Josh Donaldson hit a go-ahead 3 run homer in the bottom of the 8th, and Ozzie Albies added 2 home runs early to help salvage a game from the 3 game series. Freddie Freeman added a homer as well.
Starters Kevin Gausman and Tyler Anderson battled to a 5 – 5 stalemate before Donaldson’s 5th of the year gave the battle of the bullpens to the Braves. Tyler Flowers started the rally with a single, and Ozzie’s 3rd hit of the day kept the inning alive for the rain to be made.
The Rockies took a 6 – 5 lead in the 6th thanks to an Ian Desmond homer off Dan Winkler. They added an unearned run in the 8th after Chad Sobotka walked Desmond and Johan Camargo misplayed Tony Wolters groundball single to left field. Veteran Jerry Blevins, just acquired from Oakland’s AAA Las Vegas affiliate, got his feet wet in the 7th, recording an out and a walk.
The Braves gave A.J. Minter a chance to redeem his blown save from the previous night, but he could only produce 1 out amongst 2 singles, and gave way to Luke Jackson to face the right handed Nolan Arenado. Now is the Minter of our discontent. Hot Hand Luke (h/t Dan) got Arenado and David Dahl to record his first save.
Once upon a time there was a man who was saving for a dream vacation. He sold all his expensive belongings for cheaper replacements, and bragged to his friends about all the money he was saving. He sacrificed for years. But, when the time came to take the vacation, he said, “I can afford this vacation, but they are asking more money than I think I ought to have to pay. And besides, it might not be that good now anyway.” So, he stayed home and binge-watched some old Matlock DVD’s he had around the house already. And it was fine, just fine.
San Diego visits Monday at 7:20; Mike Soroka vs. Nick Margevicius scheduled.
Matlock DVDs, huh? Nice burn.
Nice recap, Rusty. Only disagree with one thing…..
It. Is. NOT. Fine. (I get that it’s sarcasm, though)
Thanks, Rusty. Great recap.
The Braves are an offensive juggernaut (stole that from Mac, back when Langerhans & others were off to a great offensive start after something like five games into the season). They’re for real.
Ozzies two HR were great but most impressive was his single in the eighth keeping the inning alive for JD. It looked like his bat actually touched the ground golfing that single to right.
Go Braves!
And our old buddy Wisler gave up the walk off HR to Adams against the Nats.
There was a new-found fascination with Grant Dayton going on in the last thread. I think the Braves are high on Dayton, but recently he’s been pitching about once every four days. He went 12 days without an appearance in mid-April, so I’m guessing he felt something wrong, and his rehab went off schedule a bit. Point being, he’s still a while away from being an asset in Atlanta. Blevins will be useful IF used as a LOOGY. Over the years, his walks appear to me to be of the Glavin variety, probably pitching around good RH hitters.
Thanks, Rusty. Matlock DVD’s–brilliant.
I would have said that Luke Jackson as of opening day was not nearly as good as an episode of Matlock (in fact, in my opening day recap I trashed him and the front office for having him on the roster).
But Luke’s success since then makes me want to go back to the old stash of Matlock episodes and look for another such hidden gem. Or maybe not.
‘Hot Hand Luke’ amuses me more than it should.
Who doesn’t like courthouse hot dogs and seersucker suits?
Rusty
The Minter of our Discontent
HOF
Amen, blazon. That’s awesome. Until further notice our closer should be referred to as “Discontent” not by his real name.
Rob, can you update the Glossary?
Great recap Rusty.
Which pitching staff is worse:
Opening Day: Julio Teheran, Sean Newcomb, Kyle Wright, Bryse Wilson, Max Fried, Arodys Vizcaino, Jonny Venters, Jesse Biddle, Shane Carle, Luke Jackson, Chad Sobotka, Wes Parsons, Josh Tomlin.
