Mauricio Dubón delivers again as Braves bop Bucs, 6-3
· Yahoo Sports
The adage goes, absence makes the heart grow fonder. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but I’ll tell you this: I don’t know if your heart can grow fonder of Mauricio Dubon, but if such a thing is even possible, then said fondness has probably grown quite a bit this week. The Braves’ nigh-indispensable Swiss army knife had himself another huge game, bashing a game-tying homer and then poking a go-ahead hit as the Braves welcomed the resurgent Pirates to Atlanta with a 6-3 unmanning.
Martin Perez got the start in this game for Atlanta, and as I’ve said before, Perez starts are, well, basically pachinko. Perez Pachinko has a certain ring to it. The Braves’ broadcast team described Perez as a tactician, and that may well be true in terms of sequence — but, fundamentally, Perez lacks the stuff and command to really “get away with” much, so much of what happens while he’s pitching feels awfully random to me. This game was a pretty great case in point, I think.
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Perez started the game with a 1-2-3 frame — an ABS-overturn-assisted (thanks, Sandy Leon!) strikeout, and two weak grounders. Then he had another 1-2-3 frame, with another weak grounder, ABS overturn, and a weak liner to right. So far, so fortunate.
Perez began the third with a leadoff walk. Jared Triolo caught up to a high, 88 mph sinker and hit it hard into the gap for a double. Henry Davis got an 0-2 hanging changeup and barreled it to center; the ball had weird spin and was caught by Michael Harris II on a pivot-then-dive, resulting in a sacrifice fly. Both of those bits of hard contact weren’t really on pitches unique to what Perez was throwing in this game; the Pirates’ hitters just happened to put better swings on them than their counterparts in the first two innings. Nick Gonzales then followed with a weak grounder, but this one was too weak, and another run scored. Then there was another a walk, a weak flyout on a pitch down the middle, and old compadre Marcell Ozuna blooped a ball into center to plate the frame’s third run. Perez ended the inning with a strikeout of Oneil Cruz where he didn’t throw a single pitch anywhere near the zone.
Basically, I think you get the idea. Sometimes, what Perez does works. Sometimes, it doesn’t. It feels directly like pachinko to me. (If you have no idea what that is, go look up Peggle. Perez, pachinko. Perez, Peggle. It works. Sometimes Ode to Joy even plays.
The funny thing is, after that, Perez’ results went back to how they were during the first two innings. The fourth was groundout, weak flyout, Leon-assisted strikeout on a pitch not close to the zone. The fifth was weak flyout, weak groundout, and another strikeout (this time of Brandon Lowe) in another sequence where Perez didn’t throw anything near the zone at all. So, Perez’ final line: five innings, five strikeouts, two walks. It was a good outing, let’s be very clear — Perez just keeps doing pachinko, and it’s working.
So, the Braves had a three-run deficit to overcome against Mitch Keller and the Pirates. No problem. Am I the only one that thinks of, “This isn’t even [our] final form” whenever a team takes a lead against the Braves this year? (Well, I’m probably not after you’ve been memetically exposed to this thought provided you actually read recaps and don’t just scroll to the comments…) The Braves first lulled Keller and the Pirates into a false sense of complacency, as Dubon hit a routine grounder to third after Matt Olson blooped a single and Ozzie Albies walked. Then they struck, with Ronald Acuña Jr. hitting a weak RBI flare after Austin Riley walked and Mike Yastrzemski got grazed on the foot with a pitch. The Pirates then had their good pachinko inning, so the Braves trailed 3-1 heading into the bottom of the third…
…and it was Dubon delivery time. Albies drew another walk with one out, Dubon fouled off some pitches (including a low one and a high one nowhere near the zone), and then Keller did pretty much the paragon of all hang jobs on a curve and… bam. Tie game.
Three homers in three games for Dubón!
— Atlanta Braves (@Braves) June 6, 2026
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In case you haven’t been paying attention, that’s three dingers in three games for Dubon. Fondness up, if there’s anywhere else for it to go, as noted.
The Braves were quiet in the fourth, but Keller and his defense kind of hit a wall (or, more accurately, a tank or spike trap or Scud missile or something) in the fifth. Harris mashed the first pitch he saw in the inning for a single. Olson got a down-Broadway sinker and did the same. Albies nearly homered on a hanging changeup, but it was caught at the fence. Up came Dubon. He missed a couple of meaty pitches, then got a fastball at the top of the zone, and slashed it to right to break the tie. The ball actually got past the right fielder, but Olson couldn’t score because his player used dexterity as a dump stat, I guess. (Or, more accurately, because he had to hold up in case the liner was caught. Reader’s choice.) Dominic Smith followed with a sac fly, and then Riley barreled a ball off the bricks in right to make it 6-3. That was it for Keller, who ended up with a pretty ghastly 4 2/3 with a 4/3 K/BB ratio, a hit by pitch, and a homer allowed. The Braves got one more walk in the inning, but nothing else.
And really, no one got anything else for the rest of the game. Braves relievers (Didier Fuentes, Dylan Lee, Robert Suarez) threw perfect frames in the sixth, seventh, and eighth, creating a weird situation where the pitching and defense were perfecto-ing the Pirates other than the adverse pachinko results in the third. Braves bats did almost nothing either — Acuña had a single but was thrown out trying to steal in the sixth — until the eighth.
That frame was just kind of weird. The Braves made two outs, and the home plate umpire rung Acuña up on a horrendous call that was quickly challenged and reverted… except the Pirates had walked off the field. So, they all had to return, only for Acuña to draw a walk two pitches later. Then, Harris struck out on three pitches… except the third pitch was a curve as horrendous as the overturned call to Acuña, bounced, hit the catcher in the knee, and allowed Harris to reach. Olson ended up striking out, but still, weird.
So, the Pirates had one more chance to make the Braves walk the plank, and they actually got the tying run up at the plate with none out (to make sure the folks that picked Iglesias got an extra point in our WPA game, I guess). The first batter got a strange pitch clock-violation-aided walk, except that the actual violation was Raisel Iglesias tripping during his delivery and not a real delay. Ozuna then lined an 0-2 pitch to left. So, up came Oneil Cruz, and then he went down on a changeup after seven pitches. Up next was pinch hitter Ryan O’Hearn, and he tried to pull an outside changeup… which he did, right to Albies, who flipped to Dubon (who else, tonight?) as part of a game-ending 4-6-3 double play. Woo.
This game had eight ABS challenges, six of which resulted in overturns, three of which were engendered by Leon. Acuña, Harris, Olson, and of course, Dubon, each had multiple hits.
The series continues tomorrow with an afternoon contest featuring Spencer Strider and Braxton Ashcraft.