<img alt="Kansas City Royals v Atlanta Braves" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/bGG_bckdc8hqfKyob-PmNmqFL6I=/0x0:7702x5135/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73619381/2174597988.0.jpg">
Photo by Kevin D. Liles/Atlanta Braves/Getty Images
More good results on Saturday have the Braves on the precipice of completing a feverish comeback to slip into the playoffs It was a tightly contested Saturday night of games, but the Atlanta Braves did their part and took care of business thanks to a walk off from Travis d’Arnaud. That was enough to make the day a win for the Braves, but the late results of the Mets and Diamondbacks games only strengthened Atlanta’s playoff odds.
Arizona Diamondbacks (88-73) 0, San Diego Padres (93-68) 5
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We owe so much thanks to you, San Diego Padres, at least until Tuesday when the Braves are now solidly set up to face off against the team who now has the second-best record in baseball in September. San Diego ran away with this one in the ninth inning, but this was a nail biter throughout with both sides pitching terrifically and holding the other side scoreless through the first eight innings. In particular San Diego’s rookie starter Randy Vasquez was terrific for them, taking a no-hitter through five innings before running into trouble in the sixth inning. Corbin Carroll finally got to Vasquez in the sixth inning and hooked one into right field, streaking around for a hustle double to put Arizona in position to take the lead. Joc Pederson reached on catchers interference, but despite both runners moving up on a double steal Vasquez came through to keep it scoreless. Vasquez had only four strikeouts on the night, but got two of them in the biggest spot of the game by setting down Christian Walker and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. swinging.
On the other side the Diamondbacks sent out the struggling Eduardo Rodriguez to face a San Diego lineup sitting a few of its stars, and Rodriguez put together his best start of the season. The Padres struggled to make good contact against Rodriguez, who went through the lineup twice with ease before the third time through the order bug bit in the fifth inning. Jurickson Profar led off the inning with a walk and Donovan Solano squared him up for a base hit to bring up Manny Machado in a dangerous spot. Arizona took no chances, pulling Rodriguez in favor of Kevin Ginkel who got a fastball in on Machado and forced a weak fly out to right field.
With both starters out it turned into a battle of bullpens — which heavily swings in San Diego’s favor especially in recent weeks. Neither side would blink until the eighth inning, however, when Wandy Peralta walked Geraldo Perdomo to lead off the inning and bring up the top of Arizona’s lineup. Peralta would get two weakly hit outs, bringing up Randal Grichuk to pinch hit for Joc Pederson. Fresh off of the bench Grichuk smoked a 2-1 changeup down the left field line, but Manny Machado made a huge diving stop potentially robbing Grichuk of extra bases that could have scored Ketel Marte from first base. Arizona went back to Justin Martinez in the ninth inning after he dominated in the eighth, but after Martinez got a quick ground out they went back into the bullpen to get AJ Puk who prior to this game had not allowed a run in 23 2⁄3 innings and since being acquired from the Marlins had pitched 27 innings with a 0.33 ERA and 0.65 FIP. Puk chose the worst moment of the season to crack, allowing a single to David Peralta in the left on left matchup he was brought in to shut down. Puk then left a first-pitch slider over the plate to Kyle Higashioka, who crushed one for a back-breaking two-run home run.
This was everything needed for San Diego to spark a huge inning, as they just kept crushing Puk. Two pitches later Puk left another slider middle-middle, and Brandon Lockridge made it back-to-back home runs. Puk stayed in to retire lefty Tyler Wade before his nightmare performance ended when he was pulled with two outs. This would not stop the bleeding. Scott McGough came in and got Jurickson Profar to reach at a pitch out of the zone, but Profar managed to role a seeing-eye single through the right side of the infield, setting up the capper from Donovan Solano. McGough hung a slider in the top of the zone and Solano smacked the third Padres home run of the inning, full sealing off a win for San Diego with their fifth run of the inning. Arizona got a leadoff single in the ninth inning, but went away quietly as two strikeout from Yuki Matsui closed another Padres win.
New York Mets (87-72) 0, Milwaukee Brewers (93-68) 6
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The Mets picked a mighty opportune time to post a .091 wOBA as a team, with the Brewers deploying their pitching staff beautifully to scratch together nine scoreless innings and 11 strikeouts. Jared Koenig served as the opener for this game, and despite allowing a base hit to Jose Iglesias was able to get through it easily by striking out Francisco Lindor and Mark Vientos before a sinking liner found the glove of Willy Adames to end the inning. Then Milwaukee turned to Tobias Myers to provide the bulk for the game and he pitched a terrific outing, going four scoreless innings with five strikeouts while the Brewers offense would use the time to brew up a couple of runs. Myers was met with some danger in the second inning when Adames sailed a throw to allow Pete Alonso to reach on the error, but two straight lineouts from Starling Marte and Luis Torrens helped erase a potentially big inning from the Mets. A bit of luck was involved for Milwaukee to escape unscathed, with those two line outs having xBA of .590 and .610 respectively, a theme for the game overall though it made little difference in the final score. The Mets went 1-5 on their batted balls with an expected batting average over .500, while the Brewers went 5-5 on theirs.