April 29th: Mike Foltynewicz, Kevin Gausman, Julio Teheran, Max Fried, Mike Soroka, AJ Minter, Luke Jackson, Dan Winkler, Josh Tomlin, Chad Sobotka, Jacob Webb, Shane Carle, Jerry Blevins
I tell ya, I give it two months before the cries of Julio Teheran to be jettisoned get loud. It’s not going to take much for one of Wright, Touki, Wilson, or Gohara to really make it difficult to justify keeping Teheran in the rotation.
Last trading deadline, there were two significant starting pitcher trades: Kevin Gausman and Chris Archer. That was it. A few good relievers and position players changed places, but those were literally the only two legit starting pitchers. Since those trades:
Chris Archer: 15 GS, 79.1 IP, 76 H, 30 BB, 89 K, 4.31 ERA, 4.29 FIP
Kevin Gausman: 15 GS, 89.2 IP, 72 H, 28 BB, 77 K, 3.51 ERA, 3.89 FIP
Pittsburgh gave up Tyler Glasnow, who went from a 5.8 BB/9 walk rate with Pittsburgh to a 2.6 BB/9 with Tampa Bay, and has a 1.75 ERA this year in 6 GS for TB. He’s also 25, and it was thought that if he ever fixed his walk rate, he was a TOR. They also sent Austin Meadows, who has a .351/.422/.676 line in 83 PAs for TB. He’s 24. Collectively, those two players have exceeded 2.3 bWAR already this year.
The Braves gave up 4 players. Bruce Zimmerman and Brett Cumberland look good in AA, JC Encarnacion is struggling in A+, and Evan Phillips is doing pretty good in the pen for Baltimore. We didn’t steal Kevin Gausman from Baltimore, but the Rays stole Austin Meadows and Tyler Glasnow from Pittsburgh, even if Pittsburgh gets full yield out of Archer.
Also, I was deeeeeead wrong that we could have easily beaten Pittsburg’s package for Archer. Glasnow and Meadows, overnight, became the players both were projected to be. I’m glad I’m not the GM.
If Teheran gets Wally Pipped by one of the young guns, I’d immediately make him the long man in the pen. He could be a very good Cristhian Martinez.
Now that Vizzy is out for the year, can we refer to our bullpen as “The White Walkers”?
I’ll show myself out…
I don’t see any immediate danger of Julio being Wally Pipped by anyone.
We need these young pitchers to show up and take some of these bullpen roles.
Wright and Touissaint are struggling. Nobody knows what’s going on with Gohara. Newcomb is the best starter for Gwinnett right now, and he would come up to be a 6th starter rather than a replacement.
Teheran isn’t likely to be Pipped.
@14 Archer seems to be a competitor, but I’ve always thought he was a little overrated. His rep gets boosted by his K’s, and the fact that he can have some really dominant games during his seasons of above-averageness. I’m not saying he’s bad, or I wouldn’t want to see him on my favorite team as a #2 or a (and likely best in the league) #3 SP. I just wouldn’t want my favorite team to pay “ace prices” in prospect capital.
The Gospel according to Luke
shall offer no thoughts of rebuke
adoration then love
but give a hard shove
to those who insist it’s a fluke.
I sing the new praises of Jackson
Turning good swings into hacks, son.
A black widow spider
his one pitch: the slider.
Its bite now is fatal; not dachshund.
Thanks all.
There are reasons to stay optimistic, not least of which is that none of our relievers have thrown more than 14 innings. Dangerous to draw too many conclusions from that few. As it also was to draw them from the 40 – 60 they threw last year, although that’s all we have.
I guess my central theme is: relief pitchers. who knows?
http://bravesjournal.us/braves-journal-glossary/
@21
Jonathan F
great to see the fellow poets emerge.
A tip if i may…end not with the correct spelling you have used in this case, dachshund, but with dachshun’ — gives you the rhyme you need and is not cheating. And most of the time we don’t pronounce the ‘d’. Poetic license you know!
@23 Always a good chuckle reading the glossary.
My problem with the hyphenated hint is that it always looks like a poor imitation of Robert Burns; I put more trust in the reader. But since it’s your birthday month, I defer to the Master. Thus endeth our prosody seminar, and baseball can recommence.
Minter and Jackson are unavailable tonight per DOB.
