Wow, what a game! On a day where the Nationals and Braves both got behind in extras only to come back and win it in the bottom half, the Braves definitely provided more excitement! This game was really similar to the game two nights ago, games that the Braves inevitably find ways to lose.
After Bud Norris left after the 5th, we went through four relievers to get six outs. Fortunately, Jim Johnson, Arodys Vizcaino, and the newly acquired Dario Alvarez kept the Reds off the board for five more innings. But after an error by Jace Peterson led to two unearned runs in the top of the 13th, the Braves put this sequence together: single, single, double, single, walk, single. The Braves scored three runs, and that was all she wrote.
Oh, and did I mentioned Frederick Freeman hit for the cycle? It was extra innings-aided, but he became the first Brave since Mark Kotsay to get all four in one game. In a season with very few personal accomplishments, that feels great. Good for Freddie. Speaking of our slugger, he’s 7 for his last 14 with 2 HRs, and he’€™s hitting .280/.387/.620 in the month of June. Get hot, baby.
Speaking of Bud Norris, he was ok. His peripherals were good: 5 baserunners and 7 strikeouts in 5 innings, but he only lasted 5 and gave up 3 runs. More importantly, it caused us to run through almost our entire bullpen.
It’€™s real fun to win a come-from-behind extra innings game. IWOTR, but I’€™ll take it.
This game may be the apex of the Braves season. I’m enjoying basking in the awesomeness of it for a little longer. Too bad they play at noon today to bring us back to reality.
This season has made me appreciate the 1914 Miracle Team even more, as I realize just what it would have been like to watch your team go from dead last to World Series winners in two months. What a ride that must have truly been.
I just wanted to clarify my post on the previous thread… I absolutely love the various ways in which our recappers handle the games. The variety and creativity is refreshing and for this season it has made enduring the Braves much more pleasurable (less painful?). The poetry I was talking about was in the comments. For me, I value the opinions of the folks who post on here (even if I sometimes don’t agree with them) and this is what I really enjoy about the comments. But, if I have to try to unravel and decode some poetry to get to what the poster’s opinion is, it becomes a bit of a drag for me. I want your opinions but I don’t want to also have to hope I am correctly parsing the format you chose to use. That was all I was trying to say; the post was in no way intended as a ding against the brilliant recap Rissa gave us yesterday. Sorry for any misunderstandings.
Tyrell Jenkins up to join the pen
Freddie!
I thought Dario Alvarez may have taken some quick action steroids just after he was called up :-). 5 ks in 2 innings is pretty impressive. On further inspection, the guy has always had some impressive K numbers – 60 Ks in 34 AAA innings. However a WHIP of 1.485 and a 5.50 AAA ERA won’t cut it. He had decent numbers before AAA, so, at 27, he still has a chance to make it. I wonder if McDowell or others in the Braves organization have found something in his delivery that they think can be fixed.
@2
Hap…
The last two Clerihews posted here came late last night during that crazy game. They specifically related to the Braves inability to cash in on bases loaded situations. Are you seriously saying you had difficulty unraveling their meaning? It’s the same language with the addition of four rhymes and a metre that is attempting a degree of ‘flow’. Plus, hopefully, a somewhat whimsical ending. They are meant to entertain, not puzzle – but they have to be read with some degree of concentration.
Two suggestions. As soon as you spot the four short lines together, scroll on past as some here have cheerfully admitted to doing. Exactly the best thing to do. And/Or why not ask Alex if he would post a poll on the subject of who wants them and who doesn’t?
It would be interesting to know the result but for this writer who joined this board because of Mac and his literary leanings it would not be considered binding. One last thought, verse is a much less pretentious word than poetry -why not think of it as that. A half dozen of us write verse. Cheers.
@6
The Clerihew verse
some may regard as a curse
but others go ga-ga
pleading never say ta-ta.
blazon
literarily out to pasture, grazin’
it beats the rendering facility
for those whose verses have achieved futility
Since we’re on the topic, I will say that I refresh these threads half as often as I used to because every thread is half inane “poetry.” I don’t expect the “poetry” to stop, but I hope that when the Braves start winning, it will become diluted with some actual baseball talk. Even music or movie or (guh) college football talk, because at least it is talk, expression of opinions and ideas. The “poetry” here is just “clever” rephrasing of ideas already expressed. It reminds me of that segment of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, with the minstrel following Sir Robin and constantly narrating everything in song.
Interesting fact. If the Braves win today, that will be two games in a row. They would likely only need to win 28 more consecutive games to become a wildcard contender and have 38 more cconsecutive wins to get within strinking distance of the Nationals.
