If I just copied and posted what I wrote about the game last Friday, would anyone notice the difference?
Another Braves-Marlins game where the Braves scored in the top of the first inning, the 1-0 lead held up for a long time, Ronald Acuña Jr. was hit by a pitch and the Braves won the opening game of the series in shutout fashion with a 5-0 victory..
Hopefully tonight is where the similarities end and the second game of this series doesn’t resemble the second game of last weekend’s series.
Positives:
- Don’t look now, but Charlie Morton has allowed seven earned runs in his last 33 innings pitched. Six of those seven runs came on two swings of the bat with respective three-run homers from James McCann and Adam Duvall. Morton will take a 1.90 ERA over his last five starts into the break after seven shutout innings tonight. It took a while, but this is what an $18 million starting pitcher looks like.
- The sample size is tiny, but Orlando Arcia is 6-for-16 with five RBIs as an Atlanta Brave. For a team with an outfield offense that has been dead as a doornail outside of Acuña, Arcia has been a breath of fresh air.
- Obviously the ideal scenario would be Acuña just not getting hit by pitches against the Marlins, but as long as it’s going to keep happening, driving him in for important runs is the next best option. Good job by Ozzie Albies picking up a big hit to double the lead in the seventh.
- Two hits and an RBI for Dansby Swanson tonight, including one to the opposite field. When it comes to Swanson and his road numbers this year, you take the positives where you can get them.
Negatives:
- #StopHittingRonaldAcuñaJr
- Talking about it sounds like a broken record at this point, but it’s one of the biggest issues with the team right now. The top four in the lineup went 6-for-15; the bottom of five spots in the lineup went 4-for-22.
Former Brave Of The Day:
Dallas Keuchel was terrific in Baltimore tonight, allowing one run in seven innings for the White Sox in their win over the Orioles at Camden Yards.
Quote Of The Game:
“It’s deja vu all over again…â€
— Yogi Berra
Tomorrow’s Goal:
The Braves are going to take aim at one of the best young arms in the National League tomorrow in All Star Trevor Rogers. Try to get to him early, at least run his pitch count up and hopefully grind out a win against a tired Miami bullpen to get back to .500.
You’d think that the league would step in at some point, what with Acuna being one of their young, marketable stars. But I guess not.
Thanks Alan.
I thought the ejections would put an end to it, and I guess it was an accident. And maybe I’m paranoid, but given Ronald’s reaction last night I wouldn’t put it past Mattingly to order Acuna hit with curve balls if they think they can get away with it that way. Again, probably paranoid, but I just get the feeling he likes hitting Acuna more than he likes winning ball games.
The count and the situation just didn’t seem to support intentionality. And Bender was not at all the same guy that struck out six in a row the last time. He was having trouble the whole inning making any pitches bend the way he wanted.
It wasn’t intentional. If it was intentional, then Miami’s management should fire Mattingly because he’s clearly not interested in winning baseball games. If Acuna wants to crowd the plate, he’ll get plunked.
Great game though. Would love to beat them a couple more times and give the FO something to really chew on during the ASB.
When baseball was really baseball a player crowding the plate like Acuna does would be hit more. Just ask Bob, Sal, Don and many others.
Charlie Morton is great person in all respects. Nice to see him pitching well.
Thanks Alan. I think Morton makes 15 million, not 18 million.
The problem with Mattingly and the Marlins isn’t that they have pitched Ronald inside. That is entirely appropriate, and sometimes necessary to keep a hitter from crowding the plate.
The problem is that they have intentionally hit him. We know Urena did so, and it’s clear to me that Lopez did so as well (both on the first pitch of the game). That is against the rules and highly dangerous (ask Ray Chapman and Tony Conigliaro). It’s stupid for the game if they let pitchers hit young stars like that.
For the record, I do not think last night’s plunking was intentional. I said last week that anytime the Marlins hit him from here on out, the pitcher and Mattingly should get run if there’s any reasonable chance it was intentional. I would not have run them yesterday based on that situation.
However, Ronald has every single right to get as mad as he wants any time he gets hit by those bastards, as far as I’m concerned, even if it’s a freaking knuckleball. And somebody should inform Chip Caray that he should probably set about completely ignoring the old-school BS Glavine was peddling last week. Not everything a Brave does on the field has to be right for members of the broadcast team, but criticizing Ronald there makes it seem like he hasn’t been watching on the other 10-ish (I forget the actual number) times the Marlins have plunked Ronald over the past three years, even though I know he has been.
