If there was ever a night that highlighted who the Braves were, it was Friday night at the ballpark against the New York Mets. In the biggest game of the season, the Atlanta Braves were everything we thought they were. Max Fried was amazing before stomach troubles did what the Mets couldn't do and knocked him out of the game. And while Kenley Jansen certainly brought the drama, the Braves bullpen pitched four innings of one-run ball to close it out. And the Braves offense did what it does best - hit the snot out of the ball.
After the New York Mets strung together three singles with the aid of a defensive miscue to push across a run in the top of the second, the Braves immediately tied it in the bottom half on a homer. One of the biggest differences between these two teams is how they score runs. The Mets have hit 162 homers on the year, good for 8th entering Friday. Their bread-and-butter is extending innings and scratching across runs. The Braves, on the other hand, are kind of a contact/run scored efficiency squad. They want to turn as much contact into runs as possible rather than simply seek to turn at-bats into non-outs. It took three positive things to go right for the Mets to plate a run. It took one swing for the Braves.
And then another swing later, the Braves took a lead they would never surrender. Now, this approach has its drawbacks. Namely, the Braves strike out a ton. But they don't care how the out is made. Their focus is on destroying the ball.
Case in point: coming into Friday, the Braves averaged 89.8 mph in exit velocity. Only the Toronto Blue Jays have a better average exit velocity. The Mets average 88.2 mph. That might not sound like a big difference, but when compared to all 30 teams, that's just 22nd. In fact, only the Mariners and Guardians of potential playoff teams are worse. To further illustrate this point, the Braves are again second behind the Jays in HardHit%. This is defined as the percentage of batted balls with an exit velocity of 95 mph. 43.3% of their batted balls, in fact, are classified as hard-hit. The Mets are 21st in baseball with a HardHit% of 36.9%. Again, of playoff contenders, only the Mariners and Guardians are worse.
And you don't get a HardHit% that high without a specific approach or vice versa. The Braves are not up there to hit the ball where it's pitched. They don't shorten their swing. They don't give away at-bats. To put it simply, they do not try to do things the "right way." Why is a more reserved approach the "right way?" Because somebody at some point decided it was. The Braves have looked at that accepted logic and gave it the finger.
Perhaps no stat better exemplifies this than two-strike RBI. The Braves are second behind the Dodgers in runs batted in with two strikes. In fact, of their 769 runs scored, 281 of them have come with two strikes on the hitter. That's 37%. Yet, they have a worse batting average than the Mets with two strikes (.185 to .179 or 2nd-best to 7th-best). But then, the Mets have scored just 231 runs with two strikes, or 31% of their run total.
Simply put - the Braves aren't at the plate to do anything but crush. This is similar to their refusal to put down a sacrifice bunt. The Braves aren't going to play what someone from the past called situational baseball. It's not who they want to be. Even when it's their ninth-place hitter, Orlando Arcia. With a chance to bring home a fifth run in the bottom of the 7th, the Braves still aren't asking him to do anything but hit the ball as hard as he can.
He did, by the way. His two-strike double that plated the Braves' fifth run had an exit velocity of 102 mph. That was only the 8th-hardest hit ball of the night for the Braves, but only two batted balls all evening were hit harder by New York.
Now, certainly, roster construction is a reason why these teams go for the approach they do. While Pete Alonso has 40 homers and the Mets get another combined 45 homers from Francisco Lindor and Eduardo Escobar, those three are the only Mets with more than 16 homers. The Braves, on the other hand, have two 30-homerun hitters and three more 20-HR guys. Two others, Travis d'Arnaud and Michael Harris II, have realistic shots at getting to 20 homers. But then, it's also not all roster construction because part of the reason there is such a homerun disparity between the two teams is because their approaches are so different.
The weirdest part of this is when you look at the Braves, you might assume they would play a lot of "A-B-C baseball" due to their coaching staff. You have baseball lifer and Bobby Cox disciple, Brian Snitker, flanked by Walt Weiss and Eric Young Sr. Weiss finished his career with a perfect 1-1 K/BB ratio while Young walked nearly 200 more times than he struck out. Ron Washington's Rangers never attempted fewer than 33 sacrifice bunts while he was manager and hitting coach, Kevin Seitzer, made a living off hitting the ball where it was pitched.
But this team, especially under Alex Anthopoulos and his staff, have adopted a fairly simple rule: Grip It and Rip It.
Worth pointing out that it worked for the 2021 Braves after all.
Now, certainly, there are times where this strategy can infuriate fans. After Olson singled and d'Arnaud doubled in the seventh, William Contreras stepped in and followed the approach. The result was a pop-up that did the Braves no positives. Had the inning continued down a bad path, it would have been a hard pill to swallow. But Rosario followed with a 100.4 mph sacrifice fly and Arcia crushed that double to make sure the team had a more comfortable lead. And yes, the Braves struck out a dozen times with Jacob deGrom recording eleven strikeouts. But that hit-it-hard and hit-it-far approach led to the Braves maximizing what contact they did get off deGrom to the tune of three solo homers.
The Braves offense can annoy and frustrate many fans who think there is too much "swing for the downs" rather than swing for the situation. Thing is - the Braves aren't trying to hit homers despite the plethora they smack every week. They aim to hit the ball as hard as they can with every swing they attempt. It might not always result in a dinger or even a hit or even make contact at all, but they have found success from this approach and it's around to stay through at least this year.
And again, it works. The Braves have scored the third-most runs in baseball despite the third-highest K% because when they do make contact, it often has the pitcher saying a bad word and suddenly having a blister problem. Even when it’s Jacob deGrom, the Braves aren’t letting up. Make a mistake and it’s going 422 feet. Atlanta forces you to almost be perfect and even deGrom can’t be perfect all the time.
That’s the beauty of what the Braves do. Sure, it can make you roll your eyes here and there.
But often, at the end of the game, the Braves are celebrating a win while their opponents are left wondering how they could have pitched any better.