If all this verse from thread to thread
has made Braves Journal worse to’ve read,
henceforth, dear friends, in lieu of bitchin’,
I recommend PgDn, PgDn.
@9 I would vote no poetry. It’s not original, confusing, snooty and just silly. IMO, obviously. Cue the, he must be fun at parties. And the poems are not very good. And no I can’t write better.
I’m not a huge fan of some of the poetry, but I thought Rissa’s work was outstanding. Again, PgDn can be your friend. I don’t like discussions about some of the latest rock bands or most of the movies, but it’s not a big deal if many of you like it and I can always scan over it. Whatever you want to talk about is fine with me as long as it stays clean and out of religion and politics. I continue to get more insight about the entire Braves organization here (with a healthy dose of irreverence and creativity) than on any other site I know.
Well fellow denizens of Poetry Journal I agree with #11.
I stopped watching the game after the 8th. I guess I am a lousy fan as I had zero confidence the Braves would win the game.
Also interesting that the Miracle Braves were mentioned today because their nadir was 26-40 after 66 games, and we will have completed 66 games today, likely at 20-46. Obviously, we are about to peel off a 70-19 run.
I’m in the PgDn camp. Whatevs. I love talking SEC football, and I don’t really like all the old band talk, so it goes in all directions. Great bar though.
Whether it’s unfounded or not, I seem to think that Viz should be treated with kid gloves, meaning I grimaced when I saw he came into a non-save situation after pitching yesterday. Maybe it’s all of the Braves that have blown their elbow out, but I wanna keep this guy.
Man, it’s nice to win a couple. Especially when we hit the ball.
#11
True dat. PgDn is everyone’s tiny, little bucket of freedom.
Anybody headed to Flushing this weekend? Sunday’s a possibility for me.
The Braves win!
Whether prose or verse,
We whupped those Reds;
So it could have been worse.
Nice to see Wisler settle down a bit after a rocky beginning and a rocky past couple of performances. I’ve decided the Braves should hang onto him for at least one more start.
IMO Rissa’s recap was fantastic. Enjoy the creativity of the recappers in general please keep up the good work. As for the comments, I mean, there’s no rule you have to read every one. There are certain posters (unnamed here) that I know to skip, and if you see verse it is easy enough to scroll past if it’s not your thing. The only posts that bother me are those where the back and forth starts to get personal, but outside of that, it’s an interesting and entertaining community. So carry on everyone.
And SEC football talk is insufferable when you have 3 ACC alma maters, but yes, PgDn. People like UGA here, and who am I to begrudge them their sincere, though ill-considered, fan interest? Come to think of it, I might actually read the posts about which QB is going to disappoint for UGA this season if there were a few whimsical verses mixed in.
I started out not much of a fan of the poetry, but it has grown on me. Some of them are quite clever; not all of them will be winners. The great thing about them is that you can spot ’em a mile away and so you can just scroll right on down. Harder to do that with college football talk, which I really don’t enjoy. But it ain’t my blog.
Excited to see Tyrell Jenkins up.
Hey, is it just the box scores or is Ian Krol turning into a useful asset?
SEC Journal, Poetry Journal, doesn’t matter, this is still the best blog on the internet. Alex et al, well done and thank you.
2 wins in a row. And NOT against the Marlins. Odd.
#21
Any diversion from this team is necessary. They’re essentially trying to lose — and they’re succeeding — so my engagement isn’t really there (although I did guffaw guiltily at the Ding-Dong Strikeout the other day).
After tonight (or Sunday) when the NBA ends, I’m not going to engage too closely with another sporting event until September 3 when this well-known football school tees it up with a well-known basketball school in the Georgia Dome.
So, yeah, let the Jacob Eason vs. Greyson Lambert talk begin… 😉
As a guy whose last “recap” here was an 800-word meander into learning to drive a manual shift car in lieu of watching the actual Braves game, I appreciate the ethos of creative freedom by which Alex runs this place. Of course, that means not every contribution will be exactly up my alley, but again, Page Down is your friend and mine.
I think that’s in line with Mac’s spirit – he wanted to write about the Braves, but also about Alabama football and Douglas Adams and Jeff Francoeur riding a goddamn hippopotamus. I’ll always wonder what he would have made of the unholy mess his favorite team became, but I’m pretty sure it would be a mix of facts and absurdism, which is pretty much what’s going on around here now.
So stay weird, you weirdos. I like y’all better than I do “the Braves,” who, if they were a famous BBQ restaurant, would be worth about a one star Yelp review warning the public that they kept the original branding but changed the menu from pulled pork to horse meat, jacked the prices up, and moved the smokehouse to a Spaghetti Junction underpass. It’s y’all who keep me coming back at this point.
