The Mets scored 5 runs in the bottom of the 8th off Sean Newcomb and A.J. Minter to conclude the scoring and salvage a game from the 3 game series.
Todd Frazier greeted Newky with a long home run to cut the score to 5 – 4. After hitting Robinson Cano with a pitch and allowing a single to Amed Rosario, Newcomb got a couple of quick outs, then yielded to Minter, who could not record an out. A.J.’s final line was a walk and 2 hits, 2 runs and 2 Grybos.
Ronald Acuna Jr. had 3 hits, including a homer, and scored 3 times, and Freddie Freeman gave the Braves a 5 – 3 lead in the 7th with a 2 run double. Dansby Swanson added 3 hits.
Max Fried struck out 6 and walked 1 in his 5 innings, but gave up 8 hits and 3 runs. Chad Sobotka, recalled for the injured Anthony Swarzak, threw 2 strong innings, allowing 1 hit, walking none, and striking out 3.
June is built, and the Braves stand at 50 – 35 with a 5.5 game lead over the Phillies. Meet the Mets.
The Braves finish the road trip at 6 – 4. Philadelphia comes to town Tuesday at 7:20, as the Braves kick off a 6 game homestand that will carry them to the All-Star break. Dallas Keuchel vs. Nick Pivetta scheduled.
What surprised me is Snit using three straight LH relievers. I think he was saving Minter to be used in the highest leverage situation which happened earlier than expected. I guess I might have preferred to see Tomlin in the 6th then Newk then Sobotka then Minter. Just not sure what the thinking was in all of that. Sobotka pitched awfully well and may be back to last year’s form – he may really be needed as the Swarzak replacement unit.
Good to see Johan getting a few starts in a row and starting to do more Johan-like things. Clutch hitting.
Markakis and Riley were the hitting villains tonight leaving 9 men on between them and 4 Ks.
@60 from prior thread. How do you mean Donaldson has turned back into a pumpkin. I saw some great defense and he salvaged the first inning with a run scoring double with 2 outs.
Still, all in all, we were one strike away from getting out of the whole mess. And you really can’t win them all. Just don’t understand why Snit didn’t let Newk get that last out. He took him out right after getting the second out. How Minter might have done beginning the 9th from the beginning could have been totally different. If he needed to get out one lefty hitter, that is Blevins’ reason for being. Why not let Blevins finish the 8th and start Minter in the 9th?
Rob’s accurate about Carl’s rant from last thread about Josh D. But, Carl somewhat angrily hit the nail on the head about Snit’s bullpen usage. Leading 6-2 Friday night, Minter pitched the 8th and Luke the 9th. We won, but after Luke threw the 9th again on Saturday, he wasn’t available tonight. Nobody should be surprised that Swarzak has a sore shoulder; once he started being good, he was ridden into the ground, like too many of our key relievers.
How about those first three hitters, though? Ronald, Dansby, and Freddie were 8/14 with a walk, a HR, and a couple of 2Bs….
Can’t win them all. Won the series. I’m expecting Keuchel to pitch a strong game tomorrow.
@ 1 I was talking more about Donaldson regressing on the offensive side, he had a great 15 game stretch or so, and now for the last 10 games has gone back to ” Is he worth 23 million?” Donaldson.
He did falter on defense in that fateful 8th inning, I know the first ball was hit at 107 mph, but it was hit 6 inches to the left of him. Guy just whiffed like a bullfighter. The other double hit to his right he barely moved even though he was like three feet off the foul line.
Not blaming everything on him, obviously. And he has made some great plays all year long.
That’s two games in just the past week that have imploded. If the Phil’s and Nat’s don’t fade, we’re going to regret all these could’ve / should’ve games by the end of the year.
@2 – It is hard for me to see how anyone can characterize Swarzak’s usage as being ridden into the ground. He has pitched 13.2 innings since June 8 and has appeared in back to back games 2 times with a lot of time in between. How do you define ridden into the ground?
Swarzak: “Miss me yet?”
Literally day one without him in the eighth inning and they fall apart.
Frazier
‘Who would have thought the old man had so much thud in him.’
Newcomb manifestly out of his comfort zone. He has done well in the relative anonymity of long/middle relief. Frazier shattered him, hit the next guy.
Rusty S…nicely done, thank you.
Elucidate please, what is a Grybo? If i ever knew, i’ve forgotten. So, strangely, has Google. All those sites that include slang terms have nothing to offer. Is it unique, proprietary, to us?
http://bravesjournal.us/braves-journal-glossary/
Note that while Minter managed a Double Grybo he failed to stick the landing
@11
Thanks, you know me, i never like to look things up! But it’s a fine and precise term for such occasions, proprietary too.
So let me ask you if you ‘got’ my Shakespearean reaction to the Frazier blast as @8. Lady Macbeth…blood/thud…words can be so much fun.
Given the short handedness of this year’s pen, there’s really no way for Snitker to have deployed them to win as many games as they have, and *not* somewhat overused his best guys. It’s not like his options have run seven men deep.
@12
‘stick the landing’ sounds great and I take it to mean Minter couldn’t prevent his own men from scoring?