The difference in the game came down to the Mets walks and the sequences they allowed them in, starting with Jose Quintana’s fourth inning. Quintana pitched well the first time through the order, but Willy Adames smoked a 108 mph single off of him in the fourth, and despite two strikeouts Quintana could not get himself out of the inning. He allowed two walks which loaded the bases with two outs, and Joey Ortiz got just enough on his swing, reaching out of the zone to flick a Quintana curveball into center field to score the first two runs of the game. The Mets came back in the fifth inning and gave themselves a chance to answer when Starling Marte led off with a double, but Myers got his shut down inning. Marte got to third on a weak ground out to Adames, but Harrison Bader lined out softly to the infield for the second out and Luisangel Acuna’s line drive fell right to Jackson Chourio in right to strand Marte and the Mets last significant scoring chance.
From there the Brewers sent a parade of relievers out to dominate New York, as they went through the final four innings with no hits allowed. Joel Payamps, who you may remember as one of the pieces sent by Oakland to Milwaukee in the Sean Murphy trade, pitched a terrific sixth inning where he struck out the top three of the Mets lineup in order. In the eighth inning Garrett Mitchell led off for the Brewers with a 110 mph single, and again sequencing and walks would hurt New York. William Contreras followed with a walk, and Adames snuck a single through the left side of the infield to extend the lead out to 3-0. A one out bloop single loaded the bases, and following a strikeout Mets reliever Reed Garrett issued another walk to force home the second run of the inning. New York finally rescued Garrett and brought in Danny Young, only for Andruw Monasterio to smack a single into center field to score two more runs and put away a game already fated to Milwaukee. The Mets still remain in control of their own destiny, holding the tiebreaker over Arizona, and given the way the weekend has gone so far are another Braves win or Diamondbacks loss away from squaring off against a Braves team with nothing to play for on Monday.
The up-to-date NL Wild Card standings (Playoff Odds via FanGraphs):
Padres 93-68, +5.0, 100.0% Playoff Odds (—)
Braves 88-71, +1.0, 97.1% Playoff Odds (+6.4 %)
Mets 87-72, —, 62.6% Playoff Odds (-9.2 %)
Diamondbacks 88-73, —, 40.3% Playoff Odds (+2.8 %)
<img alt="Kansas City Royals v Atlanta Braves" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/bGG_bckdc8hqfKyob-PmNmqFL6I=/0x0:7702x5135/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73619381/2174597988.0.jpg">
Photo by Kevin D. Liles/Atlanta Braves/Getty Images
More good results on Saturday have the Braves on the precipice of completing a feverish comeback to slip into the playoffs It was a tightly contested Saturday night of games, but the Atlanta Braves did their part and took care of business thanks to a walk off from Travis d’Arnaud. That was enough to make the day a win for the Braves, but the late results of the Mets and Diamondbacks games only strengthened Atlanta’s playoff odds.
Arizona Diamondbacks (88-73) 0, San Diego Padres (93-68) 5
box score | savant | highlights
We owe so much thanks to you, San Diego Padres, at least until Tuesday when the Braves are now solidly set up to face off against the team who now has the second-best record in baseball in September. San Diego ran away with this one in the ninth inning, but this was a nail biter throughout with both sides pitching terrifically and holding the other side scoreless through the first eight innings. In particular San Diego’s rookie starter Randy Vasquez was terrific for them, taking a no-hitter through five innings before running into trouble in the sixth inning. Corbin Carroll finally got to Vasquez in the sixth inning and hooked one into right field, streaking around for a hustle double to put Arizona in position to take the lead. Joc Pederson reached on catchers interference, but despite both runners moving up on a double steal Vasquez came through to keep it scoreless. Vasquez had only four strikeouts on the night, but got two of them in the biggest spot of the game by setting down Christian Walker and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. swinging.
On the other side the Diamondbacks sent out the struggling Eduardo Rodriguez to face a San Diego lineup sitting a few of its stars, and Rodriguez put together his best start of the season. The Padres struggled to make good contact against Rodriguez, who went through the lineup twice with ease before the third time through the order bug bit in the fifth inning. Jurickson Profar led off the inning with a walk and Donovan Solano squared him up for a base hit to bring up Manny Machado in a dangerous spot. Arizona took no chances, pulling Rodriguez in favor of Kevin Ginkel who got a fastball in on Machado and forced a weak fly out to right field.
