Austin Riley went 3 – 3 with a homer and a walk, and the Braves end the road trip on a winning note.
Riley singled in 2 runs in the top of the 1st as the Braves opened a 3 – 0 lead, and his opposite field homer in the 3rd pushed the lead to 4 – 0. Riley’s 5th inning walk led to a 5 – 0 lead, scoring on Kevan Smith‘s single.
Drew Smyly cruised through 4 innings before allowing 2 runs in the 5th on 3 singles and a wild pitch. He ended the day after that 5th, allowing 6 hits and a walk, while striking out 6.
The Braves added some breathing room on Ender Inciarte‘s solo homer in the 6th. Inciarte was replacing Ronald Acuna Jr. who was removed for precautionary reasons with right pectoral tightness. He’s not expected to miss any further time.
A.J. Minter was charged with the game’s final 2 runs in the 7th. With 1 out, Isan Diaz accepted the Braves invitation to have a free base by dropping a bunt single against the shift. Jazz Chisholm doubled him to 3rd. They both scored on Starling Marte‘s single off Luke Jackson. Jackson retired the next 2 hitters to stick the double Grybo.
Shane Greene, Chris Martin, and Will Smith pitched a perfect 6th, 8th, and 9th respectively. Greene had 2 strikeouts, and Smith got his 11th save.
Let’s go home for a while. Boston comes to town Tuesday; Tucker Davidson and Eduardo Rodriguez scheduled.
It was really good to have your ace on the mound for a must-win game against a World Series contender who caught you napping in the first two games.
Ok, nothing I just said was true.
Well, all the pitches came from the mound, so it was partly true.
Braves are 2-0 in games started by Smyly and 0-4 in games started by anyone else over their last 6.
Smyly’s a gamer who makes pitches and gives his team a chance to win. A real pro. His 3-3 record would be better if he received more run support.
@3 He’s got fire in his belly, that’s for sure. Proven winner.
Clearly Davidson and Anderson, while not surrendering any runs this week, are not winners. They lack fire, or grit, or moxie, or something.
@5 An ace will pitch to the score.
You know until the last 5 or 6 games Jacob DeGrom didn’t really know how to win even though he wasn’t giving up many runs. He has won 5 of the last 7 games started so I guess he’s learning. I’m still holding out hope that Davidson and Anderson can learn how to win. DeGrom hasn’t been much of a winner for the past 3 years despite having ERAs below 2.5.
I’m afraid the sarcasm is dripping so much it might damage my computer.
Hey, if Smyly gets a couple more “wins” maybe he can be dealt at the deadline for cash considerations.
Teams get mighty desperate at the deadline. Smyly, Morton, Martin and Greene could be dealt without affecting 2022 at all and fetch some players in return. Maybe even a good one.
But I’d be bummed if the Braves gave up on this year. It’s still early.
I’m in Chetek, Wisconsin. We’re on satellite internet and I haven’t even been able to watch a wisp of Braves baseball, but the talk in the town has been about the winning attitude of a man known as Smyly.
Farmers are jealous.
@7 deGrom is French for “loser”.
What is the genesis of this winner/loser sarcasm?
Speaking of sarcasm, I recently started a Twitter account, @bravda1. If you’re one of the dozens of people who have stumbled across it and might have wondered if it was me, it is.
@14 Rob was saying things that are untrue. I wanted to say things are true, but worthless.
Wonder what we can get for Morton, Greene and Martin?
Any hint of news re Ozuna?
Chief, it was basically a flash mob of insanity.
@17 Are there a lot of examples of teams who were able to sell off and get back pieces that helped them as early as the next season? One team that “reloaded” that comes to mind were the Yankees when they shipped off Aroldis Chapman and got back Greyber Torres. We obviously don’t have anyone as good as Chapman to trade, so we certainly won’t get anyone back as good as Torres. And it still took Torres an extra year to reach New York. Are we just going to sell off and get a bunch of low minors prospects who might be good for us 3-4 years from now when we may not even be competitive?
I’m not saying we are there yet but Ynoa came to us on just such a deal right? For Garcia to the Twins at the deadline?
Are there contenders with holes at catcher? If he’s back before the deadline, TdA might be a good mix of being attractive to other teams but not someone whose absence would greatly affect our chances for the remainder of 2021 now that Contreras seems ok.
I think TdA is a mixture of age + injury that make him very difficult for anything beyond a flier. He’s basically a bat-first second catcher at this point.
@21 Exactly. It’s a lot like buying lottery tickets. Everyone’s favourite Tex trade involved the Braves sending off a LOT of lottery tickets. Unfortunately they were pretty much all winners. Nobody’s trading blue-chips for rentals anymore.
@22 I recommend against trading depth if going for it in 2021. You’re either a buyer or a seller.
@21 and @24
It took 4 years for Ynoa to be where he is, and his career accomplishments are 8 good starts. I think he’s the real deal (or he’s Jair Jurrjens; we’ll find out!), but you had to wait 4 years to find out if he was.
The Braves shouldn’t be remotely interested in selling if the upside is getting 18 year old lottery tickets who might be good a few years from now. I don’t think our competitive window is so long that we should be punting on seasons in which our team is within striking distance of the second Wild Card, there’s a hope Soroka returns, d’Arnaud helps the roster, and we can add at the deadline.
The big part is money. Do we have any money to spend? Is Ozuna gone forever with no ability to use his salary to replenish what he’s vacated? Can we add bench players and relievers?
25 – I suspect there will ultimately be some relief of Ozuna’s salary this year at least, granted this was his low salary year, so we may be talking $8 of $12 million Atlanta ultimately doesn’t have to pay. I presume management will want some certainty about that before committing money elsewhere, and whether enough certainty comes by the deadline or not remains to be seen.
I agree Ynoa is a rarity and it’s hard to know what you even have there, but it’s not nothing and depth in the system could be valuable considering how thin we get in the lower levels. I’m not advocating blowing it up at all, just saying I’m open minded about the benefits of selling off rentals if the price is right and the standings dictate that we should.
I’d much prefer to be buyers at this point and hopefully the next weeks will see Atlanta over .500 and will help nudge management that way.
The division is winnable. Braves aren’t selling.
New thread
https://bravesjournal.mystagingwebsite.com/2021/06/14/give-that-lineup-a-little-shake-snit/