The Atlanta Braves fell to the San Francisco Giants on Thursday but still were able to secure a series win. They will make the final stop on their road trip next as they begin a three-game series against the Los Angeles/Anaheim Angels on Friday. After the disappointing start to the road trip, getting a series win at Oracle Park over a Giants team that was playing pretty well has to feel pretty good. The Braves won the season series with the Giants 4-3 and haven’t lost the season series against them since 2016. Atlanta took three of the four meetings in San Francisco, which improved their all-time record at Oracle Park to 37-43.
The loss Thursday dropped the Braves 4.5 games behind the Padres and Diamondbacks in the Wild Card chase. They lead the New York Mets for the final NL playoff spot by two full games, and are now up on the Giants by 3.5.
Jekyll and Hyde offense
The Braves were shut out for the seventh time this season in Thursday’s series finale as Logan Webb allowed just four hits over 7 2/3 innings. That goose egg came one day after scoring a season-high 13 runs in Wednesday’s win. Even with Thursday’s loss, it has been good to see the offense producing and the home run ball has played a big part in that.
Atlanta has hit 17 home runs on their current road trip and homered four times in Wednesday’s game. That was their tenth time this season with four homers in a game, which is tied with the Dodgers for the best mark in the league. Since June 14, a stretch of 55 games, the Braves have hit 93 home runs. The surge has propelled them to fourth in the majors and second in the National League, just three behind the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Even including today’s shutout, the Braves are now 16th in wRC+; they were 20th through July, so there has been a rapid improvement of sorts in about two weeks of play.
Michael Harris II returns
Michael Harris was struggling when he went on the Injured LTist with a strained hamstring two months ago, but the Braves were certainly glad to get him back. Harris hit a grand slam in his first at-bat Wednesday and then added another single in Thursday’s game. He could provide a huge boost offensively if he can get his bat going, but his defense in center certainly helps a defensively challenged unit.
The Braves are a bottom-nine defensive unit when focusing on Outs Above Average (so, not catcher defense or throws from the outfield), and those nine teams are well below everyone else. The Braves are sixth-worst in outfield OAA, and have unsurprisingly been the worst outfield unit in the game since giving Jorge Soler regular playing time.
Harris has accumulated 9.1 fWAR since his debut in 2022. That is the third-most among center fielders with at least 250 games played, trailing only Seattle’s Julio Rodriguez (13.5) and the Mets’ Brandon Nimmo (9.1).
Catcher tandem producing
Travis d’Arnaud went hitless in Thursday’s game but came up big in the first two games of the series. d’Arnaud had a pinch-hit sacrifice fly in the tenth Monday night to score the only run of the game. On Tuesday, he homered and then again had the game-winning hit in the 10th inning. Entering play Thursday, d’Arnaud and Sean Murphy were hitting .269/.337/.538 with a 140 wRC+ since July 24.
Murphy homered in Wednesday’s game and has a 139 wRC+ in August and has a 112 wRC+ since the beginning of July. His wRC+ for the season is now up to 97, which is just under league average. It took a while for Murphy to get going following the oblique injury that he suffered on Opening Day, but he’s slowly starting to look like the player we were expecting at the start of the season.
Marquee pitching matchups
The series in San Francisco featured two of the best match ups that you will see this season. Blake Snell and Chris Sale went head-to-head in the opener. Sale allowed just three hits and recorded a season-high 12 strikeouts. Snell took a no-hitter into the seventh and allowed two hits with 11 strikeouts in 6 1/3 innings.
The series finale Thursday featured a matchup between Max Fried and Logan Webb. Fried was erratic to start and ran up a high pitch count early but still managed to make it through 5 1/3 innings while allowing three runs, only two of which scored while he was on the mound. The 5/3 K/BB ratio for Fried wasn’t awesome, but it was fine, and he didn’t allow a homer, so all the better. Webb was on point, limiting the Braves to just four hits to go along with seven strikeouts in 7 2/3 innings.
Sale further strengthened his Cy Young case and leads all National League starters in ERA (2.61), FIP (2.12), K/9 (11.83), strikeout percentage (33.3%) and leads all starters in fWAR (4.8) despite lagging his competition by multiple starts. The next closest pitcher in fWAR is Logan Webb with 3.9. Fried is still trying to regain his form since returning from the Injured List with forearm neuritis. He’s been charged with 12 earned runs in 13 2/3 innings in three starts since coming off the IL.
