When we look back at the 2018 season’s late inning weirdness, last night’s game will be, along with the 9th inning rally against the Fish, Example 1 (or maybe 1A) of why you don’t turn off a Braves game until the last out is recorded. And maybe not even then. Plus, the Braves most likely took what flickering hopes of catching them the Phillies had, ripped it out of their chest, and ate it right in their face.
(Sorry to go all Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom there, but it feels appropriate.)
Julio Teheran took the ball for Atlanta and pitched very well. After giving up the requisite first inning tater – a lead off shot to Cesar Hernandez, he settled in and pitched into the 7th, pretty much controlling the Philadelphia bats. There was a 3rd inning walk to Roman Quinn and a balk, but Quinn was thrown out stealing third when he overslid the bag, the second time in two games a Phils runner gave Atlanta a gift out via bad slides. More concerning was a 6th inning leadoff triple to pinch hitter J.P. Crawford, but Jome Julio stranded him by striking out Quinn, getting a ground ball to a drawn-in Ozzie Albies, and a Rhys Hoskins flyout.
Atlanta tied it up in the bottom of the third when Freddie Freeman went to left against the shift with two outs and drove in Ronald Acuna, Jr. If Philadelphia was not shifting, that would be an easy a 6-3 putout as you could ask for, but Fab Five Freddie didn’t try to play Hero Ball, he made the smart, game-tying play.
Philly had a brief dawn of hope in the top of the 7th when with one out Justin Bour walked and Carlos Santana singled. Men on first and second. Wilson Ramos got fooled by a Teheran slider and hit a line drive off the end of his bat, which Acuna should have nabbed for out number two, but he took an absolutely horrible route and the ball sailed over his head for a ‘double’ and two of the most unearned earned runs you’ll ever see. Chip’nJoe’nTom speculated that Acuna may have gotten fooled by how bad a swing Ramos made, which I will accept since even though RAJ has taken some odd routes this year, I haven’t seen one THAT egregious. After that our ‘old’ friend Jose Bautista came in and singled in the pinch runner for a 4-1 lead, and Julio was lifted for Jonny Venters – deserving a better fate than seemed to be in store for him. Everyday Jonny put out the fire, inducing a grounder to short by Quinn and a Hernandez grounder to end the rally. 4-1 Philly, the Phillies get to the ‘pen with the good relievers they didn’t use last night, and with some momentum? The Braves say – ‘Hold my beer.’
Pat Neshek in for Philly. Tyler Flowers greets him with a single. Ozzie Albies homers. 4-3. Dansby Swanson walks. Perhaps not a Rally Killer? Lucas Duda with another late inning clutch pinch hit, sending Fake Culberson to third. Acuna grounds out, with Dansby thrown out at home, but Ender Inciarte doubles, plating Lane Adams, who had run for Luca Brasi Duda, tie game. Freddie gets the intentional pass, which was about as surprising as the sun coming up in the east. Nick Markakis popped out to second, but Johan Camargo worked the count full and singled in Acuna and Ender for the 6-4 lead.
In the 8th Snit brings in Chad Sobotka. I think we’re seeing who Snit believes has earned a playoff spot in the bullpen. Chewbotka works another 1-2-3 frame, although he only strikes out 1. A.J. Minter comes in for the save in the ninth. He does give up a one out triple to Jorge Alfaro, and then gets a bit unlucky when pinch-hitter Maikel Franco gets his bat shattered for a wounded duck single to center. But Minter gets Bautista to fly out and strikes out Quinn to end the game. Atlanta goes for the clinch this afternoon, with Mike Foltynewicz matching up against Jake Arrieta. With IWOTM winning last night, the gNatspos are out (/Nelson Muntz Ha!Ha! /NM) leaving only the Phillies left standing. One more win will do it. I won’t gross you out with the Mola Ram scene from Temple of Doom, instead I will leave you with this.
This is the only Jimmy Buffett song that A. I like and B. I think is legitimately good.
Great recap. Really a lot of interesting things, especially for the postseason, happened last night.
In my world, I love Adams and Rivera on the postseason roster with Newk the long reliever, Sobotka on the roster, and no Sam Freeman. Hate to do that to Freeman, but you already have 2 lefties, and you only play, at most, two straight games in the DS.
@blazon from prior thread. I wasn’t trying to say that Inciarte isn’t our best defender and doesn’t belong in CF just suggesting that our best fielder maybe play the hardest field to play. I dunno. Not really serious. Just doesn’t seem like anyone’s been able to tackle LF at STP. Everyone who’s played out there has a negative fielding score except Lane Adams, Adam Duvall, and Danny Santana with Santana being the best (all three SSS). And even then I’m not getting home/road splits.
