Yes, Vinings Ridge is probably a little over a mile southwest of the current Truist Park. Some of the best views of the City of Atlanta and its Metro environs can be had there. This is the place where the Overlook office parks and a luxury apartment mid rise sit. I once went to a conference room there and the office tenant pointed out Tyler Perry’s house. Actually, I thought it was a country club (seriously, there appeared to be 5 levels on the river front side). And, as the title says, when Billy Sherman rode to the top of Vinings Ridge, he could see the church spires of Atlanta (all of which were roughly between Memorial Drive and Decatur Street on the current map) for the first time.
Somebody’s 9 game streak had to end. The Braves offensive surge seemingly triggered by the trade deadline acquisitions is waning. It has been 5 games since we scored over 5. The starting pitching has continued to be somewhere between good enough and excellent almost every night. The bullpen has been predictably effective or ineffective depending on which arms are used.
Last night, new phenom Huascar Ynoa was good enough, but not great. However, “the force in this one is strong.” He gave up 3 over 6 innings (a minimal Quality Start). He also struck out 9. The recaps this morning show the “Death Pitch” making about 7 of the strikeouts and one each by the high 4 seamer and one that I swear had to be a sinker (angle shows ball starting at the bottom of the strike zone and dropping and it being around 95 mph). Also, despite being o for 2, Ynoa’s OPS is still at 1.000.
Offensively, Dansby hit a solo shot, and the Hammers got almost as many walks and hits as the Yankees, but they didn’t sequence together well. Minter’s return from exile and return to form continued with 2 strikeouts in a clean inning to follow Ynoa, but Santana gave up 2 to take loss probability from around 85% to 95%. Chavez bailed him out and finished this one.
Maybe the Yankees will make the left flanking move to Roswell tonight and make it easier for the Hammers to win.
Wonderful recap, cliff. That NY team ain’t bad. Hate them as much as I do, I must admit they were the better team last night.
To paraphrase Miss Scarlett, today is another day. Give ’em what for, Bravos.
As the man once said, if you don’t hit, you can’t win. Ynoa’s performance was about the best thing about the game, since the lumber took a snooze. Considering how the bats failed to feast in Baltimore, last night’s famine was less surprising, but I sure hope it’s short-lived. C’mon, Fredward!
Wonderfully awesome storm in Mr. Cothran’s neighborhood today. Quite impressive.
Go Braves.
Thanks, Cliff. That performance by Ynoa really was outstanding—better than the results. I’ll take that from him every time out.
cliff…
What a fine way to juxtapose last night’s loss into a historical/geographical context. Tara, Tara and all that. Regarding the result, ‘Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn.’ Why? We had more than enough opportunities against a mediocre starting pitcher to score more than once, we all knew about the assassin scheduled to replace him and boy did he fit the bill. Controlled deceptive venom from one so slight. Ynoa was wonderful. Snit waited too long after the hit batter to replace him and, what was much worse, when he did he went, post Minter, to the Mk.2 version of our Pen while we were still only 2 runs off. Inexcusable, had he already given up, there’s 2 off days to follow, wear the good guys out.
Loaisiga
Yo! concise of ya’
two innings only
the rest tonight? that better be baloney.
Fun times at school!
I’ve started an after school wiffle ball league! We will be playing once/weekly and will monitor leaderboard stats including AVG/OBP/OPS. Should be a ton of fun!
We also have a dream big scenario where we go to a Braves game together on 9/11. Would love to see any Braves Journalers there as well.
Raise a glass to Charlie Watts…
d’Arnaud back for the game tonight.
Which lineup is better Opening day or tonight?
Acuna
Albies
Freeman
Ozuna
d’Arnaud
Swanson
Riley
Pache
Fried
Albies
Soler
Freeman
Riley
Swanson
d’Arnaud
Duvall
Pederson
Morton
I mean it’s prob opening day but it’s not as far off as you would think right?
@10 It’s really about which outfield is better: Acuna/Ozuna/Pache or Duvall/Pederson/Soler? And to that question, I would say that with Pache being so incredibly bad, it’s really close. Genuinely don’t know the answer.
