He’s got a taste for meat now*. Freddie Freeman hit his second grand slam of the series, Marcell Ozuna homered and drove in 4 runs, and Josh Tomlin threw 6 innings of 1 run ball to allow the Braves to split the series, and send the Nationals to a 14 – 25 record.
Tyler Flowers hit a 2 run double in the bottom of the 4th to put the Braves ahead 2 – 1, and Freeman’s second career slam cracked it open in the 6th, making the score 7 – 1. Ozuna went 3 – 5, adding a bases clearing double in the 7th.
Tomlin allowed 3 hits and walked none, striking out 2. Chris Martin and Darren O’Day continued to impress, combining to allow 1 hit and striking out 5 in an inning apiece. Bryse Wilson allowed the final runs in the 9th. Wilson was the 16th different pitcher the Braves used in the 4 game series.
The Braves have completed 67% of their season, and hold a 3 game lead in the NL East. The Marlins come to town Monday for a 1:10 Labor Day start; Ian Anderson and Jose Urena scheduled.
*h/t Eephus
Rusty,
Thanks. Go Hammers!!!!
I love that line about Freddie. Nice one, Eephus.
@2 – HE’S NEVER GONNA STOP!
Hugs all around. Thanks for the ht and the recap, Rusty!
As a reminder, today’s game is only available on YouTube. It won’t be on MLB.TV or the regional sports network. You can find it on YouTube’s MLB channel: https://youtube.com/mlb
If you have YouTube TV, there’s also a designated channel for it on that service, but you don’t need YouTube TV to get the game. You can get it for free over plain, old YouTube.
Ender with some value in his start today after that catch
It’s beautiful
Man, is Dansby fast! That ball was ripped and took a really good bounce off the wall for the Marlins CF. And Dansby was easily safe from first…like, not even close.
SMACK that Urine down.
Markakis should never swing 3-0. He is struggling anyway and killed the rally with a terrible at bat
@10 Agreed. I have no idea why he swung there.
Need to pitch around the terrible throw now
A game that should be 4-0 is now 2-1
Anderson spikes that pitch an awful lot
He’s all out of sorts after that error.
Thankfully, it happened with two outs.
That was SO close to a Folty-esque meltdown. He cost himself probably 20 pitches and maybe two innings of work today.
@16
If the error hadn’t happened with two outs, you might have seen the full Folty. I kinda doubt he’d have made it out of the inning. Thankfully he only needed to get one more out and hopefully he can settle down in the dugout and get back on track.
Pretty sure he missed the tag here, but I’m also pretty sure they’re gonna punt on it.
Hey! We actually got one overturned!
Ball don’t lie.
That’s a big run to get back
Do official scorers ever have the latitude to rule a run earned if the pitcher is the one who makes the error that leads to it?
They apparently gave Ender a triple on that play. That’s…generous.
@21 – No. It’s a dumb rule, but a pitcher’s fielding has nothing to do with his pitching in terms of earned/unearned runs, according to the rule book. It’s like he suddenly becomes a different person when he goes to field a ball.
Let them off the hook again…ugh
His change-up is really good.
I hope Ian finishes the 3rd. Not sure he’ll come out for the 4th.
OK, time to get him out of there.
Not the command today we saw the first two starts
Well done to get out of the inning. His third ever start, games like this happen. Good job limiting the damage.
That’s Robbie Erlin warming up, so I guess he isn’t starting tomorrow. Must mean Touki/Wright/Newcomb.
BTW I’d run Anderson out there for one more inning. And no, I’m not gonna drop this line about getting an extra inning from our starters. If we’re suddenly worried about our bullpen workload (which we apparently are), letting our starters go to 100-ish pitches is a way better idea than conceding 1-run games.
Erlin gonna Erlin. This lead is already toast.
And there ya go.
I’ve seen enough of Erlin.
Erlin is useless. No business being on the roster of a major league team
Has any team ever tried a “tactical coach” role? Like you still have the Manager, but you then have an in-game Tactics Coach who makes the decisions on pinch hitting, calls to the bullpen, stolen base attempts, etc.
The manager handles all the personnel stuff – keeps players happy, sets lineups, lobbies umpires on players’ behalf, etc. The Tactics Coach can be your scapegoat for in-game decisions.
@33 I support anything that can take in game decisions away from Snitker
Get Erlin off this freaking roster.
Erlin just keeps serving it up
@33
I think that’s kind of the job of the bench coach already, to a certain extent, though the buck stops with the manager. I’m guessing bench coaches are typically way more deferential to the manager than you’re talking about, however.
Where the hell is Snit? Manager needs to be out there defending his best player.
Bobby would’ve gotten tossed there.
EDIT – Aaaaaaaaaand our best player needs to not be getting picked off. Geez.
Lazy play. If we lose this game was lost in the first inning.
And Acuna gets picked off because he’s paying attention to something else…
If Snit’s so good in the clubhouse, perhaps he could do something to pull the team out of the marsh the Marlins are always intent on pulling us into. They are winning the game between the ears.
@41 the Marlins always hit us first and we look surprised every time
Urena’s settled in nicely now. I fear we missed our chance to get him.
Markakis is borderline Ender unplayable right now
“Inciarte grazing back…”???
