After scoring 16 runs over the series’ first two games, the Braves were held to just a couple in Sunday’s 4-2 loss to the visiting Yankees in the series finale.
The Braves dropped to 12 games under .500 and lost their first series of the second half in the latest blow to the team’s already faint playoff hopes.
“We’re always gonna stay confident. We know this team that we have is a really good team, especially when everything starts to click,” Braves starting pitcher Grant Holmes said. “Like (Braves manager Brian Snitker) said earlier this week, we haven’t really gotten on a run yet, so I feel like when that happens it’s gonna be pretty good for us and I believe it’ll put us back in the picture of things.”
Ronald Acuña Jr. breathed some life into Truist Park in the bottom of the ninth with his 13th homer of the year, a 456-footer to center. But Yankees closer Devin Williams retired the Braves in order after that for his 14th save of the year.
Aaron Judge set the tone early for the Yankees (55-44).
The star right fielder had been relatively quiet over the weekend until he came to the plate in the top of the first inning, batting second, to face Braves starter Grant Holmes. A 2-1 cutter in the heart of the plate was too insatiable for Judge to pass up, and he put his 36th homer of the season into the right field seats.
The opposite-field blast went 409 feet and left the bat at 110 mph.
“That pitch probably wasn’t a great choice,” Holmes said of the home run ball. “It was 2-1, I was trying to throw a cutter away, just get some weak contact and it just stayed a little too middle. Can’t really do that to Aaron Judge.”
Paul Goldschmidt’s two-strike, two-out RBI single up the middle later in the inning made it 2-0.
The Braves got something cooking in the third with a first-pitch single to right by Michael Harris II and a bunt single up the third base line by Nick Allen. But Jurickson Profar popped up his sacrifice bunt into foul territory, and Matt Olson grounded into a 1-6-3 double play.
Holmes (4-9) wasn’t fooling anybody Sunday, with the Yankees hitting eight balls that came off the bat at least 98 mph through 5⅓ innings.
Holmes found himself in hot water in the sixth after a single and back-to-back one-out walks, then he gave the Yankees a third run by plunking Jorbit Vivas (hitting .157 at the time of the at-bat) with the bases loaded and two outs.
Holmes battled through six and left after giving up the three runs on seven hits and two walks. Over his last three starts, Holmes has allowed 10 earned runs on 20 hits, walked seven and hit two batters. He has only struck out eight over that span (15 innings pitched).
Olson got the Braves (43-55) a run back in the bottom of the frame, planting a 2-2 cutter from Yankees starter Marcus Stroman (2-1) onto the top of the Chop House, 442 feet from home. It was Olson’s 18th homer of the season, surpassing his total from the 2024 season.
“We’ve had some better at-bats (recently),” Olson said of the Braves’ offense. “Two runs today isn’t good.”
The Olson solo shot was the lone run Stroman allowed over six innings. He worked around five hits and struck out four in his seventh start of the season and longest outing since Aug. 30.
Making his Braves’ debut in the seventh, reliever Dane Dunning gave up a two-out RBI double to Jazz Chisholm Jr. that put the Yankees up 4-1.
The Yankees scored 16 runs against Braves relievers over the weekend.
The Braves, who fell to 1-44 when trailing after eight innings this season, hardly threatened to make a comeback from there. They next host the Giants for a three-game series starting Monday.
“We won the first game. We had a tough one (Saturday); they had a great comeback. Obviously today wasn’t what we wanted,” Olson added. “But it’s not like we were getting beat around the yard. Like (Snitker) said, keep showing up and win that day.”
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