@14
Sam…Are you happy with what you’ve seen so far from the American women in France? Rapinoe’s been terrific, Morgan strangely absent it seems. Great quotes too!
My quibble involves using two of your three closer candidates in a 6-2 game. Snit will throw anyone on the roster into a 4-3 game in the 7th or 8th, IF we are the team with 3. Up 6-2, it’s Minter and Jackson.
The USWNT did what they were supposed to do in the group stage, and haven’t faltered noticeably in the first two knockout games. They had to put in more work than expected against a Spanish side that bunkered and harried them all over the field defensively, but survived. Their two best matches of the tournament have been the last game of group play against Sweden, and then of course, Saturday against France. Fans have been a little disappointed, expecting them to hang 4-5 goals in each match, but the European sides are not Thailand.
I was particularly impressed with their tactical decision to give France – who want to press and counter – as much possession as they like, and dare them to create chances from the run of play. Outside of Rennard getting her head on the one set piece cross, the US shut France’s very talented squad down almost entirely. (And to be fair, it should have been 3-1 final; Heath’s goal was not offside, though I am glad they stuck with the on field call rather than going to VAR.)
Minor/La Stella….
Good to see two former Braves have made it onto the ASG reserves.
TLS, now with Andrelton and the Angels, will be forever a hallowed name here. After being traded by us to the Cubs he told them to take a hike when they tried to send him back down to Iowa a second time. He went home instead. And shortly they demurred, he went back to Wrigley and life went on.
Great stuff and I have not been able to find another such rebellion in the contemporary game by a young player who had a great deal to lose.
@ #18
Dunn has been brilliant on defense.
Dunn has been very, very good, yes. Which is surprising, in that the US team as assembled going in was described (correctly given what we knew) as “9 attackers, a central defending back, and a keeper.” Dunn has been the revelation of the tourney, and her work against France (who targeted her due to size all day long) was phenomenal.
Your title is very misleading. The Mets scored one run off Newcomb and he was pulled with the Braves leading 5-4. This pre-mature pull out has occured far too often with Newcomb. Despite the fact that Newcomb has helped lead the bullpen turnaround in June, Snitker treats Sean in a demeaning manner frequently. Yesterday the poor decision by Snitker cost the Braves a game as Newcomb likely would have got the third out with only the one run scoring.
Minter needs to be sent back to Gwinnett for the remainder of the year. Dayton is a major improvement. Let Folty close.
Braden Shewmake can hit!
@24
yeuw make the call! glad to hear it. How goes the catcher?
When I see “Dunn has been great on defense” my baseball-centric brain immediately thought Adam Dunn, and the dissonance caused my head to explode.
Good job, Rusty. Thank you.
I can’t speak for the Braves, but I need the day off. June was a great month, hope July is even better.
Go Braves!
@9
What are you talking about? He has appeared in the 7th inning or later in 16 of his 20 relief outings. Unless you’re referring to the 7th inning as middle relief? He’s also pitched in the 8th or later in 9 of those 20 outings.
I know the majority of the discussion is about the reliever performance and use, but the starters just have to pitch better, bottom line. We are 15th in starting innings pitched, and remember that there are 2 teams now using an opener a good bit which skews team SP IP. If you went by average outing per starter, we are 18th in baseball. The relievers have pitched the 10th-most amount of innings, but once again keep in mind that two of those teams ahead of them employ an opener. 2 of the other teams ahead of them are dumpster fires that inevitably have starters that get bombed regularly.
Our relievers are pitching, on average, 3 2/3 innings per game. With how much money we’ve (not) put into our pen, how do you expect them to perform under that workload?
@28 agreed. I do think Newk should have been allowed to get the third out. Minter predictably walked the first hitter to bring one of the Mets best hitters to the plate with the bases loaded. I much would have rather Newk try and get the last out with his stuff as opposed to the hope and pray with Minter.
My stock on Minter is at an all-time low. I think the “baby Kimbrel” comps that were put on him were unfair, but I still thought that he’d be an above average closer by now. I thought he’d be in the Shawn Kelley, Greg Holland, Ken Giles, etc. territory of closers. And to be fair, all of those pitchers have had a dumpster fire season where they couldn’t get guys out for a months at a time.
But at age 25, I thought we’d be seeing right now someone who was a reliable late-inning reliever, like he was statistically last year. I wouldn’t be optioning him to AAA any time soon or anything, but he’s got to show a stretch of improved control in lower leverage situations before I’d be putting him into higher leverage situations. Snit was probably seeing success, but his walk rate is more indicative to the fact that he has such poor command that not only does he walk guys, but he also leaves the ball out over the middle of the plate and gets hit hard (.385 BABIP).
You might look at his FIP and say he at least should be a lot better (4.45), but FIP seems to be really discounting the fact that it really doesn’t matter how many strikeouts you rack up and how well you keep the ball in the park, the relief game is not conducive to a walk rate over 5-6. At minimum, you’re going to put a couple runners on, get relieved, and then that guy will Grybo you.
Minter for Edwin Diaz, straight up. We fix Diaz and everybody’s happy.
Why don’t we just fix Minter then?
New post. Fire take.