Oooookay. So THAT’S why Atlanta wanted Kevin Gausman. Anyone still miss Matt Wisler and those other three guys, Dewey, Cheatum, and Howe?
The Braves jumped on Brewer starter Freddy Peralta early. In the bottom of the 1st Ozzie Albies walked, (No really, he didn’t swing at at least four pitches!), and with two outs Nick Markakis doubled him home. Johan Camargo followed that up with a little flare just over third, plating Kakes and allowing Johan to take second for back-to-back doubles. Ender Inciarte got in on the fun by singling Camargo home, and just like that, it was 3-0 for the Good Side.
Gausman was pitching exclusively from the stretch for the entire game, and apparently he liked that adjustment. The Brewers weren’t making good contact (mostly), and the Braves hurler was really pounding the strike zone. He did give up a few hits here and there, including two singles in the bottom of the 2nd, but he didn’t walk anyone. Which is a recipe for success in most leagues. I would also imagine that being staked to an early three run lead in your home debut would also help calm the butterflies as well.
After the second single by Manny Pina, the Brewers’ catcher, Gausman settled in and retired the next twelve Milwaukee hitters before allowing the only run in the bottom of the sixth, a two out double to Mike Moustakas, follwed by an RBI single by Jesus Aguilar. But by that time, the Braves lead had swelled to 7 runs, so that was nothing to be concerned about.
How did we get here? (Cue Talking Heads video…)
In the bottom of the 3rd, Markakis, Camargo, and Inciarte struck again. With one out Kakes walked and Camargo and Ender doubled up, with Ender’s double scoring both Nick and Johan for a 5-0 lead. Atlanta added on in the 4th when Ronald Acuna, Jr. lead off with a single and Albies walked, (No, really, he didn’t swing at at least four eight pitches!) and Freddie Freeman singled in Acuna, with Ozzie taking third. Markakis drove in the seventh Braves run with a sac fly.
After the aforementioned Brewer tally in the sixth, Atlanta responded in the bottom of the frame. Acuna led off with another single. Ozzie struck out. But Freddie walked, Nick doubled the RAJA home, Camargo singled in FF5, and Ender drove in Neck with a run scoring groundout for his 4th RBI on the night. 10-1 Braves.
There wasn’t any real drama afterwards. Just how deep would Gausman pitch into the game, and how many more pitches would Ozzie not swing at. The second question was answered in the bottom of the 7th when Ozzie walked for the third time. (No really! He didn’t swing at at least four eight twelve pitches!) The first was answered an inning later when KG pitched the 8th and finished the night with 8 IP, 1 run, 6 hits, no walks, and 8 strikeouts. Of his 94 pitches, 71 were strikes – not a bad ratio. That’ll do. That will most definitely do.
Chad Sobotka came in to make his major league debut in the 9th, and tossed a 1-2-3 frame. Sobotka is 6’7″, and throws 99mph and was really bringing it. So, good for him and I hope he can add one more power arm to the pen for the stretch run, but he just might be prone to fits of wildness based on all the moving parts of his delivery. But, let’s see – 99 and walking a few batters here and there might be acceptable for a mop up guy pitching with a nine run lead or deficit.
Anyhoo, with San Diego taking care of the Phightin’s late last night, the Bravos are now tied for first in the NL East. And Julio Teheran toes the rubber against Wade Miley. We should be due for a good Julio start anytime now, so let’s see what happens.
First place!
Thanks for the great write up. When our 1st 6 batters get on base 18 times in 30 at bats, I like our chances. I’m really impressed with what we’re seeing from Camargo.
Looks like Sobotka can be a great addition down the stretch. 75 strike outs with 28 walks over 54 innings in AAA should play well. With a 99 mph fastball, I’m a little surprised he doesn’t rank higher on prospect lists. He’s ranked in the mid 40s on most lists I’ve seen.
Beautiful recap, thank you.
Go Good Julio!
Thanks Mr. P. If we can get some starters going 7 innings, it will be great for the bullpen. (I know that they are trying.)
