The Plan Survived Once

Both Atlanta stories today were about a plan surviving contact with a body. One plan has already answered. The other has until four o'clock Friday.

At Truist Park, the Braves lost Lane Thomas in the batting cage before first pitch — a right intercostal injury, per Walt Weiss by way of the Associated Press, and he is headed to the 15-day injured list — and beat Tampa Bay 3-1 anyway. Martin Perez, 35, threw seven scoreless innings. Then the eighth: Ozzie Albies pinch-hit and tripled, Austin Riley singled him home, Mike Yastrzemski pinch-hit and doubled, and Ha-Seong Kim, who came to the park hitting .110, singled for two. Ellis has the Perez row, and the point of it is that seven scoreless innings moved his table by exactly one line.

In Flowery Branch, the club that named Tua Tagovailoa on Monday watched him reach for his back on a throw in individual drills Thursday and sit down. The report says oblique, limited. No side, no grade and no timeline has been reported by anyone, and Kevin Stefanski does not speak until Friday. Cooper Rush took every first-team rep after that: 16 career starts, nine wins and seven losses, and a right hand, which is the part Miles thinks Pittsburgh should care about. Dex moved his Penix number two points, from 67 to 69, and calls it a Rush story, not a Penix story. It is.

So the two clocks. The Game Status Report is due at 4:00 PM Friday, and it is the document that decides availability; Thursday's only certified a rep count. Kickoff is 1:00 PM Sunday at Acrisure Stadium, and Atlanta are the road team.

Philadelphia arrive at Truist Park Friday at 7:15 PM, Aaron Nola against Chris Sale — six and ten with a 4.76 against fourteen and nine with a 2.10. The lead is 4.0. It was 3.0 this morning: Atlanta won, Philadelphia lost 2-1 to Houston, and both halves moved the same direction inside one afternoon. Fifteen to play. The magic number is 11, by MLB's count. The bye gap is 3.5: Los Angeles idle, still a game in hand.

Atlanta United lost 3-2 to Orlando City on Wednesday, and Tito's reading of it has not aged a day.

One more thing. The Braves found out before first pitch what their plan looked like without its deadline bat, and the bench answered in the eighth. The Falcons find out at four o'clock Friday what theirs looks like without its starter, and the answer, if they need one, has 16 starts, all for two other clubs. One depth chart has spoken. The other has been asked to sit by the phone.