Is it? Could it be? It is! An actual win in a regulation game!
Since the last time the Braves won a nine inning game, Ronald Acuña Jr. was placed on the injured list, Sean Newcomb was optioned to Gwinnett, Robbie Earlin was signed, Chad Sobotka was sent down and called back up approximately 798 times, four college football conferences cancelled their seasons and an entire major golf championship was played.
The last week has been quite a month.
But lo and behold, the Braves pulled it out. Adam Duvall did his best Carlton Fisk impression and slammed a game-winning home run off the left field foul pole to break a 1-1 tie in the ninth. At that moment, we were all Fisk.
You were trying to wave the ball fair. I was trying to wave the ball fair. We were all trying to wave the ball fair.
It may not have been game six of the World Series, but we really needed that. Duvall’s swing was the difference falling into the longest losing streak since 2017 and having a chance to salvage a 4-5 road trip.
At long last, it’s finally time to break down a win.
Positives:
- Fried is the best pitcher the Braves have had since…Tim Hudson? Greg Maddux? Warren Spahn? A 44-year-old Cy Young who still somehow fired a 3.71 ERA in 1911? All of the above? Discuss.
- Fried’s pick-off move is such a weapon, especially against a team with a standing green light on the basepaths like the Marlins. He got himself out of trouble big time in the third inning by erasing a four-pitch walk to Monte Harrison. Fried is quite literally doing everything for himself, including getting outs on the basepaths. If only the league would still let him hit.
- Duvall is the platonic ideal of that player who only plays for your team for a couple of years, never reaches an All Star Game or ends up in Cooperstown, but you absolutely love him anyway. He sort of resembles Matt Diaz in that respect, although Diaz was in Atlanta for much longer than Duvall. Eric Hinske might be a better recent example for a guy who was just in Atlanta for a flash but still provided some great moments.
Every organization has those role players who just pass through the team for a few years and make a huge impact before eventually moving on. Duvall arrived rather unceremoniously in a trade the day before the deadline in 2018 and spent most of 2019 in Gwinnett. And here he is a year later as a mainstay in the lineup and the provider of two memorable playoff moments last October.
You won’t have a single bad memory of Duvall whenever he eventually leaves the Braves. And he added another big one to the scrapbook tonight.
- Shane Greene made the biggest pitches of the night in relief of an exhausted Fried in the seventh. He retired Matt Joyce and Eddy Alvarez with the go-ahead runs on base, and you could see what it meant to Fried when the final out of the inning was recorded. Greene is your unsung hero of the night.
- Every day without Acuña and Albies in the lineup turns the pressure up on Marcell Ozuna a little more, but he answered the bell tonight with a huge home run. His seventh inning shot landed right where the eye sore of a home run sculpture used to be. The Marlins paid $2,500,000 to render that in 2012, also known as 428% more than Max Fried’s base salary for the season before COVID-19 prorated the deals down. Sleep well tonight, Miami!
Negatives:
- Johan Camargo had a night with basic fundamentals, and not in a good way. He was doubled off first base on a flyball hit to right field in the fifth, and in the sixth he came within a 50/50 replay review of costing the Braves a run with an abysmal “tag†on Jonathan Villar. And just to add the cherry on top, his bat landed on top of the Marlins’ dugout after his second inning strikeout.
- I sound like a broken record at this point, but how long is Ender Inciarte’s rope? After 50 at-bats on the season, his OPS is .488. Max Fried’s OPS in 56 at-bats last season was .530. Fried’s slugging percentage of .268 beats out Inciarte’s .220 clip. Inciarte’s OBP is six points higher, but his batting average is eight points lower. When starting pitchers are better at the plate in comparable sample sizes, something has to be done.
- The Braves had to use all of the high leverage relievers tonight, so the pressure is really on Robbie Erlin to provide some length tomorrow.
Former Brave Of The Day:
Joyce came within about 10 feet of beating the Braves on a walk-off home run and possibly making me discontinue this segment permanently because nothing would ever be able to top that. But once the final out settled into Ender Inciarte’s glove, this stage went over to Kevin Gausman.
Yep. It happened again. Another ex-Brave figured it out somewhere else.
Quote Of The Game:
“It’s just nice to win one.â€
– Kevin Malone
Tomorrow’s Goal:
Well, Erlin can’t give up a grand slam on his first pitch of the game tomorrow. With that piece of mind in his back pocket, hopefully he can get through four or five innings to give the Braves a puncher’s chance at winning the series tomorrow.
Excellent and very entertaining recap, Alan. Thank you.
Well done, Mssrs. Cole, Fried, Duvall and Ozuna.
I have no fingernails and am out of wine.
Small sample size and all that, but Fried’s ERA from the start of the 5th onward this year is 5. I don’t remember and can’t find on BRef whether any of his earned runs scored after he left.
To be fair to the Braves, Gausman came over from the Orioles in 2018 and saved the Braves season with a 2.87 ERA in 59.2 innings. He hasn’t once replicated those numbers, even with the Braves, despite having really strong peripherals. He’s one of those guys that should be better than he is, but he has an extremely hard time with the gopher ball.
@3: One of Max’s 7th inning runs was Grybo’d by Luke Jackson. (7/30). His two against the Mets in his first start were his and his alone. As was the run he gave up to the Blue Jays.
With that being said, SFG will definitely be selling. Could Gausman be lightning in a bottle twice?
Alan, you’re fantastic at this. We really, really appreciate it.