‘He doth bestride this narrow World like a Colussus.’
If it were possible, Sobotka kinda stole the show. Regardless, between Gaus and Sobotka, that was one of the best pitching performances of the year. Oh, and they scored 10 runs.
Searching for superlatives, here’s one. When was the last time we picked up a low profile pitcher with a losing record and a name most of us had never heard of and in his second start, expertly tuned, he produced a start far beyond the levels of any of our SP all season. And almost certainly never will. But he might do it again, sometime, mightn’t he? Yes.
Searching for superlatives, here’s one. When was the last time we picked up a low profile pitcher with a losing record and a name most of us had never heard of and in his second start, expertly tuned, he produced a start far beyond the levels of any of our SP all season. And almost certainly always will. But he might do it again, sometime, mightn’t he? Yes.
getting carried away!
I wouldn’t call Gausman low profile but AA made a great trade. We have all these pitching talents and somehow we manage to add a competent major league arm with potential upside with two more years of control for basically nothing.
With Gausman, Newk and Folty, our top three of the rotation is settled until at least the end of 2020. The future is brlight, and not to mention we are back in first place!
A WordPress update was recently pushed for compliance with new cookie policies in the UK and it broke our ability to save the commenter’s Name, Email and Website for future comments. This is a nice feature and it was annoying that WordPress broke that functionality. I believe it has been restored but you will need to explicitly give the site permission to do this by selecting the check box below the comment box which says “Save my name…”.
End of PSA. We now return you to your regularly scheduled Braves discussion.
@7
stole the show?
Rob, how could you possibly say that? One was fun, interesting and with possibilities in narrowly defined areas ahead. It is perfectly proper to think the other will make a huge difference to our post season run, now.
…and considering we have added Gaus and O’Day, AA may move Julio and Viz this offseason.
Let’s pray that we will see the good Julio tonight…
With Gausman, Newk and Folty, our top three of the rotation is settled until at least the end of 2020. The future is bright, and not to mention we are back in first place!
You might as well run into an open field during a severe thunderstorm and ask for the baseball gods to strike you down.
I wouldn’t say Sobotka stole the show, he was more like the cherry on top of the ice cream sundae of last night.
Thank you, SP. Thank you, Gaus. Thank you, bats. I didn’t stress at all during this game.
We may lose again this season, maybe not, but probably. Win today and let tomorrow be tomorrow’s evil.
Edit: what you suggested works, Hap. Thank you.
Thanks so much on the login front, Hap and Rob!
Amazing work from Gausman. Not to toot my own horn, but that’s basically exactly why I was so thrilled we got him: http://bravesjournal.us/2018/08/06/kevin-gausman/
Nice job, SP. Watching the Phillies get shut out was fun. Since I have only been to one game in Atlanta in the last 25 years it was kinda fun to root for the home team for a change. The Padres brought up one Jacob Nix who had a really shaky first inning but then shut the Phils down. Kirby (“don’t call me Kali”) Yates for a shaky save, which got me talking with the Padres faithful around me who thought that losing Brad Hand was going to be the key to a Padres resurgence… they hated him. Fun park in a fun area with lots of disappointed folks wearing red cursive Ps on their caps.
@18…yes you were, toot away.
Just watched the condensed game on MLB.tv. Lord have mercy, Gausman’s slider was weapons-grade. If he can command that, the 2018 Braves could do some serious damage.
So was this just a question of the Orioles pitching staff, over all those years, having no idea what they had or knowing what needed to be changed but not knowing how to change it? Over years?
Any organization that dumps Leo Mazzone after two years has a limited understanding of pitching, no matter how big a pain in the butt he is. That includes us, by the way.
@18 You wadn’t the onliest wun.
@22 No, he’s done this before. But not with consistency. I am still absolutely convinced that he was a better target than Archer. Not only for the fact that he was vastly less costly even.
Nice recap SP and Gaus’ performance was even more impressive in that, of his 23 balls, at least five were bad calls including one that led to the run. There was one call that will definitely end up on FG worst ball calls of the year list. I think there was also a Peralta pitch that will end up on the worst strike calls of the year, too. That ump must have been some sort of rookie.