Let’s say Acuna/Ozuna/Pache is a 8 fWAR OF (Acuna is 6, Ozuna is 3, and Pache is -1). Do Duvall/Pederson/Soler reach 8 fWAR across 162? Hard to know.
That is about what I came up with as well Rob. If nothing else, it helped me feel that this team, even without Acuna, has the potential to do damage if they reach the postseason.
I was a little negative about Snitker’s bullpen usage last night, but I guess I can understand it. I was feeling like it should be treated like a playoff game and Ynoa should have been removed after the 5th for Rodriguez. In looking back at it, I don’t think Atlanta was going to score more than a run for about 3 more innings, so saving the bullpen a little for tonight may not have been a bad strategy. Since we have 2 off days after tonight, I see no reason not to treat tonight like a playoff game. Snitker should be ready to pull Morton early if he runs into trouble in the 5th or 6th.
@12 You’re definitely right that it’s closer than you think once you look at it. And we didn’t have Heredia at the beginning of the season as well. Defensive metrics be damned, I think he’s a good defensive CF. He also hits lefties well in small sample, so at minimum, he’s better than Ender. And Almonte hits RHP well (.815 OPS in 141 PAs). So if you expand it out to Duvall/Pederson/Soler/Heredia/Almonte compared to Ozuna/Pache/Acuna/Ender/Adrianza, then I think the new OF unit comes out slightly ahead.
And I’m sorry for completely ruining what you intended to be a simple exercise… ::takes in deep breath:: but if you expand it to Duvall/Pederson/Soler/Heredia/Almonte/ADRIANZA compared to Ozuna/Pache/Acuna/Ender/Adrianza/PANDA, then it gets even more obvious that the new OF/bench unit is better.
From there… just kidding, I’m done.
I honestly think Soler can be every bit of what Ozuna was going to be this year (and perhaps going forward).
Pederson/Heredia + Duvall is probably a step down from Acuna + Pache/Ender but you are right that 2 solid positives might balance out an MVP + a negative.
Of course it would be nice to just have Soler, Acuna and Joc/Duvall so let’s make that happen.
In the two years before this, including the shortened season, Soler was basically a 2.6-2.8 fWAR player across 162 games. This year he has not been that. Atlanta was paying Ozuna to be a 2 fWAR player thereabouts, so I think you’re right. Next year, we will have a similar level of optimism we had for the outfield this year except Pache will be one year older.
@10 and others, it may also be relevant in comparing the two lineups that a lot of people thought on Opening Day and for a couple of months afterwards that Riley wasn’t a major league 3B and that Dansby wasn’t much of a MLB SS, while most of them seem to think now that both are pretty good.
I’d be open to bringing back Soler to DH. Or all of the 3, honestly, so we can ease in Pache/Waters in the likely event they aren’t ready for Opening Day 2022. Also it would not force Acuña to rush back before he’s ready.
Are the Braves contenders or pretenders? They beat up on the teams they needed to beat up. Now they need to beat good teams.. They really need to take one of these games from the Yankees.
Back to back off days? Weird.
Terrible timing for me for these weird back to back days off. I’m driving out of town for a wedding on Friday so I don’t know if I will get to see any of the 3 weekend games.
Two off days are gonna be brutal. Get your baseball enjoyment in while you can.
What the hell is the umpire arguing Joc did?
@23 – That Joc swung at a pitch that hit him. In my un-objective opinion, it was a checked swing foul tip.
Edit: Joc seemed pretty adamant that it hit him, so they went with that.
Down 2, so we’ll probably see the bullpen detritus again to remove all doubt.
All of those Yankee fans there is disgusting.
They should be doing better against these two lefties. Very frustrating to watch. We need some runs; 1 or 2 is just not gonna cut it.
Whenever this team plays the Yankees, they just lay down like a lamb on Broadway.
Now what’s Ozzie all worked up about?
#28
Alex, is that a veiled Phil Collins reference?
