Wow, just so much going on here.
Being spared another Episode (see what I did there?) of Jome Julio, Julio Teheran was on his way to a quality outing against a really good lineup. His peripherals ended up being pretty good: 6 IP, 4 H, 3 BB. But two of those four hits were home runs, so he ended up with a 3 ER outing. The third run he gave up came on a scorched ball that went into the right-centerfield triangle that ended up as a triple, too. From the MLB.com recap:
“When I make a mistake, I feel like it’s a homer,” Teheran said. “It’s not a base hit or a double. It’s something I don’t think about. I just go out there and try to throw my pitches without thinking about it, because when you think about giving up a homer, that’s when you give up more.”
So all told, Julio’s night didn’t end up that great, but it was still in question until the 7th. Snit went with the alternate bullpen lineup, and threw Jesse Biddle against three batters. He gave up a hit and recorded two outs, but Snitker brought in Matt Wisler to pitch to Mookie Betts, which went about as well as you might think. Betts hit a 2-run homer, and as Wisler pitched the next inning in what was now a meaningless situation, Mitch Moreland hit a solo home run as well. Snit’s response on why Wisler was in, also from the recap:
“I wanted to give [Wisler] that opportunity, and I just didn’t want to use Winkler and those guys we use when we’re ahead,” Snitker said. “We might win the next two games. I just feel like I’ve got to be careful with those guys. They’ve had a lot of work, and they’re all first-year Major League bullpen guys. Some other guys are going to have to carry the load a little bit, because you can’t keep going to those guys in a one-run game.”
Can you really argue with that? Six relievers are on pace for a little over 70 games, so there could be a level of sensitivity given to that situation. Biddle is working his way into the regular rotation, but with Moylan’s struggles, Snit may be desperate to find another right-handed reliever who could specifically get righties out. I don’t think that pitcher is Matt Wisler, and I don’t think the right-handed hitter he ought to be tasked with neutralizing is Mookie Betts, but I don’t hate the idea of letting Wisler work in multi-inning spurts in games that may not be in question or seem “winnable”.
Nobody on our staff should be pitching to Mookie Betts with a base open in a high leverage situation. It’s just not even rational. That said, we weren’t winning that game regardless.
That is a good point. Once Holt took second, why not walk Betts? IIRC, there was a lefty up next, but who cares? The game was still very much in doubt.
Is this the new baseball? 8 relievers pitch 70+ appearances for contending teams, if they can even stay healthy?
Sounds like we need a 9-man bullpen.
There was a 56% chance of Wisler getting Betts out. If he does, maybe it keys some confidence in him as a reliever. In late May, give him a shot. Telling him to IBB the guy won’t make him or your pen any better.
Betts’ .440 OBP includes PAs against some of the very best pitchers the majors have to offer. If he could have all his plate appearances against Matt Wisler it’d probably be double that.
When it’s close and late and your pitcher ain’t all that and the batter has a 1.199 OPS and is arguably the #1 hitting talent in the game at that moment and there’s a base open… I mean, when would you ever intentionally walk a guy if not then?
We’ve scored 5 runs since last Sunday’s miracle 9th inning.
Wait a minute. If there was a lefty behind Betts, why not walk Betts (which you should do anyway) and leave Biddle in to pitch to the lefty????
What does that tell Biddle, who you want to be a high leverage lefty, that all he has to do is give up a single and he’s going to be yanked? Biddle is a much more important long term piece to build up than Wisler is. Give him one whole damn inning to do it for chrissakes.
Snitker’s verbal logic was fine but his actions didn’t support his logic as much as he thinks. This is where we need better managing – just this kind of situation. Granted that we were never gonna score again (although, in a 3-2 game, Dansby’s double would have certainly made it interesting), but he could have boosted the relief corps better and possibly kept the game closer just by leaving Biddle in to face Benintendi. Even. if. there. was. a. man. on. first. You can still walk a Mookie type. Or maybe you can teach Biddle how to pitch around a great hitter.
@4 Walking Betts and leaving Biddle in would certainly make your pen better, though.
@8 That was the move. Very good point.
Wisler realistically had a less than 20% chance of retiring Betts successfully.
Meh. I’m not in the mood to nit pick your nit picking of Snitker’s attempt to not wear out his four reliable relievers before the All-Star break. I’ll bow out by saying “Happy Anniversary, Jorts.”
With the 56% assessment, I’m just glad I found someone who likes Wisler more than me. 🙂
And thank you! Mrs. Jorts is a lucky woman.
This is also a pretty solid reason why you want your starters to go as deep into games as possible. Constantly taking them out early tires out your bullpen, and then you find yourself in a situation where you’re not going to your best guys in a 1-run game and saying to yourself, “Well, let’s put in Matt Wisler to face Mookie Betts as a righty-righty matchup.”
Now, that’s pretty clearly a dumb decision even in a situation where your best guys aren’t available, but when you’ve taxed your bullpen to the point where you’re not looking at a 1-run deficit as enough of a high-leverage situation to use them, that’s a problem.
I’m a fairly young guy, and it’s even going to take me a while to get used to 6 IP being considered a deep outing. I’m not sure if league-wide data on performance during the third time through the order is easily available, but it must be pretty terrible if this is the new game. It’s simple mathematics that needing 4 relievers on average to get through one game is going to tucker out your pen pretty quickly.
