Unless you were hiding in your mother’s basement playing World of Warcraft, you’ve heard about the Braves historic night, scoring 29 runs, the most in NL history (A great piece from MLB on last night’s game). Bryse Wilson was credited with a “save”, even though the Braves won by 20. However, this isn’t the craziest save in MLB history as that belongs to Wes Littleton who was awarded a save when the Rangers broke the modern day baseball record of runs scored with 30.
As expected. the numbers for the Braves hitters jumped a TON! Here’s a breakdown:
OPS Changes from Last Night
- Ozzie Albies: .468 to .591
- Ronald Acuna Jr. 1.012 to 1.081
- Freddie Freeman: 1.022 to 1.047
- Travis d’Arnaud: .905 to .912
- Adam Duvall: .848 to .951 (HOLY BUCKETS!)
- Austin Riley: .739 to .755
- Dansby Swanson: .833 to .855
I’m not sure if it’s a record, but you’d be hard-pressed to find a player that increased their OPS by .103 points after already accumulating 129 PAs, yet Duvall did and it was glorious. A reminder that he’s not a free agent until after the 2022 season since the Braves manipulated his service time last year.
Ronald Acuña Jr. Broke a Record
I saw a lot of speculation on the rarity of Acuna reaching base 6 times in the first 6 innings. It’s so rare because it has never happened…probably.
Braves Roster News
I mean…ok. Fine. It’s like asking for chocolate peanut butter ice cream and they give you a pack of JuJy fruits, but whatever. Tommy Milone doesn’t deserve another shot, but he’ll likely get one in 10 days nonetheless. Somebody’s gotta pitch, I guess. This probably means Bryse Wilson will start in Milone’s spot on Monday in Baltimore and at least that’s something different.
Charlie Culberson stays in the org and there was much rejoicing.
Braves Lineup
If Nick Markakis can break his streak of ugly at-bats, this is a potent lineup..and they’re going to need to be with Robbie Erlin on the mound.
JC’d
https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/29851730/dodgers-ace-clayton-kershaw-critiques-extra-inning-rule-not-real-baseball
Thoughts?
FWIW, I agree and hate it.
Agree with Kershaw — “It’s fine for this year, and I hope we never do it again.”
I’ll go with fine for this year and am ambivalent as to whether we do it again. If you told me it’ll be in effect starting in the 13th inning going forward, I think I’d be fully in favor. That allows the game to play out for awhile without the goofiness, and should result in the new rule not serving as a factor in the vast majority of games, but should also cut out the ridiculous 18-inning games, which really serve no purpose in the regular season IMO. No positive purpose, anyway.
Not in favor of it at all in the playoffs under any circumstances.
This is great and I loved every word.
https://www.mlb.com/braves/news/facts-from-braves-historic-29-run-outburst
For example:
I was playing World of Warcraft in my own basement, thank you very much. And still watched the Braves!
I would say that Erlin is pitching BP, but I don’t want to do BP pitchers a disservice.
So glad we pitched Erlin instead of trying a competent pitcher. We deserve to lose this one 29-9 for pitching this guy.
Epic starting staff.
Our good buddy Robbie Erlin is at it again, Chip!
@7
We don’t have a competent pitcher available. That’s kind of the point.
Wow…11 pitches to go single, triple, double, triple. We need to name that the Erlin
@10 Folty or Newk wouldn’t be this bad
@12
That is not at all in evidence. Their ineptitude (which was every bit this bad, if not worse) led us here. And neither has pitched in an actual game for the last month-and-a-half. Doesn’t sound like a recipe for success to me. The very thought of either one as a “competent pitcher” is a fairly amusing notion, actually.
@12 – I hate to remind, since I think Folty deserves another chance after this craptastic starting staff, but game 5 of last years NLDS. That was a lot worse.
The season-long WHIP for Braves starters not surnamed Fried or Soroka is a crowd-pleasing 1.683.
This is off to an epically fantastic start…
Back to reality. I give up for tonight.
It’s hard for me to see the org’s reaction to the starting pitching situation as anything other than punting on the year.
Can we keep these guys under 29 tonight?
@18
Yeah, it absolutely is. I mean, they expected we’d still win the division (or at least get into the playoffs) and figured they’d be able to point to that, but it was always and has always been a punt. And I hope it doesn’t happen, but they deserve nothing less than for this thing to go completely Hindenburg, have the team miss the impossible-to-miss expanded playoffs, and have to explain the gigantic heap of smoldering wreckage at their feet during the offseason.
@18 Frankly they should.
@14 true but that was one start. Erlin stinks every time
I can’t remember a bigger pitching pupu platter than Erlin, Millone and some of these other folks getting trotted out. We’ve had one in years past, but never this big of a collection with this long of a leash.
@21 I’m fine with punting if it means the younger players get some MLB level experience, but this is the worst of both worlds.
Milone and Erlin need to go…ASAP. Is Hamels close? We need him to be ready, Fried to come back ready to go, and I’d put Matzek in the rotation (could do Newk I guess). Those 3 plus Anderson and Tomlin…might resemble a rotation.
One more lament before turning this game off for awhile:
This organization is so intent on lengthening its “championship window” that they’re gonna wind up thinning it out to the point where there is no championship window. No real one, anyway.
Erlin is reaching Albie Lopez status as a starter. What will it take to send him packing?
At least there’s only 16 games left after tonight.
As long as Ronald Acuna is on this baseball team, we are not out of baseball games.
This club can swing the stick.
The Phillies lead in their game. If the scores hold the division lead is down to 1 game.
@31
if I know anything about this team, our scores do not hold.
Y’all thought I was joking when I said 4 innings is the Atlanta Quality Start.
Dansbae!!!! What an offense
This team…wow. Dansby is earning his keep
I’ve never seen a team overcome such a bad starting rotation like this. This is remarkable.
The starters do suck, but the offense and the bullpen are as good as the Braves have ever had. This game was the quintessence of all of that.
Started watching again after 6-4. I sure like our good bullpen guys and these HR’s.
Stole that one. Helps make up for the ones we tossed away last week
Hey, Ynoa came in for a creditable appearance (except for the walking-the-bases-loaded part). That performance is worthy of considering a possible opener type of strategy. Why not let someone like Luke Jackson open? If he can gobble an inning or two, we could bring in an Ynoa for 4 innings. That would also have the benefit of not having to worry they might bring in Luke in a high leverage situation.
Anyone notice that light’s out bullpen performance. Minter, Martin, Greene, Melancon shortens the game to 5 innings.
This game has become all about homers.
I just came by to say that I knew all along we were gonna win this game. I just made that Hindenburg comment earlier to test y’all.
In all seriousness, this lineup is unbelievable. In a normal year, this would very likely be our best comeback of the season. I’m not sure it’s in our top three this year. Just amazing!
5-0?
No problemo with this bunch.
Helluva win… and go Fish.
Marlins win it in the ninth; lead back to 3 games
Recap.
https://bravesjournal.mystagingwebsite.com/2020/09/10/braves-7-nationals-6-3/
What is the pitch by which Melancon can reduce two of the very best hitters in baseball, back to back in a one run game, into gentle fly balls to the outfield? Tonight that came across as a remarkable achievement. My guess, a high change up. Reducto ad absurdum.