Bravo, Alan! Absolutely brilliant work 🙂 Thank you.
At this point, as desperate as we are, I would gladly throw Gausman at the problem. I continue to be amazed at how much worse he is than his peripherals. Plus, he hasn’t been half bad since he’s been traded.
It’s just a weird season. Some people were ready in summer camp and some weren’t. Gotta go find the people that were.
Lucas Sims
predictably, the memory dims
We can recall no devious stuttering sliders
Most of what he threw, bona fide bat colliders.
Alan, you’re a great addition to the recap lineup. Max Fried continues to pitch like an Ace. The Braves’ season rests on his shoulders. If he takes the mound every 5th day the rest of the season you have to like the team’s chances to win at least 2/3 of his starts. If the Braves get the lineup back healthy, and with this bullpen, you have to think they’ll figure out how to get enough production out of the myriad other starting options to win half the remaining games and that could very well be enough to bring home another NL East pennant. We all know our chances in the postseason won’t be good without another starter really stepping up but we also know the postseason is a crapshoot and we at least need to get there.
The one good thing about all of this is if AA doesn’t make a move, our young pitchers will get a fairly large sample to see if they have sticking power.
Death to the Marlins.
The comparison between Ender’s batting line and Fried got me thinking…how often has the DH been used for a non-pitcher? That is, let the pitcher bat and DH the SS or CF. I recall team’s losing the opportunity to DH but I don’t recall a non-pitcher DH. I am too lazy to look up what the Angels do when Ohtani pitches (before he was hurt), but that seems the obvious place for this.
I love the Braves. They stink.
You were spot on in regards to Duvall by the way, Alan. I do, too, get the Diaz feel from him.
Looking at Erlin’s career stats…he has a career walk rate below 2 per 9. All of the guys we have been starting struggle with control. Probably why he is getting a chance.
Austin Riley is toast.
Riley isn’t even grading out well defensively. When Albies comes back, Camargo has to be full time at third.
Oh Ender.
Who expected this 3 innings from Robbie Erlin. 1 measly single, no walks and 5 strikeouts. We’ll take it.
Good job, Robbie Erlin, whoever you are.
I appreciate Lavarnway’s commitment to the late 90’s/early 00’s power goatee. He’s not quite sporting the Full Caminiti, but it’s a solid effort.
Chip using his platform to low key defend the use of pitchers that can’t break glass because neither of these two teams can hit anyway
Cy Hernandez
The DH must be used for the pitcher, unfortunately. The Angels didn’t let Ohtani hit when he was pitching except for interleague
Wooo Erlin! Nice job. No BB.
I am endlessly entertained by the lack of stadium sound allowing us to hear every word of the arguments between umps and players/managers.
At least Riley did not GIDP.
@17
Plus, he can pitch.
It would not surprise me to see Tomlin start Tuesday.
Edit: DOB just said Tomlin will start Tuesday.
@31 You speak it, it happens.
Now ask for Pache!
At some point, you have to give Tomlin a shot. You can say that you like him where he is all you want, but he is not the linchpin of this bullpen. He would be much more valuable as a serviceable starter at this point.
32 —Markakis will get an RBI here.
Let’s see if it works.
Nicky Ballgame!
Ok, now our pitchers will shut them down the rest of the way.
Nick knocks in the run with an Ender special!
I see Chip is back on his “Where would the Braves be without Nick Markakis this year?” BS from previous years BTW. Um…virtually the same place they are now? Like, that one game he walked off might’ve gone to extra innings, so maybe a 50-50 shot at one more loss?
Well done, Minter!
I don’t know who this is and what he’s done with the real A.J. Minter, but I sure do like him.
Minter trying hard not to smile after that one pitch.
OK, Braves14, how about another run?
All hail Tom Glavine and his use of the word “amphibious””
The three-batter rule works in our favor again! The Marlins went all-in on that lefty’s ability to get Freeman out and busted big-time!
This was the one rule change I agreed with
Who would ever have guessed as of this moment on Aug 16 among players on the active roster, the team OPS leaders would be Flowers, D’Arnaud, and Markakis.
Greene appeared to have pretty much nothing today and yet made it through that inning in mere minutes. We’ll take that!
They didn’t even mention Venditte’s webbed feet or the fact that he has already absorbed his tail
That is different.
@46 Funny!
@46 this crew is such a letdown.
And of course we take the guy who looked like he lucked through the last inning with not much and throw him back out there again… ::rolls eyes::
UPDATE: OK, so he does look better this inning. And he was surely gonna sit tomorrow regardless. Fair enough.
Boy, Ender knocked the absolute hell out of that one! That might’ve rolled 75 feet if the third baseman hadn’t fielded it.
I just can’t unsee that Statcast thing Bethany posted a week or so ago saying that he averages less than 80 mph off the bat.
Man, this is a “duct tape and chewing gum” pitching staff, so thank goodness we get to play the Marlins.
Did the switch pitcher every break 80 mph?
Good win. Well, win. Good enough.
2H, 1BB, 11K – Great job pitching today.
I’m not sure we’re not DOOOOOMED but boy I’ll take it.
Why would we be “doomed”? We just won 5 out of 9 on the road, with key players out, and are in a tie for 4th in the NL. Who in our division scares you? Nobody for me. If we stink, then there are a bunch of teams in the NL that are downright rancid. I like our chances to win the East. And in these playoffs, anything can happen.
No one in the division scares me more than our own starting rotation, I’ll tell you that.
Recapped.