Tonight’s pitcher has even a worse case of walk-itis than Peralta. Miley’s going to be tough for the Braves because he strikes out as many as he walks. He survives only by getting hitters to swing at junk pitches out of the zone. He looks like a stud when they’re swinging and a bum when they’re taking. Dansby should not be in the lineup and Ozzie needs to be last night’s Ozzie. Have to be willing to take the occasional strike to get to all the balls. Get him into a lot of three-ball counts, put a couple of guys on base, and he will be toast. We’ll light him up like fireworks. Gausman/Brach should be able to tell them that based upon seeing him all last year in Balto.
@13 @16 I think I agree with SP’s characterization, but I understand Rob’s comment. We are in desperate need of some “found money” in the bullpen with all the injuries. Carle, Viz, Fried, Soroka, Gohara, Anibal (hopefully no missed starts), and not even including the fake injuries (which are actually beneficial). We have two spots in the pen and one in the rotation that need fixing. If Touki can fill the rotation at least until Fried comes back, that’s one problem solved. If Sobotka can fill one of the bullpen slots adequately, that may be another problem solved. That would be stealing the show. How many guys have we run through to find Biddle and Sobotka and even Luke Jackson (who is holding his spot currently) and we still had to bring in Brach and Venters, too. If we’re going to win this thing, the bullpen needs 7-8 solid guys and the merry-go-round has to stop. Minter and Winkler have been the only guys in the pen to be there all year. That’s scary.
@3 Sobotka might be our comeback prospect of the year if he can keep it up. He was bad, really bad, last year (and 2015). I think he may have lots of mechanics problems being so tall, but so did Randy Johnson (led the league in walks his first three full years in the majors in SEA). Johnson didn’t solve his control issues until he was 29. He was still a star, but when he solved his walks problem, he was a first ballot HOF’er.
Sobotka was ranked higher after 2016 but he dropped like a rock after last year.
Anyone see that MLB.com rated STP as having the second best CF camera angle in the majors? Only bested by Camden Yards.
@14 I don’t just think that Julio needs to be traded; I think it’s imperative that he be traded. Not only because of Gausman but also because of the number of better prospect pitchers that will be in or near the rotation next year – specifically Soroka, Fried, and Touki. And the next tier that’s very close – Gohara, Allard, Wright, Wilson. If you exclude Anibal and Julio, we will have 10 pitchers who are either locks or competitive for the rotation. If we re-sign Anibal, then we must use Julio and two others from the above list as trade bait for a TOR starter (deGrom or bust) or a #1 catcher (Realmuto). Other lineup holes can be filled via FA (Harper, Grandal, Machado, Corbin) or promotions (Riley, Jackson).
@18: he was good, wasn’t he, Alex? Had he pitched solely from the stretch before?
Does anyone know of something visual, like a flowchart, that shows the evolution of the original National League going back to 1902?
Rob: Does something like this work for you? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Major_League_Baseball
That works! Thanks!
Allard up, Bell down. That tells you what they think of Teheran’s reliability.
@30, good question — I don’t know!
Touki will start Monday. Should be fun.
Fun seeing all the alums at the park today. They just announced Grybowski and it made me think of you all.
Prado and Gryboski have a good place in our hearts here.
Alright, Teheran, don’t suck.
Nola is throwing for the Phillies.
C’mon Teheran. That should be his nickname. It rhymes and everything.
I have been thinking that this will either be one of Julio’s worst starts of the year or one of his best. First inning was ominous, but he still has a chance to turn it around if he puts the first inning behind him.
Good start for the offense.
Coming into today, Acuna had a 1.042 OPS in the second half. He is morphing into a superstar. I love Ender, but if you can have Acuna’s offense in center, then that’s hard to pass up.
I’m no pitching coach, but Teheran falling off the third base side leading to lots of misses on the third base side of the plate seems like it should be fixable.
C’mon Teheran. Stop hitting righties.
