Let’s play two-ish. The Braves may have participated in their first ever 7 inning truncated doubleheader, but Ronald Acuna Jr. and Freddie Freeman certainly put in a full day’s work.
Acuna smote 2 homers and went 4 – 4, while Freeman hit a 2 run homer and doubled and tripled as they lead the sweep. For the day, Ronald hit 3 homers and Freddie went 6 – 8 with 4 extra base hits.
Max Fried cruised through the first 4 innings, but appeared to run out of gas and lost his command in the bottom of the 5th. Despite 14 balls out of 30 pitches, he keep the shutout intact by inducing a Bryce Harper fly out with the bases loaded. In his 5 innings, Varsity allowed 4 hits and a walk to go with 6 strikeouts and a hit batter, using 91 pitches. Darren O’Day and Chad Sobotka finished up uneventfully.
The Braves have now completed 28% of their schedule and take a 1/2 game lead over the Marlins, who at this point I suppose we have to take seriously.
The weekend wraparound series concludes Monday at 6:10; Sean Newcomb and Aaron Nola scheduled.
In my heart I feel a bit like a bigamist. When we beat the hell out of the Mets, I’m profoundly convinced that nothing in this world could ever be better than beating the Mets.
But when we beat the hell out of the Phillies, I am morally certain that nothing in this world is better than beating the Phillies.
As Confucius said in the Analects:
Max was really holding it together with baling wire and chewing gum in the fifth. I have no clue how he got out of that without giving up a run.
Hopefully the offensive doldrums are over. Most of the lineup seemed to click back into gear with the fifth inning of Game 1.
#1
Don’t get me wrong — I like whipping the Phils as much as the next Braves fan, but IMO beating the Mets is better, mainly because of the difference between the fanbases.
Phillies fans, despite their outstanding run between 2007-2011, always doubt themselves. In fact, Philly sports fans in general hate themselves more than they can ever hate an opponent (except for maybe the Dallas Cowboys). There’s a part of them that enjoys the misery — it’s just what that town’s like.
However, Mets fans get one sniff of success — I mean, they’ve never even had a run like the ’07-’11 Phils — and you never hear the end of it. They’re the little brother overcompensating. Of course, when they have some genuine success it’s a little tough to take…
And what makes beating the Mets even better is that those fans genuinely hate the Braves… so walking out of that stadium with a win in your pocket & hearing them grumble is all the sweeter.
Padres beating DBacks 9-5. All runs via HRs.
Check out the crazy scoring summary:
https://www.espn.com/mlb/boxscore?gameId=401225908
@2 He willed it. You can see him mentally bearing down. He’s a flat out stud.
You go, Chief. An iron will and the love of a good woman.
Thanks, Rusty.
Braves take an almost $200M revenue hit compared to April-June 2019.
https://www.ajc.com/sports/atlanta-braves/braves-finances-hit-hard-95-drop-in-revenue-employee-pay-cuts/GCLE7BSMLBE5VETCMRTCRHFZKQ/
AAR, may I steal your Analects quote?
Good thing John Malone’s still got a few billion left over!
Plus, he lives for tax writeoffs. Under the Covid Act, he gets more deductions for losing money than he would pay for making money.
Now the rule is that a company that makes money has to pay 21% of it in taxes, but a company that loses money gets back 35% of it—immediately—in tax refunds. As long as it made money in previous years. https://www.wsj.com/articles/losing-money-is-a-winning-pandemic-tax-strategy-for-some-companies-11596879000?mod=itp_wsj&ru=yahoo
Game thread and wonderful breakdown of Touki by David Lee.
https://bravesjournal.mystagingwebsite.com/2020/08/10/touki-toussaint-is-different/