I’m not convinced that horse meat would have worse infield defense than the 2016 Atlanta Braves.
Hey, we won. I wasn’t referring so much to the recaps, but the comments within the posts themselves. I do think however, that the poetry to real baseball talk ratio has IMO been too high lately but maybe that’s just because we suck.
I mean does every other comment need to be a limerick? That’s what I meant…
Erick “Carne de Caballo” Aybar
Frederick is on pace for a career high in HRs. He’s becoming more horse than horse meat.
Freeman is starting to play well; let’s trade him.
A few days ago the speculation was between Teheran and Vizcaino as the Braves’ lone All Star reps. If Freeman has another good weekor two, you have to put him as the favorite.
@28
hi Chief…
one limerick in the past 3 months, the coop one, which he said he liked.
overall, at a considered guess. i would put the overall ratio, poem to prose at approx 1 to 6…fair?
One of the things this season is recalling for me as the ancient one is how you can get excited about silly things about the team and seeing faint glimmers of actual baseball being played. Lowered expectations or whatever, but a 2 game win Streak would have me practically giddy as a kid in some years. Or beating the hated Dodgers, even once in a series. Or adopting one of the Misfit Toys as your personal pet and cheering when he has his weekly double. Starting to feel that way again.
Speaking of horses, it seems to me that some here are closely inspecting the teeth of a gifted one…
That was beautiful, Bledsoe.
Seldom post but I read everything. I am a poetry lover but feel the stuff on here in the comments has become burdensome to go through and seldom adds real value to the discussion.
@17: Sorry, ububba. Away for the weekend to the Berkshires. Somehow, I suspect I might not have the fortitude for a Braves game at Citifield this year.
Entitled consumers of free content are entitled. I’ll take poetry over complaining about poetry any day — at least the poetry is formatted so that I know to PgDn if I’m not in the mood.
@34/36..
yes!
“Does every other comment have to be a limerick?”
Well, my friend, you make me sick
There is so much creativity
Just to provide some levity
That even a fella like me
Would start with the frivolity
First poem, folks! First one! It just came to me. So what is that? AABBBB? That’s not a thing, is it…
Ahhh, I went on the Google machine, and found that a limerick is AABBA, so I was close. I’mm not good at this.
Roses are red
Violets are blue
Good try, Rob
Chris Ellis to Gwinnett
I wouldn’t have thought that Ellis would have been in AAA faster than Newcomb.
And man, Lucas Sims is terrible right now.
LeBron James is a stone cold assassin.
At the risk of derailing out “do we or don’t we with the poetry?” discussion, I was hoping someone could answer my Braves-related question asked a few comments back: Is Ian Krol looking pretty sharp? Haven’t seen him pitch yet. His stats look good.
Krol has decent stuff – mid-90s fastball, decent slider. He definitely has some trouble with right handed hitters, but is death to lefties. He did go two innings yesterday, looked pretty good. I don’t think you’d want him in a high leverage situation against a Kris Bryant or Miguel Cabrera, but otherwise he’s a decent piece out in the pen.
Looks like Bryse Wilson, the Braves’ fourth-rounder, signed for $1.2 million yesterday, which is more than twice his slot value. More of that savings on Anderson and the college seniors being put to use.
I’m assuming Anderson hasn’t signed yet b/c he’s still pitching in the NYHS playoffs?
Seat Painter, I think Joe said he graduates June 23 and will sign the already agreed to deal shortly after that. I’m old and deaf, so the date may vary to match the facts.
Yes, he can’t sign until after graduation.
Stu, what are you seeing or hearing about Josh Anthony? Chances the braves can sign him?
Thanks guys. I figured it must’ve been something like that.
I’ve heard Anthony is one of the least likely to sign. Less than 50/50 shot, I think. He has a pretty strong commitment to Auburn, and I don’t think the Braves are going to have $1.2 million to throw at him like they did with Wilson.
#46
Yup, he’s still the best and, for all-round performances, last night was an all-timer.
Steph Curry seems to really struggle when the refs let people play. LeBron is so strong and versatile that games like last night are inevitable. Definitely an all-timer.
Report on and interview with Max Fried over at Minor League Ball.
The latest in the ongoing Wood (anti-Braves FO/scouting dept/medical staff) vs Olivera (pro-Braves FO/scouting dept/medical staff) skirmish:
“[Wood] believes he suffered the initial injury swinging a bat May 15 against St. Louis. It affected his throwing each of his next two starts.”
Extraordinarily belated recap is up. Sorry about that.