The baseball was bad, but the broadcast was so much worse.
What takes more mental fortitude to suffer through: Three straight walks to start the game, or a painstakingly on-field interview with Adam Duvall.
Which one made you want to turn the game off more: Those vomit inducing virtual fans FOX kept flashing on and off the screen, or the Braves going 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position?
The pumped in crowd noise or the 15 strikeouts? The drab commentary or Freddie Freeman’s bases loaded double play?
It was all dreadful. Nobody would ever mistake Chip Caray for Vin Scully, but it will be really refreshing to hear his voice tomorrow on the series finale. Hopefully the bats can pick up where they left off on Friday, too.
Positives:
- Ian Anderson didn’t crumble. Seeing a young Braves starter issue three walks in an inning has been an all too regular occurrence this season, but seeing said starter continue to battle and almost get through five innings was a refreshing change. Speaking of changes, his changeup helped him escape first inning trouble, and it again became his most effective two-strike pitch as the night went on. His line ended up mediocre, but the way he battled after a horror show of a start was encouraging.
- Adam Duvall really might end up with the greatest slugging month in Braves history. I don’t even know what the craziest part of that is. Is it the fact that it’s Duvall of all members on this team? That there are still eight more games to play this month? That he’s still hitting in the bottom half of the lineup despite turning into Hank Aaron reincarnated?
It’s so bizarre all the way around that it’s the perfect baseball story for 2020.
- Dansby Swanson hit a 107.7 MPH exit velocity double in the seventh. It was his only hit of the night, but it’s a start to busting out of that slump. The classic “oh yeah, I can still do that†moment, similar to lifting some light weights when you get back in the gym for the first time after six weeks off.
- None of them resulted in a run, but Ronald Acuña Jr. drew three walks tonight. Consider that the antidote to his recent strikeout binge.
Negatives:
- The Braves missed Jacob deGrom in this series, but somehow still ended up facing him anyway. In his postgame press conference, David Peterson is going to unzip the very elaborate costume and reveal that it was, in fact, deGrom on the mound tonight. Peterson was outstanding, and sometimes you just have to tip your cap.
- Wait, you’re telling me Freddie Freeman is not going to have a multi-hit game every single night? Well, that’s not what I signed up for!
- Wait, you’re telling me Shane Green is going to give up runs sometimes? I didn’t sign up for that, either!
Seriously though, Greene regressed to the mean a little bit tonight after an absolutely incredible stretch. His sinker had absolutely nothing tonight, and neither did the “outs†section of the scoreboard once the Mets started teeing off on it. Greene had allowed three earned runs in 23 ⅔ innings tonight, and gave up four in just ⅓ of an inning tonight. Safe to say he had an off night.
- The Braves didn’t play well enough to really deserve a win tonight, but it was one of those games where you can look back at a few inflection points where it could have been different. Cano’s two-run chopper of a single in the first inning would have been an inning-ending double play if it had been hit a little bit further over in either direction. If the Braves cash in with runners on second and third and nobody out in the second, maybe Peterson’s night is shorter. If Freeman drives in a couple runs with the bases loaded in the seventh, the game takes a different bullpen track.
Ifs, ifs, ifs. And whiffs. A total of 13 swinging strikeouts, to be exact.
- The standard of umpiring feels like it has never been lower. I’ll leave it there for now.
- The further the Braves advance in the postseason, the more FOX broadcasts they’ll have. Cue the Wario “I’ve won…but at what cost?†meme.
Former Brave Of The Day:
The outcomes for the seven batters Matt Wisler faced tonight: strikeout, single, strikeout, strikeout, strikeout, strikeout, strikeout.
That’ll play.
Quote Of The Game:
“Yesterday’s home runs don’t win today’s games.â€
– Babe Ruth
Tomorrow’s Goal:
A win tomorrow gives the Braves a winning record on the road for a third consecutive season. Considering all of the challenges associated with road trips this season, that would be a nice little marker. Make it happen.
Go get them tonight. We need good Wright to show up. Hopefully last week’s game has given him some confidence.
Beautiful recap, thank you. Go Braves!
Thanks Alan. Enjoying watching Duvall. Riley seems a lot like Duvall; they are both kind of streaky. Hopefully one or both will be on in October.
If Duvall, Riley, and Dansby all decided to time their crazy hot streaks in the playoffs, we’d never lose a single game.
Or Acuna could just singlehandedly carry the team on his back, as he’s done before. I’m not sure that there is anything that man cannot do.
Nothing wrong with Wright so far…
I have to echo everyone else’s sentiments and say these are excellent recaps and I love the style.
The one thing I have to amplify after watching last night’s game, and I’m sure it’s what Alan was referring to, is that I’ve never seen a worse strike zone. It seemed to totally screw up Ian as he could not get the high strike called. As difficult a night as it was, Anderson was still pretty good.
