Mark down the date: May 28th, the day the Braves clinched their first home series win. They’re still 4-20 at the Ted, but the last two of them came in a row against the PURE EVIL Marlins, and it’s hard for that not to put a smile on your face.
Aaron Blair did pretty well. He’s not as efficient as he might like to be — he needed 94 pitches to go 5 2/3, and he gave up five hits and two walks. But for the second night in a row, Martin Prado came through when we needed him. This time, he was 0-5 with a hat trick and another error. He struck out with a man on second in the first inning and with men on first and second in the second inning, and he grounded out to leave a man on in the fourth. The Marlins left 11 men on base in the game.
Indeed, the Marlins looked more like the Braves than the Braves did. Their starter, big free acquisition Wei-Yin Chen, departed after five strong innings leading 2-1. But then came the bullpen. Jose Ureña gave up a walk, two singles and a double, and all of a sudden, the Braves were leading 4-2, Friday night’s margin. Our old friend Edwin Jackson helped remove all doubt in the seventh, giving up consecutive walks followed by a three-run homer by Gordon Beckham. That was the ballgame.
There were a lot of Georgians in this ballgame. Jackson’s a military brat and was born in Germany, but he went to high school in Columbus; the Marlins’ final pitcher of the night, Dustin McGowan, is from Ludowici, outside Savannah; and Beckham’s an Atlanta boy who went to Westminster. Tyler Flowers is from Roswell, and of course, Jeff Francoeur went to Parkview.
One more against them today. Let’s bust out the brooms.
And Derek Dietrich is a GT product.
Nice recap.
In April, our team ERA was 5.05. In May, our team ERA is 3.64. If extended to the entire season, we would be 3rd in the NL in team ERA, and 7th in MLB.
In April, our hitting line was .229/.301/.289. In May, it’s been .239/.302/.352. Not much of an improvement, but still a 60 point increase in OPS. The last two weeks we’ve been able to manage .245/.320/.383.
I’m not so much encouraged by the increase in hitting since it’s largely been the result of production from Francoeur, Beckham, and d’Arnaud, three guys who don’t factor into our long-term plans, but I am really encouraged by our pitching. If we can figure out what we’re doing with middle relief, I think we could statistically have one of the best pitching staffs in baseball by the end of the year. That’s crazy.
Thank you for your usual fine recap, Alex. I quite like playing the Marlins. Go Braves.
I did forget about the improvement from AJP to Flowers, and Flowers does factor into our plans. His OPS this year is now in line with AJP’s from last year. Flowers is playing a little over his head right now, but if you could get him a left-handed hitting platoon partner, do you do that vs. send 2-3 prospects to Milwaukee to get Lucroy. If your catching platoon can handle the pitchers, make the routine play, and muster a .750 OPS, do you really give up that much to get Lucroy’s career .774 OPS? Plus, Lucroy’s older than Flowers.
A buddy of mine (and fellow Mercerian) posted on Facebook from Greenville, SC, where he was watching Mercer play the Citadel. I asked him if Kyle Lewis was playing. “Yeah, he just hit a three-run homer.”
*Sigh*… I don’t think he’s going to make it to #3.
What’s with the 5:00 start? Fireworks after the game?
And just btw: Ben Zobrist is unreal. I want him on the Braves.
@4
There’s a third option as previously discussed here after our KC series…pretty much any 4 of our younger pitchers for Salvador Perez…when they quibble we get to withdraw the one we choose, they get to replace him with Teheran…that trade would fundamentally change our team and its leadership for 10 years, assuming we could extend him.
@6
coop…rumor has it Coppy goes mea culpa after the game in public speech lasting approximately 2 hours.
Post game concert. Chris Stapleton (?), whoever that is. The game is near sellout though, so he’s a somebody I guess.
Chris Stapleton is a very popular acoustic reggae artist, if I remember correctly.
Does anyone know why Jeff Francouer is batting cleanup? Does he have the Pictures?
Goodness…this is quite the defense
There’s a lot of people who wouldn’t know a baseball from a base camp wandering around the Ted today. And the only place I’ve seen more empty seats for a “sellout” is at the Georgia Dome when the Falcons are wrapping up a 4-12 season.
What more do we need to see from O’Flaherty?
And I just saw two women walk through a men’s room on the 200 level. Not unlike the Major League Braves roster itself, today’s crowd here on Capitol Avenue appears to have no idea what it is doing.
Freeman can’t put a ball in play with a runner at 3rd
Osuna Orlata
he’ll get into a tater
Dietrich’s homer…is it a correct assumption that for a ball to travel that far and that fast with only a short, smooth swing that the timing had to be absolutely perfect? Like those rare moments on a golf course where you unaccountably relax, slow down, everything’s in sync for once and it flies off the club face – yet so sweetly you can barely feel it through your hands.
@18, yep that’s a pretty good analogy.
Recapped.