It is crazy to me that as bad of a year as Duvall has had, apart from killing Atlanta, he has the same number of rbis as our team leader, Albies. If he would have stayed with the Braves, I don’t think we would have been so patient with him.
Also, the dumbest quote from Chip during that sequence last night was “…the last thing Bender wants to do is hit him in a 1-0 game.” That’s just a farcical assertion, at this point. There’s been ample evidence by now that hitting Ronald is not anywhere close to the bottom of the list of things the Marlins would like to accomplish, regardless of the score or time of game.
@10 I am sure Mattingly still feels like they won since they hit Acuna again. It seems like that has become more important to him than anything else
We may be in for a tough game today. Judging by the uniforms, the Dominican Repulbic national team has replaced the Marlins for this afternoon’s festivities.
I wonder what it would take to get Garrett Cooper. If we couldn’t get him, I would be fine with reacquiring Duvall, who I imagine wouldn’t cost a lot.
Dansby should be hitting 7th right now.
Duvall again. Shocker.
Great move to walk Cooper to pitch to Duval with two on. Fried’s command also has not been stellar lately
Why didn’t they just put Duval on base .. the way he owns us .. Snit is clueless ….
Welp. Sellers.
Uh oh
Well looks like ACL .. WE DONE
@18 yup
Ronlad is a bit of a drama queen, but I think this time his luck ran out.
F this season.
@9, going into this game, with nobody on base Duvall was hitting .146/.196/.313. With a runner on first, he was hitting .268/.328/.500. With RISP, he was hitting .373/.392/.821. That helps explain the high RBI total but doesn’t seem sustainable.
Ozzie has a little of that going too (and I suppose if there are RISP, the pitcher isn’t doing well so you might be more likely to hit well), hitting .231/.296/.412 with nobody on, .297/.338/.594 with a runner on first, and .317/.385/.659 with RISP. Not nearly as extreme, though. Freddie is similar but even less extreme, and RAJ has hit poorly (in a SSS) with RISP.
Guess the Marlins are giddy. They got him in the end.
Acuna = Mantle
You wonder if it will ever be fully fulfilled.
Soroka, Acuna , D’arnaud, Hnoa … not our year .. see ya next year Ronald…speedy recovery .. he plays all out to his demise .. wish he loafed and didn’t go all out .. but then he wouldn’t be the Star he is .. but he would be playing
At least we can look forward to AA replacing Ronald on the roster with another middle reliever… Just in case
Didn’t watch the replay. Is it as bad as people are saying?
Sure looks like an ACL. But I was convinced he had torn his ACL a couple of years ago when he stumbled over the first base bag. That one looked about this bad, but only kept him out a couple of games.
But I’ll be surprised if this is anything less than an ACL tear.
@28 yes…it looked bad. The fact he needed the cart was alarming as well
I will say this…AA will probably make a deal now if RAJ is out, making it that much more frustrating
Sandoval is more useless than Ender at this point. An even bigger waste of a roster spot.
@32 You don’t think every team should have a 300 pound Designated Hugger?
@33 I LOL’ed.
The shift again… it’s a line drive right to Dansby if he isn’t shifted
The most pyrrhic of victories..
Don’t forget the terrific play in the 9th by Dansby on the grounder by Leon. If he doesn’t make that play the Braves lose.
We should call Pablo the Designated Hugger.
The injury will give AA and Braves brass enough excuse to NOT make any trades and spend money .. if anything they will offload for prospects that they can control and not pay … making money for them is the bottom line for Braves brass .. period .. any other team 4 games out of 1st would be going all out to acquire some pieces to put them over the top .. not Braves .. they too conservative …
Braves are 44-44 now. Go Hammers.
Am I literally the only person not convinced he has a significant injury?
41 I would think you are accurate in that assessment. What puzzles me is why would you and no one else believe he is faking it? I have a few thoughts but out of respect they will remain unsaid.
@41- He’s survived some pretty bad looking falls in the past, but one can’t go on dodging bullets forever.
Recapped.
https://bravesjournal.mystagingwebsite.com/2021/07/10/braves-beat-marlins-5-4-but-acuna-leaves-injured/
@42 Let’s hear them thoughts, Junebug.
@39 AA doesn’t make decisions about the money. He told DOB a few weeks ago that the owners gave him the “ok” to spend some money at the deadline. However, yes, they should sell this year and bank some prospects if Ronald is out long term. They could pick up a non rental if the price is right. AA could get creative in a deal or two.