Most people smell BS that Kakes is playing LF “because of the Monster” when it’s really about how big RF at Fenway is and how slow Kakes is. It does then remind me that RF is much smaller at STF than LF, so it seems like the Braves are getting it right with Kakes/Acuna while the Braves are respectfully not saying that Kakes doesn’t have the range for the big part of the field.
We stopped scoring runs once blazon left on his stupid cruise. When is he coming back?
I continue to stand by my desire for Camargo to be Dansby and Ozzie insurance. Just so stupid to be carrying Charlie Culberson as insurance for 3 different positions where young players reside, all of which have injury concerns.
DANSBY!!
I need to criticize Dansby some more.
Obviously Dansby has been reading BJ and felt the need to silence certain commenters.
I am silenced for at least one more at bat.
This could turn ugly quickly. And Camargo is at least partly to blame.
Go Dansby!!!
Nick is on fire!!!
When I grow up, I want to go on a cruise like the one blazon is on.
Not sure why Newk is facing Betts.
Great play by Dansby
I’m not sure it isn’t time to walk Betts again…..
Ah well, I guess it worked this time.
If you don’t have a slider then you’re not gonna get Dansby out.
SSS alert. Swanson has 3 hits in his last 3 at bats. Can we all agree he has now proven his excellence?
Haha, let’s see if Biddle gets Benintendi out today…
Nope.
UGH.
Another great play by Dansby.
I’m really interested to see some people try to quantify their expectations of Dansby. I think some may be unknowingly asking for a 6 WAR player.
I guess the Sox are giving as a study in how far we’ve come….. or not.
The announcers can’t stop talking about how good Dansby’s been on defense all day.
Interesting that Albies is hitting RH against Wright.
Acuna should have been running harder. Maybe that’s his “Andruw benched in the middle of an inning” moment.
Acuna should have been on second by the time the ball hit the ground, dangit.
We seem to have been setting up the entire weekend to go Winkler, Minter, Vizzy in the first late-inning one-run lead. Two more outs to set that up.
@33 If you were the Diamondbacks, when you selected a player 1/1 you’d probably have expected a 6 WAR player.
That’s on them. They traded their 1/1 along with two others for Shelby Miller. They didn’t think they trading a 6 WAR player; why would we think we were acquiring one?
I’ll say it. Acuna is a terrible outfielder. He is awful.
@42 He made a nice catch earlier and has several good catches. He does not have good instincts on playing caroms or taking angles on balls and I can’t see any evidence of that “cannon” arm. It’s no wonder his defensive quality stats are so bad. He is currently statistically listed as the worst defender on the team.
I’m not sure how many runs we’re going to need to beat these guys. I guess, considering last night and today, that 7 would be a good minimum number.
@43
I don’t think it’s his arm per se, so much as his accuracy, which is not at all good.
@43 He’d be beyond terrible in CF. He’s a LF for the duration. His arm is little league level.
He showed off his arm strength a little bit with the throw back to the infield after that catch over his shoulder, but yes, I agree he has not been able to turn his arm into an out-making skill. I think additional minor league team would iron such things out.
Also… if Sale and Price stay healthy this team is going to win the World Series. FWIW.
@47
Though wildly mocked and ridiculed, Sam’s post about a plethora of baseball reasons why Acuna should be kept in the minors for a while if not the whole season was dead nuts on. He’s not really ready for the ML. IMO.
And now we’re one inning away from Kimbrel.
And this is why teams are not predominantly made from 20 yo’s.
Ozzie sucks too. Send him down
On the other hand, this Acuna kid can sure hit the ball.
@ #42
“I’ll say it. Acuna is a terrible outfielder. He is awful.”
Wait until Riley gets called up.
It sucks that we have to play the AL East in Interleague play so much.
Boston’s a good squad.
A lot of melting down on Twitter, the new AJC. I think it was Nick who said it best that there’s now an expectation to win. I hope we don’t ruin some pitchers to win 87 games and miss the playoffs because Matt Kemp. I do wish we’d commit to a rotation once Soroka is healthy and commit to some prospects as relievers for a couple months. Get in a rhythm.
@55 I think it’s a good test of where we are as a team. We are good but we are not the best. This tells me exactly what we already thought. A young team with little experience and a lot of talent. We need an infusion of talent to get past the “potential playoff contender” status and get to be an actual winner. We scored plenty of runs today but had no decent middle relief. Sanchez should help along with Soroka. Having a Steven Wright to provide 3 innings of solid relief was absolutely the difference today.
@57 It’s a long season. Let’em rant. How many times have many people here been saying to expect the ups and downs. I don’t think a little losing streak should change any of the existing plans. At least we beat up on Pomeranz (and Kimbrel, LOL). The hitting is coming back around so it’s time for a little pitching slump. A reality check.
Almost to a man this team was playing out of its minds for longer than anyone could reasonably expect them to. They’re bound to come down from that, and they are.
And we knew this would be a tough road trip.
Boston is the 6th team this century to win 36 of the first 52.
Nothing good ever happen when we go to Boston. Not surprised. Let’s get out of that place asap.
Liverpool goalkeeper Loris Karius had himself a Brooks Conrad game in the Champions League final :´-(
@64, I don’t follow soccer so are we talking a “folk hero” game or a three-error game? Big difference.
@65, he basically lost the game for Liverpool.
Recapped.