This was definitely one pitching matchup you probably didn’t feel that comfortable with. This probably isn’t a surprise, but the Nats are the division opponent that Julio Teheran has struggled the most against. But not tonight. I would have loved to see him get through 6, but after 3 singles in the 6th brought him the Nats’ only run off of him, his night was over.
It’s still hard to know who Julio is. One thing that has always been appreciated by Julio is that he almost never misses a start, which has had a lot of value to a team with so many young pitchers and injury concerns. There was disappointment from fans when he continued his Opening Day start streak this year, but the reality is that he was the one who was able to take the ball, and the preferred choice, Mike Foltynewicz, was not.
He’s not that much different than last year if you look at his peripherals. Through a pretty good sample size of 21 starts, his K/9 and BB/9 are within a tenth of a point of each other. His H/9 has actually gone up almost a hit per inning. But he’s kept the ball in the ballpark quite a bit better (1.0/9, down from 1.3/9 last year), and that’s helped a little. But since the beginning of last year, he’s pitched 288 innings with a 3.81 ERA and a 8.3 K/9. Most teams would be happy to pay a durable guy $11.1M this year, as the Braves are doing. He’s also had consistent production with both catchers this year, whereas he’s struggled with different catchers of yesteryear. For instance, he had an ERA over 5 in 116 IP with AJ Pierzynski, though that may have been reflective of the pitcher he was at that point. But if he can continue this through the end of the season, it makes his $12M team option easier to pick up, even if the Braves look to trade him.
But in some ways, the story of the game was another blown save by Luke Jackson. He’s a strike out machine — 66 in 48 innings — but he’s so dependent on his slider that if he doesn’t get ahead early in the count, hitters are laying off of it as it gets into better hitters counts. As a result, Luke grooves a fastball, and Victor Robles crushes it. I would love to add a closer so that we can use Jackson elsewhere in the game, and perhaps even situationally. Add a closer, add another lefty, and you can have some dangerous pieces to deploy throughout the latter end of games.
And hey, we won because we have a deep roster who can overcome the shortcomings of an average closer. Good teams do that.
7:20 EST tonight — Anibal Sanchez vs. Mike Soroka
Well done. Thanks. Go Braves.
Good recap, Rob. Especially interesting is the reduction in HR/gm for Julio. Considering the super-ball, it seems quite ironic that Julio has reduced his ratio.
For all the flack that he’s taken, he keeps going forward – old reliable – and keeps making adjustments and hanging in there. Frustrating when he has a bad outing but pretty amazing when he does what he did last night – act as our stopper after a 3 game losing streak.
In a game like this he is our enabler. Sets everything up for what will follow. Without what he did there would be no histrionics that followed. My favorite Brave, the one i respect the most.
Mr. 20/20. The star continues to star.
On top.
Who allowed Ozzie to swing 3-0 when batting lefthanded???
stop swinging at 3-0 and popping it up, damn it
Mike’s not had great control so far.
There’s a lot to like about this Braves team. It’s a great time to be a fan.
Oy, that strike 2 call on Ronald was abysmal.
So many pop-ups!
I don’t want to whine, but in 2 innings the Ump has missed 4 strikes for Soroka and given at least 2 that weren’t for Anibal, (at least according to the gameday app)
Mike Soroka is good.
There you go, Mike! His ability to limit damage is incredible.
baseball is such bullshit
That was not JD’s finest hour. Also I wish Turner played in Japan. And Eaton with him.
Doomed!
Woof, this feels like my fault.
It would be nice if this lineup could compensate by actually doing something against Sanchez, but alas.
Break out the bats!
Death by a thousand pop-ups.
Y’all, I hate the Nats. I hate losing to this team more than any other team.
Stupid.
Baseball is such bullshit (part 2)
Damnit. Get some freaking hits. Ugh.
I have to give Chip credit, he refrained from declaring Sanchez’s bunt “a beauty,” or “perfect.”
BMAC!!!! Woohoo….
BMAC!!!!
4 innings against the nats bullpen, how can they screw this up?
BMac just cheered me up, but we’ve still a ways to go.
Austin still looks awful at the plate, and seems to be regressing instead of improving.
New pitcher, same pop-up.
Good news, we’ve got traffic on the bases. Just need to cash in a few more times.
@30 Seems to me its more of a righty lefty thing.
He mashed against lhp Corbin, sucked tonight against rhp.
Maybe, just maybe, they should platoon him with Ender?
Drop Camargo to AAA when space is needed, guy has no hustle out there.
Newk! Good to see you.
Joe said Soto is hitting over.330 against lefties, but Sean ate him up. Good inning, Newk.
Make them pay, Ozzie!
Whatever adjustments Ozzie made from the left side for that brief good period, they have worn off.
The home plate ump is inconsistent.
Great job, Newk.
Culberson for Joyce?
Dangit. Every pitch to Riley was a ball. Grrr.
We had our chances.
Was Riley sleeping in the ninth last night? No way you actually watch Rodney and then take that approach.
Why didn’t Ronald steal before freddies at bat in the 5th, would’ve scored before the markakis lineout dp.
Not feeling great about this one, whole lineup is cold, again.
And leave it to Minter to remove all doubt.
Yuck. We have to find a way to play better against this club or the last few months of the season are going to be a lot more stressful than we’d like.
Play better tomorrow, boys.
Logged on just to say this.
AJ Minter blows.
Astounding this guy is still up with the big club in late July.
Maybe Minter should be the one who gets sent down when Gausman comes up tomorrow.
This game will define the rest of the season, we are f*cked
We are due for a slump of some sort. Same time as last year. We need a boost at the deadline or preferably before the deadline.
If you hadn’t noticed, the Dodgers are playing worse right now.
Minter ought to be saving his per diem and every dime of that big league minimum salary.
Recapped