Davis, Triolo show youth as Braves score key run

PITTSBURGH -- For just about their entire professional careers, Henry Davis and Jared Triolo have primarily played catcher and third base, respectively. They’re both learning the nuances of their secondary positions, Davis in right field and Triolo at second base. On Wednesday night, their growing pains proved costly.

The Braves scored the go-ahead run in the top of the eighth inning when Davis and Triolo took an uncertain approach to a shallow pop fly in right field, a sequence that allowed Michael Harris II to score from third on a daring dash home and set the stage for a 6-5 loss at PNC Park.

“If Henry can get there, he’s got to catch that ball,” said manager Derek Shelton. “He’s moving forward, he’s moving toward the ball. Jared’s running not only back, but he’s running at an angle because of where he set up defensively. If Henry can get there, yeah, we’d prefer he catch that ball.”

With runners on first and third with one out in the eighth, Austin Riley hit a popup into shallow right field. Davis, in right field, and Triolo, at second base, converged on the ball.

Convention dictates that, in a situation like this, the outfielder should make the catch since he has the better angle and his momentum is moving towards the infield. Additionally, Davis has the far stronger arm, having thrown as hard as 98.9 mph from the field this season. But instead, Triolo made the catch.

“When you go through infield and outfield situations as a team, you know the outfielder has priority over the infield, and definitely in a situation like that,” Harris said. “So, I guess I just took advantage of it and tried to get us a run."

Triolo wasn’t quite able to camp under the ball. As he tracked it, his momentum took him towards the outfield while he reached across his body and extended his arm, putting him in a throwing position that was far from ideal. Harris, sensing an opportunity, bolted for home. Triolo set his feet as fast as possible and chucked the ball toward the plate. At 90.0 mph, it was easily his hardest-thrown ball of the season.

“The ball came back a little bit, so I caught it a little funny and it took an extra second to throw it home,” Triolo said.

Harris, topping out at 30.2 feet per second (30.0 feet per second is considered elite), beat the throw home. But the Pirates appealed that Harris had left third base early, an appeal which initially proved successful. Harris was out, the inning was over and the score remained tied.

The Braves, though, challenged, claiming that Harris hadn’t left early. Replay review determined that Harris’ left foot was still on third base as Triolo made the catch. Harris’ jump was so perfect that it only looked like he’d left third early.

"[Third-base coach Ron Washington] was telling me to tag, and then he saw it was a short fly ball,” Harris said. “So, he's telling me to fake [the tag]. I'm like, ‘Nah, I'm trying to win this game,’ so I'm getting to the plate. I saw who caught it. I knew in the situation I had to hurry up and get down there.”

Said Davis, “If I have the best chance to keep that run from scoring, I have to take it.”

Davis and Triolo are both novices at their respective secondary positions. Triolo didn’t play a professional game at second base until this year, and has played only four professional games at the position, including Wednesday. Davis has more familiarity with right field than Triolo has with second base, but he hadn’t consistently played right until this season, logging 81 professional games at catcher compared to 54 games in right -- 52 of which have been this year. Triolo said postgame that he and Davis haven’t had many reps in which they’re both playing their secondary positions, but noted they’ve talked about their respective ranges as defenders.

Up until Riley’s sac fly, both in the game and in the series, the Pirates had held their own against arguably the best team in baseball.

The Braves opened the ballgame with four runs in the first four innings against Quinn Priester, but the Pirates responded with a four-run fourth against All-Star Max Fried, an inning capped off by Ke’Bryan Hayes’ two-run single. Atlanta reclaimed the lead in the sixth inning with Ozzie Albies’ RBI single off right-hander Colin Selby, who struck out three batters in his Major League debut, but Hayes tied the game again in the seventh with a solo home run, his second long ball in as many days. Harris’ perfect sprint home proved to be the difference.

“I think the biggest thing that our guys have to take away from it is there’s no letup,” Shelton said. “The guy hitting ninth for them has an .810 OPS. It’s a challenging lineup. You have to execute at all times.”