OK, watching Georgia/Missouri or Braves/Phillies today? Anyone?
Painter, I love Chewbotka. Great nickname. Great recap overall. Oddly, for a HR, I think Ozzies’ started the rally as opposed to killing it. The enthusiasm that ensued along with the thrill at bouncing back from a bad half-inning really juiced the whole lineup after.
Camargo’s AB was the strangest, yet gutsiest, I think I may have ever seen. He did not see even one pitch that was actually in the zone. Not one. Even the pitch he got the hit on was an obvious lunge across the plate to get it. That was one of those moments where the coach comes to you and says “great hit, but don’t ever do that again”.
I think I’ll be more drawn to UGA/Mizzou, to be honest, though I’ll watch both. Mizzou is sneaky good.
Neither Duda’s hit nor Camargo’s was particularly well-struck. This is one of those games that makes up for the games where balls are smashed directly at somebody.
@2 Another thing about the lefties is that all the playoff teams are good lefty hitting teams. Maybe we don’t need too many lefties anyway. Biddle and Minter should do. I don’t think they should carry Rivera, though. I’d rather see more pitchers so Snit can have a faster hook. With Flowzuki, Culby, Duda, and Adams, I think we’ll be fine. I just can’t imagine Newk or Teheran being left completely off the roster even if it’s the right thing to do. I would 110% prefer Touki over Teheran against the Dodgers because they’ve never seen Touki before and his stuff is very deceptive as well as high quality.
Newk has been an overall disaster since mid-June but he’s been decent all year in the first two innings. Seems like the 3rd is his downfall mostly (probably second time through order). He may be a decent middle reliever in a short series.
And I don’t know where Teheran found those extra ticks on his FB yesterday but he was likely trying to secure a place on the PS roster. Teheran’s splits by inning are just startling. After the first inning, he is anywhere from decent to spectacular, but the first inning….. ugh. Not good for a reliever.
I know it’s not the popular idea but Anibal is superb in his first two innings and struggles second time through the order and then finishes strong. He is a great candidate for long relief. But also our second or third best starter overall.
Touki is a flat out ace over 4 innings. After that, he tires. Whether you use that at the beginning of a game or sometime in the middle is a good question. I would actually think that pitching Touki for 4, Newk for two, and back to a righty to close it out might be a good way to get a shutout.
If Newk is on the PS roster then I think Venters is left off.
Pitchers = Folty, Gaus, Anibal, Touki, Teheran, Newk, Viz, Minter, Winkler, Brach, Biddle, Sobotka, Carle/Wright.
That leaves off Jackson, Freeman, Venters, either Carle or Wright, and everyone else sitting out there.
I don’t think I’d take any fewer pitchers than that. And I wouldn’t take too many lefties against teams that hit lefties so well. Maybe you have to decide between two of Sobotka, Carle, Wright, and Venters. That’s a tough decision. But I think having the 13th pitcher is better than having the 3rd catcher. Let Teheran PH if needed.
You don’t need five starters on the Division Series roster. One of Newk and Touki will be left off of it so that they can get Venters on.
Venters is as much of a roster spot lock as Acuna
Little late on throwing some picks out there, but here goes:
Georgia 35, Mizzou 21
Vandy 17, USC 14
Florida 24, Tennessee 17
MSU 42, UK 17
@10 You don’t think they would keep the 5th starter on to eat innings in a potential blowout? Of course, you could always use Freeman and Carle in a blowout to chew at least 4 innings, so in my scenario, you trade out Newk for Freeman.
But yes, Venters will definitely be on the roster. I also think Touki gets left out unless they get him a couple more starts and start saying some things about him getting an opportunity. But he hasn’t pitched in relief but one poor outing, so why would they do that?
By the way, the internet definitely needs more Nelson Muntz-as-HTML-tag.
Mizzou got hosed on that scoop and score by Georgia. He should have been called down. Mizzou should be up 7+-0 right now.
Great inning, Foltzy!
And how nice to listen to Smoltzie today.
Folty is bringing it – 97-98 out of the gate. 6 pitch 1st.
Why would anyone think Venters would be better than Newk might be? Quantify please. I just think they’re gonna take all the pitchers that brung us here.
Way to go Ronald, steal that base.
Folty – 6 pitches, 5 strikes and Arrieta – 8 pitches, 0 strikes
That’s the Oriole in him coming out. LOL
Then Freddie swings at 3 pitches out of the zone.
Arrieta is not long for this game.
Camargo!! I can’t believe these guys don’t brush him back. He’s standing on the line of the box and swinging at everything outside. You have to pitch him inside and tight.
I wonder if this is going to be one of those games where Folty is absolutely unhittable. That would be nice.
