Lucas Sims had himself a game, spreading out three hits and two walks over six shutout innings. Getting his first big league win at Coors Field last week must have gone to his head, because he went out and pitched like the top prospect he was. His bullpen came on and preserved the shutout, which is always a fun treat to the home fans.
The Braves strung together single runs in four consecutive innings to provide a lead that proved more than enough. Markakis picked up two RBI, one on a solo home run to put the Braves on the board in the 4th. Freddie knocked in a run on a single in the 8th, and the Mariners gifted the Braves a run on an error in the 7th.
Speaking of which, the error saved the Braves from committing yet another baserunning mistake in this series, as Albies was caught between 3rd and home with no place to go. Apparently, the Braves have developed an allergy to the bases and are doing what they can to avoid having to stand on one for too long. Hopefully the doctor can find a cure for them quickly, before they forget how to run the bases correctly.
Nationals delenda est.
Thanks, ‘Rissa.
It’s remarkable how little attention we are giving, at least in our comments here, to Lucas Sims’ outing last night compared to the hand-wringing over Foltynewicz’s the night before.
Point well taken, Edward. I think the problem is that Folty’s poor starts over the past few weeks are more discouraging than Sims’ effort last night is encouraging. What I mean is, we had good reason to believe about a month ago that Folty could be counted on to turn in consistently good starts. Because of several very poor starts recently, he isn’t someone who is a consistently good major league starter. Now, I’m still fairly high on Folty; I think this stretch may very well be the result of hitting a wall after pitching more innings than he ever has. But still, with Teheran’s precipitous decline this year, we don’t yet have anyone we can count on to be consistently good.
As to Sims, the sample size is still very small. So I’m encouraged but quite cautious. I’m also pretty high on Sims, but I also remember that Wisler turned in several excellent starts, and even Blair had at least one good one.
Even so, I’m glad the kid turned in six shutout innings; it certainly improved my mood!
This latest episode of Joe and Tom explain why baseball was better back in their day has been riveting.
Well said, tfloyd. I agree.
Rich Hill is 8 innings into a perfect game.
Woops, error. Jinxed.
9 inning no-hitter and lost. Don’t see that every day.
I hope Snitker does not return next year. There, I said it. I usuallly don’t have dogmatic opinions about managers, but I just don’t think he has the stuff.
Using Jim Johnson in a tight game is some impressive middle-finger-to-upper-management dugout work. managaing.
Some impressive spelling and cut-and-paste work on my part, too.
With how they’ve handled JJ, can you say “Mid-Market Team”?
What a joke.
Thanks, tfloyd. That’s as good an answer as anyone’s ever given here.
I was at the game last year, Friday or Saturday of the last weekend of the season, when Aaron Blair put a dagger in the Tigers’ playoff hopes. He was unbelievable.
You’re right to worry over consistency. I’ve read somewhere that the difference between a Greg Maddux and an Aaron Sele is the consistency with which Maddux got batters out. Sele got his outs, too, but not every fifth day for 8 innings with only a single slip-up, or two on a bad day.
I like Foltynewicz. I like Teheran. We won’t win enough baseball games to make the playoffs if they’re giving up five runs or more every other night they pitch.
I see the Mariners saw fit to score a few runs while I was typing that. That’s what I get for taking my eye off the ball.
They should let AJ Minter pitch more than Jim Johnson.
Finally some boos from the home crowd. Long overdue. Put the best players in the org on the field.
Is it weird that a team that is allegedly loaded with top prospects is also a combined 112 games below .500 across its minor league system?
Is there generally no correlation between a minor league system’s winning percentage and the quality of its prospects according to rankings?
@17 It’s not a strong correlation, but if I were you I’d definitely go to school on that.
Thank you, ‘Rissa, for the recap. Here’s mine for last night’s game:
Mariners lucky. Braves suck. Jim Johnson delenda est.
@17
Eh,a lot of that is overblown. You’ve had a lot of guys getting promoted rapidly and that hurts the teams.
Also remember Rome may have been the best minor league team in all of baseball last year.
@17, you can ask the same question about BA’s farm system rankings correlating with future success. I’d love to see a 15 year overview on that…
Recapped. But there are double posts. One will be deleted.