The old saying that each team wins 50 per year and loses 50 per year, it’s what you do with the other 62 that determines your season, never felt truer than last night. On paper, it looked like it could easily have been one of 50 losses, as IWOTM ran out their Ace – Jacob deGrom (well, deGrom qualifies as ANYONE’S Ace for that matter) – against the Bravos. Ol’ Jake lived up to his billing, going eight strong innings on a measly 100 pitches while giving up only two runs. But, IWOTM also lived up to their billing, scoring only one run, driven in by deGrom himself, to lose 2-1.
Anibal Sanchez continued with his season of resurgence, tossing a strong six innings, striking out nine Mets hitters, giving up the only RBI to the aforementioned Mets hurler. The only trouble Sanchez had was the third, giving up a leadoff double to Amed Rosario, then a one out single to deGrom. Brandon Nimmo follwed with a walk, but Jose Bautista and Michael Conforto struck out to end the threat.
Atlanta got on the board in the second when Johan Canargo homered, his 13th of the season. Johan does nothing except continually show that Austin Riley might be trade bait over the winter. After 165 games over two seasons, Camargo has a .277/.340/.452 career slash line that will play at the hot corner, especially with his defense and versatility.
Atlanta finished up the scoring with two two out doubles in the top of the 5th, with Ronald Acuna, Jr being driven in by Ozzie Albies.
Anibal finished his evening in the sixth by striking out the side, the last coming a ridiculous 68 mph Bugs Bunny change-up to Todd Frazier. The bullpen continued its recent string of strong outings, working three almost perfect innings, Dan Winkler in the 7th, Jesse Biddle in the 8th, and A.J. Minter for the save in the 9th. The only blemish was a two out error in the 9th by Camargo putting Frazier on first, but Austin Jackson grounded to Freddie Freeman to end the game.
Atlanta sends Kevin Gausman out tonight for his NL debut against Zack Wheeler, looking for a season high sixth straight win.
Bugs Bunny
may they be the first of munny
what’s coming next?
ninety one by some pretext.
Painter…the wee small hours, thank you.
Why can’t be Johan at short with Riley at third with Dansby getting traded?
Or why can Dansby learn how to play third and second and outfield so he can be that utility player like Charlie?
I have always had a soft spot for the Mets. Going back to the mid seventies Atlanta and TBS was it for me but somehow the Mets squeezed themselves into my consciousness.
Watching a game or two at Shea i began to understand why. The crowd for a start. Full of fun and self deprecating humor. A world apart from the sterile confines of Yankee Stadium and the general pretentious air it exudes.
And the Banners! No restrictions in those innocent days and did they make the most of it. My favorite, two older guys nearby who each had a largish white board on which was a big colorful hand painted picture of a chicken. Every time the opposition manager/pitching coach came out to stop the game they were up on their feet, waving their signs and making loud, splendid clucking noises. Roars of approval from those surrounding. Oh boy. Baseball.
I keep thinking the Phillies just aren’t for real…and then they keep on winning. I still believe the gnats are not done yet and will factor into this race down the stretch.
5 game winning streaks are great, even against the likes of Miami and IWOTM. How many wins does everyone think it will take to win the division? 90? 93? If its 90 then 31-25 from here on would do it and that seems perfectly doable.
@4
I think 93-95
Yohan gives back all the difference between his own and Dansby’s batting on defense if he’s at short. I too favor the Riley at 3rd and Camargo as the daily supersub somewhere.
@5 If 93 or 95 then we’re talking 10-12 games over .500 from here on. A little more daunting but still well within this teams capabilities I think.
It sucks that the Braves didn’t bury the Nationals when they had the chance. Even after all of the Braves’ struggles, they’re six back of the Braves in the loss column. Imagine if the Braves had gone .500 in the month of July.
@4 @5 @7 Even 90 may be high. Do you think the Phillies can go 10-12 over .500 from here on in. They’re a terrible road team. You’d have to add 5 for the gNats. 89-90 will get it done. We’re basically tied with the Phillies and have more games to play. They have to play better than we do to win.
According to MLB.com, Snitker is a candidate for NL manager of the year. Anyone have any thoughts on that? Right up there with Gabe “Let’s Take Nola Out after 5” Kapler.
Nothing Camargo has done has made any reason why we wouldn’t want Riley to come up and see if he can bash his way to being a star. Camargo is good, really good, and he is above replacement but not a star. Riley will NOT be traded (unless we get a different superstar 3B other than Camargo) and will be given a chance to win the job in the spring.
What to do about Dansby is not a damn thing. Let him provide league leading defense and develop. I am still wondering how many Padres fans wanted to unceremoniously dump Ozzie Smith after he posted consecutive seasons of 82, 48, 71, and 62 OPS+ with OPS less than .600. Dansby has been nowhere near that bad. St. Louis got 14 All Star years from him with OPS+ mostly over 80 but rarely over 100. Now Dansby might not be Ozzie with the glove but he is a better hitter right now with an 89 OPS+ and nearly .700 OPS. When we traded Simba, he had just OPS+’d 75 and 84 and everyone was freaked out and upset. Dansby has OPS+’d 71 and 89 to this point of the season. Dansby is on track to win his first gold glove this year. His only competition is Trea Turner. No one else comes close statistically in the NL.
We need more performance from 3B than what Camargo is giving. I love him and want him on the team but there’s no reason not have more power at 3B. There is ample opportunity to rotate 2B, SS, 3B among 4 IF to get everyone sufficient ABs. And, if an injury should happen we’ll have a better than replacement level player to take over.
Now maybe we can stop all this talk about moving Dansby off of SS or trading him.
Let’s talk about Gold Gloves in the NL for a second:
1. Julio Teheran is tied for first in DRS.
2. Among 1B with more than 500 innings, Freddie is by far and away the highest rated.
3. Ozzie is only behind Kolten Wong in def rating and has nearly 300 more innings played than anyone in the top 9.
4. Dansby and Trea are neck-and-neck.
5. Camargo is good but he’s not going to beat Arenado or Rendon.
6. Ender’s defense has been exceptional but he’s not going to beat Cain. He sits rated third right now.
Note: Catchers and Markakis have slipped a lot on defense and Acuna is currently even with Matt Kemp. Juan Soto is worse and both Kemp and Soto have negative DRS while Acuna has 0 DRS.
We have 3-4 legitimate Gold Glove contenders (Julio, Freddie, Ozzie, Dansby). We, obviously, have the best defensive infield in the league.
Austin Riley could move to the OF and replace Neck.
@9 Nats lost against Cincy today.
New thread.
I like this Gausman character.