Interesting graphic that he shares the top-4 lowest release points with Nola, Kluber, and Scherzer.
@45–one of these things is not like the others
Awesome comparison of Freeman and McGriff. Never remember seeing their numbers side by side before.
What I got from that graphic is that I need to teach my kid to have a low release point.
I have high hopes for Duvall, but Adam hasn’t been much of an upgrade over Ender in his starts so far.
Julio through five yielding but one to a pretty good team is not the worst possible outcome.
Swanson’s bat remains as strong as ever.
Dansby deserves to be a late inning defensive replacement.
I will admit it, he is a better hitter than Belliard.
Allard needs to pitch like Miley if he wants to be a successful major league pitcher.
#52
Does Allard have a cutter?
Ozzie carries that smile everywhere.
@53. I don’t think so. He needs more weapons. Fastball, change and curve are not enough for a guy like him.
Surprised Snik takes out Julio so soon.
Dansby needs to hit more weak ground balls.
Great play, Braun. I hate you.
W O W
Coop, I’ve been frustrated by your griping about Dansby—mainly because you’re proving to be right!
What a play by Bruan. Didn’t know he can still do this.
I didn’t know Braun could ever do that
@58. Honestly, I think we have all seen enough. This is starting to turn into another Frenchy experience.
Always thought Braun was out there for the bat. That was a heck of a catch.
Dansby is not really comparable to Frenchy, mainly because he is a good to excellent fielder at the most crucial defensive position.
I also think he may yet figure it out on offense. He doesn’t seem as stubborn as Frenchy.
Well, that went south in a hurry….
Simple game. Catch the ball.
Jessie’s not having a good night.
Ahem: good play, Dansby.
Why is he still in the freaking game?
Biddle doesn’t have it..ugh
Biddle doesn’t have it tonight.
@63 He is going to be a .240-.250 hitter. That’s who he is. He does have some pop on balls in near his hands and can turn on that pitch but he is not a good hitter. And more than likely never will be.
@63. Certainly Dansby is more likable than Frenchy. I really want him to do well too.
This is why he is a great defensive replacement late in the game.
And Milwaukee’s bullpen is pretty shut down except for Knebel the other night.
Well, Braun’s catch is even bigger now
Where’s the plate?
Clown baseball all of a sudden’s wasting a good Julio game.
Winkler told Biddle to hold his beer
Dammit Winkler.
Phillies up early on SD 2-0.
Dropped balls, walks and stopping a routine double play ball are a cruddy way to lose.
Winkler recovered well. How ’bout several runs, Bravos.
Hader is absolutely filthy.
Ron Washington should work with the pitchers for defense. Predictable result after that cheating asshole Braun’s catch.
Hader’s good.
@ #77
All those botched defensive plays hurt, but they offer an opportunity for the Braves to tighten things up in plenty of time for the playoffs. They learned their lesson the hard way.
The Phillies, on the other hand, are a poor defensive team.
Luke did just fine. Now or tomorrow, Braves.
This Hader guy looks like the best reliever I’ve ever seen. Holy crap.
Hader pitches good.
Does anyone know why Hader has appeared in so few games? Chief, he was on your team for a while, right?
Hader hides the ball better than almost anyone I’ve ever seen and with heat and breaking ball, shessh………
The good news is that the Braves probably won’t see Hader tomorrow.
Folks often talk about “shut down” relievers. We’ve just experienced the Platonic ideal of that.
Tomorrow, people. We’ll give them heck tomorrow.
@87: The thing about Hader is he just keeps throwing strikes. So many left-handed pitchers like him, it always feel like their downfall is walking everyone, but he just keeps pounding the strike zone relentlessly.
Can we stop the Duvall experience already? Ender got robbed twice tonight and has hit .320 lately.
Duvall is a lot of K and soft fly ball right now. Have him work more with seitzer..
Let’s win tomorrow and take the series.
Hey, my name and emailed are saving again!
so are mine!
recapped
it is not for us to wonder why
he swings at pitches quite so high.