Ozzie Albies, Adam Duvall, Travis d’Arnaud, and Austin Riley homered, and Charlie Morton tamed Coors Field for 7 innings as the Braves earned a split of the 4 game series.
Albies hit Rockies starter Ryan Feltner‘s first major league pitch off and over the top of the right field wall, and the Braves never looked back. Five runs in the 3rd broke the game open, highlighted by Duvall’s 3 run homer, followed immediately by a shot from d’Arnaud. The Braves added 3 runs in the 7th; 2 came on Riley’s 29th homer.
For Ozzie, it was his 26th homer of the season, and 3rd in 3 games. It was Travis’s 6th, and Adam’s 31st moved him into 2nd place in the N.L. Jorge Soler had 2 hits and scored 2 runs.
Morton held the Rockies to 2 hits, both by Raimel Tapia. Tapia’s triple led to a run in the 4th, and the Rockies turned a leadoff walk in the 7th into their final run without benefit of a hit. Richard Rodriguez and Edgar Santana were perfect in the 8th and 9th. Charlie also singled and scored in his spare time.
The Braves remain 2 games ahead of the Phillies with the Nationals coming to town on Tuesday. Max Fried and Paolo Espino scheduled.
Almost worst fears realized from this Western trip: 2-5 record with the Phils & Mets nipping at our heels now. I’m fine with the off day after this lousy trip, but on Labor Day? OK…
Went to the Yanks/O’s in The Bronx today & I’m sure glad we have at least a few more weeks w/o the DH. That game took forever. Just seems that whenever those 2 clubs square off it’s always 4 hours-plus. Those AL games…
P.S. — How ’bout them Dawgs?
Come on – let’s sweep those Natties!
@1 That offense ain’t gonna beat Florida.
Maikel Franco was signed before September so he can be on a playoff roster, although I can’t imagine he would be.
Great recap, Rusty. Wish I had listened.
Imagine how the Clemson defensive coordinator must feel: one lousy field goal, no touchdowns and a loss.
The 1984 Clemson-UGA spawned the classic Lewis Grizzard column explaining to his son why his name was Kevin. That was probably my all-time favorite Clemson-Georgia game.
#3
Emory Jones?
#5
I was at that game… hard to forget a 60-yard, game-winning FG. The upper deck felt like an earthquake.
@6 JT Daniels?
Not sure who will win the Florida QB job by Georgia week, to be honest.
I was also at that Kevin Butler 60 yarder game. The place was indeed rocking. Butler was so good, especially in the clutch, that I’ve always contended he was the best college kicker ever.
I was at all of the Clemson-UGA games in Athens in the late 70’s and early 80’s. Last Saturday night was a real throwback to that defense-dominated era. I enjoy that kind of football, in much the same way I like a 2-1 game in baseball.
But I also recognize that kind of offense won’t beat Florida and maybe a couple of other teams on the schedule.
Because it’s so easy to bash Chip, I feel compelled to say that I liked one of his remarks yesterday. In telling viewers that the Mets had won, he started by saying, “thumbs up to the Mets.” No long-winded explanation of what he meant, he just said it. Those who understood got it, the rest didn’t, and that was fine.
For the record and before Rob gets too excited, I do expect the Dawgs’ offense will get better and better as the season goes along. The offense will be good enough to beat the Gators.
But I also recognize that kind of offense won’t beat Florida and maybe a couple of other teams on the schedule.
Clemson’s defensive line was tremendous, and they forced Georgia to throw the ball. Kirby could hire Mike Leach as his OC, and I still don’t think they would have a vertical passing game.
Florida has 2 good QBs with no clear answer for who should start, so that’s a problem. Mediocre at WR, like UGA. But their defense looked much better, and they had 400 yards rushing and good OL play. Reports of their demise have been greatly exaggerated.