Not to worry, as we have a wealth of other good options.
Sobotka to the IL. Dayton is up.
Thusly
One poet
Enough
@ 30
Thusly
one grouch
ouch!
Burn.
@31 Blazon, you were the one poet that was enough. Imitators not so much. LOL.
Rob, luckily I have an aloe plant in my yard.
@31 Get’m blazon!
The blaze will burn,
but unfaze the taciturn.
It is my sense
that we should issue only one poetic license.
LolPadres
Nice recap, Rusty. Nice pitching, Michael.
No one, from either side, has hit the ball hard after 5 innings…fair or foul…the barrel remains unused. Cannot remember another game like this.
Addendum. thank you Ozzie!
Camargo is quietly off to a slow start.
Newk is on an 11-inning walk-less streak.
So, English question. Is it “an 11-inning…” or “a 11-inning…”?
@39 With no data to support, I think his sporadic playing time is affecting him.
M-M-M-Mike Soroka!
If Ender goes on the IL, I’d love to see if Duvall can translate his AAA performance into LF for a while.
Soroka is really dealing. Hope he can get through 7 unscathed.
#40
You used the proper determiner, as “eleven” begins with a vowel.
If we don’t see Wisler, I’m shutting down the blog. You’re just going to get a 404.
@42 Did Ryan come up with that? That’s in my head forever.
Dangit. I can’t believe they’re taking Soroka out.
I don’t like hitting for Soroka here.
You have to hit for Soroka here
OH! Culby really smacked that ball. Those gotta start falling soon.
They would’ve let Soroka hit and then pulled him mid-inning anyways. That’s what we do.
Tomlin has been money
Casey Mize threw a no hitter in his AA debut.
He was almost a Brave
Gee, this wasn’t predictable.
Tomlin Seaver.
@47 I don’t know who started it, but I too cannot seem to shake it.
You had to pinch hit for Tomlin there, but I would have felt more comfortable with him in the ninth.
Loogy Blevins did his job there. Big moment for Webb (whoever he is)
Amazing what happens when you throw strikes.
Man, between Soroka and the three relievers tonight, this must have been the game with the highest percentage of strikes thrown this year. More please.
I think I was the first to say the My Soroka thing here but I can’t take credit because I saw it on Twitter.
I do take credit for “Outciarte,” however.
I had Incifarte but it never took off because I’m not clever.
I’m adding Outciarte to the glossary. It’s time.
I’m sure everyone predicted Josh Tomlin and Jacob Webb to be among our best relievers.
Great game, well pitched. Encore!
Snit seizes the nettle and pulls it off again.
Newcomb walk-less stint reaches two starts and 13 innings. Great response by Newk.
Sam Freeman just got DFA’d…. he’s available…..
If we don’t sign Sam Freeman then this team is not serious about contending.
67 — Seems to me he has earned the right to be back in the rotation.
Duvall homered, tripled and walked in tonight’s game as well. 5th straight game w a homer. OPS now 1095. Seems to have found his stroke
It would be great to see Duvall come up and start playing well. Problem is he wouldn’t exactly be filling a gaping hole. Markakis is playing extremely well and Camargo needs more at bats. Joyce is getting so few at bats now, it’s negligible.
Also, instead of My Soroka, I like the nickname Strike Whisperer. As noted above, between Soroka and the 3 relievers, they probably threw the highest percentage of strikes all year.
@72 If Inciarte goes on the IL and Duvall is recalled, the Braves will start him. Camargo will continue his role giving rest to the weary. Don’t forget that Duvall is a near Gold Glove leftfielder and might allow Acuna to shift toward Markakis whose defensive stats are back in the toilet. If Duvall can continue his hot streak as a starter then you have both strengthened the offense and not sacrificed the bench. I still think Duvall has 30HR potential (rate-wise) if he has regained his stroke. That combined with excellent defense should make him a real starter. Further, good performance in the field would leave us with an OF to trade…..
Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to trade say Duvall, Ortega, Parsons, and Newcomb for Bumgarner and Smith?
recapped.