ENDER GOT A BUNT DOWN!!! YOU MIGHT AS WELL JUST CANCEL THE SEASON RIGHT NOW!!!
Markakis’ slash line for September:
.000/.077/.000
@47
Yep, 0-for-19 with two walks and seven strikeouts. After striking out eight times total in August.
Twice we have failed to score a runner from third with less than two outs. That stuff is going to kill us in the playoffs
@49 Acuna is 1-9 for the season in that situation , 0-2 today.
At least the mets came back on the phillies
@50 Yikes
I can understand calling out Acuna for any sort of mental lapse. Some are worth mentioning, some are benign, but whatever.
What I don’t understand is a booth dwelling on it and then building a false narrative. Now Acuna is off his game because he didn’t steal 2nd ? But if he were caught stealing there it would’ve been a borderline unraveling on the part of Acuna. Then Dansby hits a single, SEE!!
Also, when you’re hit multiple times by the same pitcher, the question of intentionality becomes a little less relevant. Urena probably isn’t explicitly trying to nail Acuna on most of their HBP incidents, but he’s clearly aiming for as close of a buzz as possible. Close enough to where the margin of error is just as likely to hit the batter as it is to miss him.
This is shaping up as one of those games. Not much is going right, certainly nothing big enough to affect the outcome of the game.
I wouldn’t be surprised if AA got in Snitker’s ear about the bullpen usage. Other than maybe riding Erlin a bit longer than optimal (a tactic which worked BTW), he’s thrown all the big guns today. The other possibility is that they’re all so rested he just said, “Screw it, they need work anyway.”
Cakes is 0-23 with 16 left on base since Tuesday. Probably shouldn’t be playing but certainly not hitting 6th.
So there is no way Snitker lets Ender lead off the ninth, right?
@55
Yeah, you’ve gotta lead off with Duvall…even in the likely scenario that he’s facing a righty.
DUVALL!!!!
I love Adam Duvall
Good move, Snit!!! The last time I said that it was very sarcastic, but not this time.
Dansby almost ended this
Ordinarily, you would walk d’Arnaud to face Markakis here. Fortunately, that won’t work.
John Smoltz on the Facebook broadcast (talking about the 2020 Braves): you can’t rely on late inning rallies to win the World Series.
Me: How many rings you got there, John?
Another choke job with a runner on third. Un f-Ing believeable
@63 yeah, that was somewhat predictable
If the ball hits the batter/runner after the batter hits it, isn’t it dead one way or the other? Foul if the runner is in foul territory and an out if he’s in fair territory? Or am I making this up?
@62
Yeah, I wonder how consequential regular season run sequencing is in the playoffs?
Markakis runs like a 45 year old man. He needs to opt back out
@65
It is. I guess the ruling was that the ball didn’t hit him.
Oh no, does Minter suck again?
Hope this is just a blip. Honestly, the hit I can stomach. Last year’s Minter wouldn’t have gotten the 3-2 pitch anywhere near the zone.
Normally I’d say bunt him over since Nick now sucks, but we’re so bad with a runner in sac fly position that I’m inclined to say screw it.
Nick had two pitches to hit there. He tipped one into the catcher’s mitt and flew out to right field in lame, Ender-like fashion on the other…ugh.
Welp, guess we should’ve bunted.
@69 no but markakis sucks.
Neck sucks… and the announcers are just as bad talking about him as chip and frenchy.
Horrible effort all around today
I’m pretty sure I’d have pinch-hit Camargo in one of these two game-breaking Hech at-bats.
Snitker should be fired for so many reasons but the poor fundamental approach with runners in scoring position should be near the top of the list.
Philly now just two back, and Miami 3.5. Time to get moving again.
The lineup construction is still suboptimal. I hope Albies returns soon and is healthy.
Neck has to piss off, Duvall everyday, TDA lower in the lineup
Well, that sucked. Won’t happen this year, but I think I’m ready to see an outfield of Duvall/Pache/Acuna next year, with Waters as a platoon partner for Duvall or Pache if necessary.
They may not want to risk confusing him with anything new right now, but at some point it seems like someone should teach Riley (and any RH pull hitter who’s faster than Flowers) to push a bunt down the first base line against the shift. As long as he puts it close to the line, the pitcher’s not going to get to it in time to throw him out, and the 1B certainly isn’t going to.
@76 agreed. No reason to let markakis play. Pulling Anderson for Erlin was awful. I would have liked to see Anderson at least start the fourth and if he got into trouble bring in an actual reliever and start the fifth with Erlin if you absolutely had to
That’s three blown games that were winnable in the last 4.
One thing I haven’t seen noted is that I think all the Marlins runs came with 2 outs. The Braves couldn’t buy a run with two outs.
I know you can’t win every game, but this season I’m seeing a lot of “moments” that cause the loss that could have been completely avoidable with common sense or fundamental play.
A LOT of could have, should have, would have. A record better than the Dodgers, easily.
recapped.
No Mintees today. At no time did he look authoritative.
Carl…Nick Markakis, clearly now at the end of his rope after a long, distinguished Braves career, deserves a lot better than you telling him to piss off. I for one take exception to that. I, and others I hope, would like to see your apology, here.