@10 Per my last comment, I will have to see a Kirby Smart coached tram actually have a vertical passing game before I think they can outscore Florida. Starting last year, the talent levels for UGA and Florida under the Dan Mullen era finally became comparable. And historically speaking, the team that can score points has always been the team to win the cocktail party. I hope Florida and Georgia get their offenses fully maximized and we truly see who’s best.
My history of the cocktail party is much longer than Rob’s. I remember (like it was yesterday) the 1970’s and 1980’s when the Dooley-led Dawgs beat the Gators like a drum. Sometimes it was close (Run Lindsay!) and sometimes it was a rout, but UGA always found a way to beat UF.
Then the old ball coach came to Gainesville, and the tables turned–and then some. Funny how I remember the particulars of those games in the 70’s and 80’s much more clearly than I remember the games of the 90’s and aughts. The whole Spurrier/Meyer era is kind of a blur to me. I do remember that I learned not to trash talk the Gators during that time..
Keith Law!
I’ll do my regular column on players I got wrong later in September, but you can start with this: I was wrong about Austin Riley. He is a star.
https://theathletic.com/2805938/2021/09/06/how-austin-riley-became-the-braves-most-valuable-player-keith-law/
Keith Law’s column is good. It also accurately characterizes Riley as “someone who should get some down-ballot MVP votes.” That, my friends, is the difference between journalism and Chip.
I’m a Riley supporter and I was wrong about Riley. I had him for .240/20 HR back in April.
Just read on mlb.com that apparently “Morton became only the second visiting oitcher to go at least seven innings while yielding two or fewer hits at Coors Field.” Crazy.
@17 – *in the last six seasons.
It was obvious during the Colorado games many of our power hitters were pretty exhausted after a long road trip, their power suffering. Grade who most, my choices below.
SWANSON
FREEMAN
RILEY
4.TDA (till the end)
Summary. The top two by a country mile. You could look it up. Expect big improvement this week. The top two essential to the games ahead. Swanson was the worst, Freddie close.
Morton back for another year and maybe 2…I like it
I really feel like Georgia played not to lose against Clemson. You rarely get away with that in big games, but Georgia had confidence in their defense and it worked. It will be interesting to see what happens when/if Georgia starts to open it up.
Live now.
Harper continuing to carry the Phillies. Takes Woodruff way, way out for a 2 run homer and the lead in the first. Red, red hot. Earning his money now for a change. Best around.
Braves extended Morton! $20MM and $20MM club option for 2023.
@23 That’s a nice deal. Like it.
Good for Charlie and the Braves. Now how about getting Freddie a deal?
re Morton…like it too.
Question, how unusual to be imbursed @ 20M when you’re 38?
Miller takes Woodruff out, 4/0. 4th
Phillies win/Mets lose. Both games lead change in the ninth.
Ask the other SEC coaches which QB they’d prefer – JT Daniels or the guy who couldn’t beat out Feleipe Franks for the job?
And they will score more than 10 against Florida and every other school they face this year. Clemson had the best defense we’ll see until Game 13.
Coming into this game, everybody knew that the biggest mismatch was going to be UGA’s defensive front vs Clemson’s O-line. (The 2nd was Clemson’s front vs our O-line.) So Clemson was never going to have success running it. However, when UGA saw early that they could pressure DJ U with a 3-man rush & stunt however they wanted, they knew Clemson wasn’t going to move the ball much, much less score. So, this game was offensively schemed according to necessity & reduction of mistakes.
The UGA offense you saw Saturday won’t be the offense you’ll see later in the year. Georgia started 2 freshmen receivers the other day. We had at least 2 receivers on the sidelines (possibly 3) that should be ready to go well before the game in Jacksonville. Losing a starting lineman on Play #2 and not having the injured Burton (WR) or Washington (TE) relegated the overall scheme to more-vanilla packages. When Washington returns, you’ll see OC Todd Monken dial up some 12-personnel/2-TE packages that will give defenses pick-your-poison problems.
