iglesias left Soto stranded and a double play ball got the Braves back in the win column.
So, this game started with the Braves coming away with only one run (via sacrifice fly, no less) from a bases-loaded, nobody out situation in the top of the first inning. The bottom of the first inning saw Bryce Elder give up four runs and Mike Yastrzemski committed a bizarre error where he doinked a throw off the pole that holds up the foul netting while trying to hit the cutoff man near third base. That’s how the game started!
It got worse for Elder as he was eventually chased from the game in the start of the fifth inning after he gave up back-to-back home runs to start that frame. New York hadn’t hit back-to-back homers since Opening Day and now they had done it twice in three days and against the Braves, no less! Anyways, New York added two more runs off of Anthony Molina in the eighth inning and the Braves were spent after they wasted that golden opportunity to get after Freddy Peralta in the first inning and this ended up turning into one of those games where Atlanta just seemed ready to get on the plane and forget about all of this.
Folks, this was just one of those weeks. Considering how well everything has been going for Atlanta this season, they were honestly beyond due for one of those miserable type of weeks where barely anything seemed to go right. It’s a long season and this tends to happen to even the best teams but that won’t stop me from sitting here and complaining about it!
One of the best closers in baseball gets walked off by a guy making his big league debut. They wasted a decent Chris Sale start. They lost their star outfielder to the same exact injury that knocked him down a month ago. Due to storms in Chicago, they didn’t get into New York until right before sunrise. They lost one of their starters to what is looking more and more like a serious injury. The New York Knicks won the NBA Championship (well, that’s a personal one for me). Bryce Elder looked more like 2024-25 Elder than 2023 Elder. Michael Harris II even had a home run robbery fall out of his glove and go over the fence! This was far and away the worst week of the season for the Atlanta Braves where Murphy’s Law appeared to be in full effect for each of the five games that they played.
Yet, there’s still some solace that the Braves can hold on to during this inevitable rough patch. Atlanta’s still 21 games over .500 and they’re still eight games ahead of the Phillies when it comes to the NL East race. Was this a very annoying and nasty week of baseball for the Atlanta games? Yes. Is it concerning to see both Ronald Acuña Jr. and Spencer Strider continue to deal with persistent injuries? Absolutely. Is it clear that this rotation needs some help that should (hopefully) come around the Trade Deadline? Definitely. This team has their problems (which were clearly on display this week) but the standings are the standings and right now, the Braves still have some breathing room to deal with things.
With all of that being said, it will truly be a sight for sore eyes once Drake Baldwin gets back into the lineup and it’ll even be better to see this team playing at home after this absolute nightmare of a road trip. The players and coaching staff will likely flush this one in the toilet and focus on getting things back on track with their next homestand but for now, it’s totally fine to sulk about what we saw this week. It was something nasty!