With both starters out it turned into a battle of bullpens — which heavily swings in San Diego’s favor especially in recent weeks. Neither side would blink until the eighth inning, however, when Wandy Peralta walked Geraldo Perdomo to lead off the inning and bring up the top of Arizona’s lineup. Peralta would get two weakly hit outs, bringing up Randal Grichuk to pinch hit for Joc Pederson. Fresh off of the bench Grichuk smoked a 2-1 changeup down the left field line, but Manny Machado made a huge diving stop potentially robbing Grichuk of extra bases that could have scored Ketel Marte from first base. Arizona went back to Justin Martinez in the ninth inning after he dominated in the eighth, but after Martinez got a quick ground out they went back into the bullpen to get AJ Puk who prior to this game had not allowed a run in 23 2⁄3 innings and since being acquired from the Marlins had pitched 27 innings with a 0.33 ERA and 0.65 FIP. Puk chose the worst moment of the season to crack, allowing a single to David Peralta in the left on left matchup he was brought in to shut down. Puk then left a first-pitch slider over the plate to Kyle Higashioka, who crushed one for a back-breaking two-run home run.
This was everything needed for San Diego to spark a huge inning, as they just kept crushing Puk. Two pitches later Puk left another slider middle-middle, and Brandon Lockridge made it back-to-back home runs. Puk stayed in to retire lefty Tyler Wade before his nightmare performance ended when he was pulled with two outs. This would not stop the bleeding. Scott McGough came in and got Jurickson Profar to reach at a pitch out of the zone, but Profar managed to role a seeing-eye single through the right side of the infield, setting up the capper from Donovan Solano. McGough hung a slider in the top of the zone and Solano smacked the third Padres home run of the inning, full sealing off a win for San Diego with their fifth run of the inning. Arizona got a leadoff single in the ninth inning, but went away quietly as two strikeout from Yuki Matsui closed another Padres win.
New York Mets (87-72) 0, Milwaukee Brewers (93-68) 6
box score | savant | highlights
The Mets picked a mighty opportune time to post a .091 wOBA as a team, with the Brewers deploying their pitching staff beautifully to scratch together nine scoreless innings and 11 strikeouts. Jared Koenig served as the opener for this game, and despite allowing a base hit to Jose Iglesias was able to get through it easily by striking out Francisco Lindor and Mark Vientos before a sinking liner found the glove of Willy Adames to end the inning. Then Milwaukee turned to Tobias Myers to provide the bulk for the game and he pitched a terrific outing, going four scoreless innings with five strikeouts while the Brewers offense would use the time to brew up a couple of runs. Myers was met with some danger in the second inning when Adames sailed a throw to allow Pete Alonso to reach on the error, but two straight lineouts from Starling Marte and Luis Torrens helped erase a potentially big inning from the Mets. A bit of luck was involved for Milwaukee to escape unscathed, with those two line outs having xBA of .590 and .610 respectively, a theme for the game overall though it made little difference in the final score. The Mets went 1-5 on their batted balls with an expected batting average over .500, while the Brewers went 5-5 on theirs.
The difference in the game came down to the Mets walks and the sequences they allowed them in, starting with Jose Quintana’s fourth inning. Quintana pitched well the first time through the order, but Willy Adames smoked a 108 mph single off of him in the fourth, and despite two strikeouts Quintana could not get himself out of the inning. He allowed two walks which loaded the bases with two outs, and Joey Ortiz got just enough on his swing, reaching out of the zone to flick a Quintana curveball into center field to score the first two runs of the game. The Mets came back in the fifth inning and gave themselves a chance to answer when Starling Marte led off with a double, but Myers got his shut down inning. Marte got to third on a weak ground out to Adames, but Harrison Bader lined out softly to the infield for the second out and Luisangel Acuna’s line drive fell right to Jackson Chourio in right to strand Marte and the Mets last significant scoring chance.
From there the Brewers sent a parade of relievers out to dominate New York, as they went through the final four innings with no hits allowed. Joel Payamps, who you may remember as one of the pieces sent by Oakland to Milwaukee in the Sean Murphy trade, pitched a terrific sixth inning where he struck out the top three of the Mets lineup in order. In the eighth inning Garrett Mitchell led off for the Brewers with a 110 mph single, and again sequencing and walks would hurt New York. William Contreras followed with a walk, and Adames snuck a single through the left side of the infield to extend the lead out to 3-0. A one out bloop single loaded the bases, and following a strikeout Mets reliever Reed Garrett issued another walk to force home the second run of the inning. New York finally rescued Garrett and brought in Danny Young, only for Andruw Monasterio to smack a single into center field to score two more runs and put away a game already fated to Milwaukee. The Mets still remain in control of their own destiny, holding the tiebreaker over Arizona, and given the way the weekend has gone so far are another Braves win or Diamondbacks loss away from squaring off against a Braves team with nothing to play for on Monday.
The up-to-date NL Wild Card standings (Playoff Odds via FanGraphs):
Padres 93-68, +5.0, 100.0% Playoff Odds (—)
Braves 88-71, +1.0, 97.1% Playoff Odds (+6.4 %)
Mets 87-72, —, 62.6% Playoff Odds (-9.2 %)
Diamondbacks 88-73, —, 40.3% Playoff Odds (+2.8 %)
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