The Braves started 5-0 at Turner Field twenty years ago, but only 4-0 at SunTrust this year. This proves, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Turner Field was clearly the superior ballpark of the two. Now we know.
The Nationals rolled into town and looked at the Braves’ modest winning streak, laughed, scoffed and said, “that’s cute; why don’t you try playing ball with the big boys?” The Braves tried, and failed. Ah, San Diego, when can we see you again?
Mike Foltynewicz drew the short straw and had to pitch against Max Scherzer, admittedly a hard assignment on the best of days. Folty actually pitched pretty well, faltering only in the 5th when he gave up three hits and a walk, good for two Nationals runs. Over the rest of the seven innings he pitched, he scattered only two hits and three walks, and looked pretty dominant out there. If that Folty can show up more often than not, he’ll be fun to watch for years to come.
Eric O’Flaherty relieved him in the 8th, and he gave up two doubles and a run in 2/3 of an inning before Luke Jackson came on to finish the inning. Jackson then pitched the 9th in perfect fashion to hold the Nationals to only three runs on the evening, a feat that is to be lauded.
The problem lay not with the Atlanta pitching, then, but with the offense having to face Mad Max. They could do pretty much nothing against him over his seven innings, scraping together only two hits and striking out seven times. They finally broke through against the Nationals bullpen in the 9th, when Freddie Freeman and Brandon Phillips collected singles off of Blake Treinen and Tyler Flowers walked to load the bases. A walk to Kurt Suzuki forced the lone Braves run in, before Shawn Kelley entered the fray and quickly got the final two outs to end the threat and the game.
And that was that, a 3-1 loss against the Nationals at home against their ace. It could have been much worse, and the Braves would have been hard pressed to make it much better. Toss that one in the loss column and hope for a better result tonight as Julio Teheran faces off against Joe Ross in his season debut. Even a blind squirrel finds a nut every now and then, so it’s not beyond the realm of possibility that the Braves can win a few against Washington this year.
Nationals delenda est.
last thread – @65 Rio Ruiz will likely never be a MLB baseball player.
Maybe not. However, Adonis cant hit RH pitching and Ruiz may be able to platoon there until we have other options. Adonis is hitting .095/.156/.119 so far against righties this season. Either way, Id rather give Ruiz a few swings over Bonifacio.
It’s pretty interesting how high our expectations have become. We expect a major league regular at every position, we expect to be in every game (especially with how well the SP has kept us in games), and we expect that if there’s a roster issue, Coppy needs to fix it. We’ve come a long way. We just lost to a team that sold their farm to win the WS THIS YEAR when their ace was dealing, and we felt like we should have won. That’s pretty cool.
In other news, why can’t I find a video or GIF of Bucknor’s blown call? Even on Twitter. That’s censorship.
Here you go, Rob: http://deadspin.com/wow-that-was-some-bizarre-umpiring-in-nats-braves-1794446772
That’s so bad. Bless you, Blauser.
Bucknor is probably making close to $300k+ at this point in his career. Disgraceful.
Remember that play where Julio Lugo was clearly out, but instead scored the game-winning run in extras? We seem to benefit from bad calls late. I can’t remember one where it went against us (not counting the Wild Card game since that was in like the 7th inning).
@6: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_NPka5cVE8
Let’s go Pirates!
Ugh. From Bowman:
“Inciarte slipped and landed on his backside while chasing a ball during BP. CF fence is open. Looked like his spikes slid on cement.”
“Inciarte jammed his left wrist when he landed. He’s heading to the clubhouse, but he says he hopes to play tonight.”
Doesn’t stop him from bunting, apparently.
I hope the Harper home run doesn’t make Julio timid next time he comes up.
Adonis is a dp machine
It’s unfortunate Ruiz is off to a slow start at Gwinnett because Garcia is garbage right now.
Adonis doing his thing
Julio’s got nothing tonight.
Nope… Julio is struggling.
Welp.
I just turned the game on. I just turned the game off.
Julio should throw bp in the homerun derby. Throwing grapefruits to the wrong hitters and nibbling on the wrong hitters.
Ya think? I have such confidence in Julio that right up until that slam I thought he might just get out of it. Obviously I should have seen the signs. When Julio struggles with his command he’s very hittable.
Ya think? I have such confidence in Julio that right up until that slam I thought he might just get out of it. Obviously I should have seen the signs. When Julio struggles with his command he’s very hittable.
Harper with 7 career homers against Teheran!
Swanson has been terrible.
Freddie, OTOH, is historically terrific right now. What a joy to watch.
Can we play the Padres for 162?
This team is pretty bad when ya get to the subs .. never will win with Peterson.. Rocker.. Bonifacio.. Garcia in our lineups .. we can’t withstand injuries .. our subs are terrible .. I wish Ruiz was doing well at AAA .. I would get rid of Carmago. Or Bonifacio or Darnaud and bring up Ruuz to play against RH pitchers at 3rd base . Then you would some power against a lefty late in games with Garcia .. I’d move Swanson down in lineup .. he’s pressing .. once we get Kemp back move Phillips in 2nd hole ..
Krol…lol
Krol and EOF have to go.
I’m turning this crap off .. glad my TV has a lot of choices .. I’d rather watch NBA than this junk ..
@25 Krol, EOF, Bonafacio…..
Dansby is killing us right now. How many solo HRs can Freddie hit?
So, it was an uncharacteristic start for Julio, but I hope we don’t get manhandled by top-tier teams all season.
Fortunately a loss like this counts the same as a 4 to 3 loss in extra innings. If we got counted off for ugly losses, last night would be 2 losses. Let’s hope we turn things around tonight.
Carlos Peña analyzes Freeman’s swing.
http://m.mlb.com/video/topic/7417714/v1303730483/breaking-down-freemans-improved-swing
I think swapping Phillips and Swanson is a good idea. I would also call up Ruiz to platoon.
I think we’ll likely be seeing 2 moves today as the bullpen is taxed. Unfortunately, Kemp will likely take Recker or Camargo’s place rather than Bonifacio or d’Arnaud’s.
SSS, but D’Arnaud hasn’t been a problem. Bonifacio on the other hand…
Recrapped.
@34
You’re right about not being a problem and the sample size. However, Bonifacio has been an on-field problem for every team he’s been a part of since 2015.
However, not having a power threat coming off the bench is a real problem that has showed up in nearly half of our games thus far.