Arrieta’s inning was just like Folty’s against the Cards last week.
3 outs on 3 pitches after the leadoff walk. You don’t see that every day.
The fat lady is starting to warm up.
Did someone request a blowout? Today might be the day.
Last night’s game had to take almost all of the air out of the Phils.
I’m surprised Kapler hasn’t yanked him yet.
*fastens champagne goggles*
Wow. Kapler at it again. Arrieta out after 2 innings.
Folty just got to 99.
Hey, Phillies….
This is as close to the playoffs as Kapler will get, so you can’t begrudge him managing like this today.
Kapler manages like he is in an All-Star game. Unfortunately for him, he doesn’t have an All-Star team.
Well that was a bad choice by Dansby.
What a catch by Camargo.
Camargo with one of the best plays of the year.
Make sure nobody tells the Phillies hitters that the plane doesn’t leave until tomorrow.
Folty ate his Wheaties this morning.
Folty. My man.
Foltzie is a bad, bad man.
Give him all the money.
Alright, if he gives up one more hit, then pull him. We’ve got bigger things going on.
Not necessary, Rob.
Folty. Ace.
Time to buy playoff tickets.
What a day, folks. What a day.
OK, it’s time to let Folty take a bow. Even if it’s 84 pitches, it’s time. What a great game Folty pitched.
Beautiful game, Folty! Now let’s close this out.
Not a big fan of pulling Folty there, to be honest.
Damnit, Jessie. Geez, c’mon, get an out.
…or of Biddle being the guy they went to.
Why isn’t Brach, who is available, not facing 3 straight righties?
@49 thought the same thing. Biddle had been good for us though. Not tonight.
He’s got an ERA of close to 6 this month though. He might be a bit fatigued.
Why take out Folty with two righties coming up and bring in the lefty?? Folty would’ve gotten Bautista I feel fairly certain.
Yeah, just a colossally stupid move all the way around. Folty is your best bet there. We should not be going to our bullpen unless we absolutely have to. Then, putting Biddle in to face a string of righties is just asinine.
Unless they’re trying to give Biddle opportunities against RHB, this doesn’t make sense.
Typical poor bullpen decision by Snitker
Folty was definitely losing it. It was obvious and they were right to pull him. What we’re seeing is that some teams beat up on lefties. I would have agreed with bringing in Brach for Folty, though. I think Snit has a thing for alternating the handedness of pitchers.
Now, it’s a rally and those are hard to stop sometimes.
Maybe we need another Chewbotka appearance, if you want to go with the hot hand. Honestly, I’m afraid of the lefty here.
The bullpen has been bad lately. Should have left Folty in.
Last night and today are the reasons why Snit is good and why Snit is poor. The team never quits but his bullpen management is just horrific
OMG, that was a strike. Horrible call by ump. Saved by a GB to Dansby, though.
No doubt Jonny will be on the postseason roster!
The first pitch was right down the middle for a ball. It literally came in quad-high.
Well, I need at least three runs to feel safe in the ninth here.
We’d be in better shape if we’d had more than one baserunner since the 2nd inning.
Why not use Duda here?
That’s why. Great job, Kurt.
For the “defense doesn’t matter” crowd, I present to you the 2018 Philadelphia Phillies. Their defense cost them the division. How good would this rotation be with our defense?
Phils: We have Rhys Hoskins to play 1B this year. Let’s go spend $20M on Carlos Santana.
Their defense is the worst I’ve seen.
Bad process + playing the Phillies = good result
The Phillies are going to throw money at Harper and Machado to solve the problem, but that’s for another day.
Go get’em, Viz!!!
It is so great to have Viz back.
BRAVES CLINCH!! You tell’em Blooper.
First NL team to clinch a playoff spot.
And Tua just threw another TD pass to D’vonta Smith.
Incredible. Braves not only win the East, but have a week to get the rotation set up and get extra at bats for the bench. What a great season.
Dang ol’ baseball man I tell you what.
Appropriate for today!
Go Braves!
Wow, Snit! So happy for him.
We are the champions, my friends
Go, Braves!
The live insta stories of Ozzie & Co are priceless.
Anyone on this blog who predicted the Braves would win less than 87 games this year was WRONG!!! Hahahaha
What a wonderful surprise this baseball season has been.
Seen a lot of Braves division titles….this one feels real real nice! What a season!! Love this team!
What a great read, sir! Seat Painter, the entire post glittered. Well done!
NL EAST CHAMPION ATLANTA BRAVES!
LOL…the team account just tweeted a picture of a bunch of the guys standing in the center-field fountain under the waterfall.
EDIT: …and yes, I’m too lazy/incompetent to embed it.
@82
coop welcome, your timing was excellent.
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