Our base running this series has been less than stellar.
OMG, what a horrible replay call. No way Ronald was out on that pickoff.
Tonight’s strike zone is giving yesterday’s a run for its money.
Replay review is such garbage. They have to revamp it where whoever reviews it has no idea what the play was called on the field.
Replay has essentially declared their purpose…unless it is blatantly obvious that the umpire missed the call, the call will stand. Any slight chance that the call that was made COULD’VE occurred, it’ll stand.
@11 That one was pretty obvious that Ronald’s hand got to the bag before the glove even got there. Either that or they weren’t watching the same replay I saw.
At any rate, it’s looking like we may finally have the right Wright.
I see he’s been really effective, but how has Wright looked? Haven’t been able to watch.
Same as @13, would love to hear an eyewitness account! The box score line for Wright sure looks good.
He’s been looking great. Lots of movement and showing an effective breaking ball. Best he’s looked so far.
The fastball is hitting spots and he’s using what the ump is giving him. Truly awesome.
IWOTM, but I’d say even better than the last start, so far.
Kinda pathetic that Wright gave up that hit, if you ask me.
Agree with other eyewitness accounts. Plus any time you the opposition doesn’t get to have a batter with a third appearance until the 6th, then you’re doing pretty good no matter how you look. But there has been a lot of weak contact and several K’s. Even the pitch Ramos hit a double on was several inches inside off the plate and Ramos fisted it.
El Abusador!!!!
I hate to jinx it, but I’m loving this start.
Watching on my phone, I was worried that Nimmo drive would go out. I think he got a bit lucky there. I’m torn – usually my general feeling would be to slap him on the butt and send him to the showers and let him enjoy the best start of his career.
He threw so few pitches that inning, but he was missing his spots a bit to Ramos. I’m just not sure how much he has left in the tank. Certainly, he has to learn how to get by and so forth, but I just don’t want to push it and turn a good start into a bad one, like Snit did to Touki a month or two ago.
I’d let the bullpen take over from here. Beautiful game by Kyle and let’s close it out.
@22 He’s not missing this inning. His changeup is being spotted magnificently.
Of course, as soon as I say it, he issues his first walk. But he was great with the first batter and it’s a good time for Snit to take him out. If he doesn’t issue that walk, he would have made it through the 7th.
Now THAT’S the Will Smith we’re paying for. I think Frenchy’s right and Smith is just rounding into form.
I don’t think he was pitching that bad before but he was just giving too many individual mistake pitches. Even with that he had a 3/14 BB/K.
Will Smith!
d’Arnaud!!
We just don’t mention D’Arnaud enough.
Wizard of Ozz!
Acuna Matata
We need to talk about Mark.
I’m not sure my heart can take a Melacon 1-run lead in the postseason.
Meat Loaf Ball wins pennants.
Great win, great game Wright and RAJ heating up again. Let’s have some fish.
SNY’s Ron Darling on Kyle Wright: “Today, Wright has the best breaking ball I’ve seen all year.”
Not to be a Debbie Downer for Falcons fans, but… as it occasionally happens, the Falcons had to invent a new way to lose. Hadn’t seen that one before.
IWOTM …..BRIC A BRACK
Line of the day… NOT YOUR FAULT MIKE!
Right field corner and a bucket of runs, finally…Dansby take note.
Chasen Shreve…bad today but good numbers coming in. Another one we let go too early, maybe.
Fire down below…spooky.
Frenchy is fast becoming an excellent color man- refreshing after the pompous boredom from Rosenthal last night. Someone should do a long piece on him(Jeff).
One of the best games of the year built on two excellent starting pitching performances.
And remember…you can’t go wrong with Wright! Number one next year, why not? Betcha’.
Nats lead Fish 6-0 in the third.
Nice of the Nats to threaten to win one from the Fish, as they already dropped the first game of the doubleheader 2-1! But they are now up 8-0 in the fifth inning of a 7-inning game, so that lead is probably safe.
Someone please doublecheck my math, but I believe that, assuming the Nats lead holds, we will have a Magic Number of 5 with 7 games to play.
@35 blazon, that was my impression too and it’s correct in the fact that all we got back was Manny Banuelos. But I looked up Shreve and he’s had some good on field numbers but his backup stats are not great. Poor FIPs throughout his career with high walk rate and high HR/9 rate. What he does have is a great K/9 rate. That kinda tells me he creates his own jams and wriggles out of them.
“Chasen Shreve” sounds like the name of a Faulkner character.
@37
I, as well, am confused by the tiebreakers and whatnot, but I believe you’re right. The Phillies are there, too, but three wins over the Marlins should either get us clinched or to within a game of it.
Recapped.