Genesis, yeah.
Okay, I actually think he mighta gotten in.
He’s safe. And the plate was blocked. But I don’t expect the call to go our way.
Safe AND he was blocking the plate.
Bobby would have been thrown out already, but if not, he’d be tossed right now.
If he’s not safe why do we have replay? That is garbage.
Surprise, surprise, replay is still useless.
And he was obviously blocking the plate as well.
The guy in NY ruling against NY? Nah….
Of course
I sort of get how, with their braindead process, they upheld the call on the field. What I don’t at all get is why the umpire called him out to begin with. Freeman’s through and the tag happens on the back after he’s already by…by what possible basis are you calling him out?
I think Snitker should have taken one for the team and gotten thrown out. No way to justify that call.
By the way, he wasn’t blocking the plate. If he was blocking the plate, how did Freddie get there?
Joc’s already been tossed. Called out on a HBP is kinda absurd too. But how can you start kicking and screaming enough to get tossed when all the umps have to do is say they go by the replay? It’s a useless exercise to argue at that point.
@40 Freddie having to go slightly around him instead of having a straight path is enough for obstruction.
The catcher could’ve only been in that position if he already had the ball (which he caught when Freddie was already sliding.
But that call is very rarely made; bigger deal is that the call on the field itself was terrible, since the HP ump had no angle to see a tag and the slide was in progress when the ball had not arrived.
Replay taking into consideration the call on the field is plain idiotic.
Oh, and Bohm never touched home plate.
That’s a cold play.
You are probably right Roger. I’m not usually a proponent of getting kicked out, but between the bad ball and strike calls, the odd call on Pederson, and the garbage call at the plate (as noted it should have never come to that), something to fire up the team and umpire might help.
Jethro tonight making sweeter music for the Stripers: 5 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 2 BB, 9 K
pic.twitter.com/nYxXsVrzo6
The tag was not on time, as long as Freddie’s foot wasn’t in the air it should’ve been safe.
Oh well…what are the odds the braves score 1 more run anyway…
Getting absolutely boned by calls tonight
Tonight’s game has been a classic Ump Show. Thanks for realizing who the fans really come to see, guys.
Should we start calling home plate umpire Chris Conroy Eric Jr.? That pitch to Albies looked like it was above his letters.
Edit: Just saw CindyJ’s post. It was.
Power shortage against Yanks !!
Most of the time bad ball and strike calls go both ways. That hasn’t been the case tonight. Yankees have gotten the breaks in strikes called against the Braves and balls called for the Yankees.
From the standpoint of officiating, I feel like I’m watching an Alabama football or Kentucky basketball game tonight.
why?
Wow wtf, I’m seeing Riley safe there if he didn’t come off the bag. He maybe did?
@54 Why? The guys are pressing because they are bad in the clutch. Wash sending runners, riley trying so that a single and not an extra base hit was necessary to score.
I can’t complain about that call. Dumb baserunning
Baserunning blunders have killed us .. you can’t make that out .. took a run off board … 2 of them cost us this game ..
Will Snit call out Riley for his stupid baserunning?
Well, I thought Matzek’s last called strike was outside, so Conroy may have been blowing calls in both directions. Have never noticed his name before, so he doesn’t have the Angel Hernandez reputation, at least not yet.
Holy Cow!!
Well Freddie, earn that new contract and prove this team has a bit of clutch gene.
A ball in the dirt would be ball 4, Chip.
Can we fire Chip now? Please?
Crap!! But what a game!
Nope. This team lacks the magic for late inning comebacks that it had the last couple of years.
Expecting a first round exit if they manage to hold on to the division, sadly.
Just can’t get over the hump. The call on Freddie at home is even more upsetting now.
At least the Phils and Mets lost too. And they lost worse…….
That was the good exciting.
Revenge in October.
@66 You’re right about that. A bad call and a bad review cost them the game possibly. Love how they fought back though. So close.
Recapped.
https://bravesjournal.mystagingwebsite.com/2021/08/24/yankees-and-umps-5-braves-4/