Monken knows what he’s doing & anyone who watched Daniels’ games last year (he averaged 400 yards per) saw a vertical passing game. I’m sure we’ll see more against defenses that aren’t in Clemson’s league.
I’m ok with Morton for 20 mil unless that takes money from Freddie .. I’d would have thought it would be in 15 mil range .. what about the 3 free agent OF’s .. Duvall, Soler and Rosario .. im saying sign Duval for sure .. Soler and Rosario could platoon and DH .. I don’t think Peterson option for 10 mil is a good idea .. unless the platoon him with Duval .. that would expensive OF of 5 players .. thoughts ???
@27, Phillies won 12-0. No lead changes in that one, but maybe the Phillies will be tired from running the bases, or maybe the catcher who pitched the 9th will have thrown off their hitters’ timing.
In the other game, however, it looks like the Mets went from an 82% chance of winning to losing in a few pitches, as Washington had consecutive singles by light-hitting batters to tie and win with one out in the bottom of the 9th. Hope that carries over for the Mets and doesn’t for Washington.
Baseball teams – especially the Braves – make so much money. They can afford to pay Morton, Freddie, Duvall, Soler, Rosario, Pederson, etc.
Any owner/GM who says otherwise is flat out lying.
Going to McCormick Field on Tuesday to see Rome play.
@28
ububba, they didn’t score an offensive touchdown. It’s a new year, and it’s a new list of injuries that cause Georgia to underperform in big games. What’s the point of having 66 blue chips when a few injuries means you can’t score an offensive touchdown?
I agree that Georgia will have a better offense, but George Pickens won’t be back in time for Florida, and Arik Gilbert seems to be gone forever. I agree that Washington, Burton, and Blaylock would have helped tremendously.
As for Emory, I do agree that I would take JT Daniels over Emory. But I don’t know if Emory will even be the starter come Georgia week, so if you’re saying injuries will help Georgia be prepared for Florida, I’d like to think our QB battle over the coming weeks will have a pretty big impact on Florida being prepared. I’m confident Florida will have a great QB under center that week, whoever it is. And I’ll take Mullen calling plays over Monken any day.
@21
Georgia hasn’t won a shootout against a good team since the 2018 playoff semifinals. Maybe Kirby’s turned over a new leaf, but that fella loves to take the air out of the football any chance he gets. That works when Clemson has almost no one at the skill positions and an inexperienced QB; I don’t think it’ll work in Jacksonville.
I bet folks over at Dawgs Journal are pretty worried about what they saw on offense on Saturday. Kirby Muschamp did turn in another excellent defensive performance though.
It’ll be a little anticlimactic this offseason to not wonder which aging starting pitcher we’re going to take a huge gamble on, but going year-to-year with Morton is about as good of a move you can make within the confines of this strategy. And the good news is that Morton will not have to be nearly as good as he has been this year to be worth this deal. He could be a league average pitcher and provide Veteran Presents and be worth this deal.
Ryan, you predicted Atlanta would go year-to-year with Morton. You called it.
One last thought about Morton: I wonder how many players have made such a huge percentage of their career salary after age 35. Before age 35, Morton had earned $40M in salaries. Since his age 35 season, including next year, Morton will have made $65M, almost two thirds of his career salaries coming this late in his career. Incredible.
@35, I had one guy in mind and he seems comparable. Randy Johnson, according to BBRef, made $175 million in his career, $135 of it at or after 35.
(but to be clear, if your closest comparable is Randy Johnson, you had a unique career)
Phil Niekro probably would be one, as his age 35 season was 1974, just before salaries rose dramatically, and he had more than 2/3 of his value by bWAR at or after 35, so I’m sure he had more than 2/3 of his salary. It looks like Dazzy Vance made 80% of his salary at or after age 35, according to his BRef page.
Neikro is probably a great example of someone who earned a high percentage of his salary after 35. The best example may be Jamie Moyer. From age 23 to 34 he earned a total of about $5.6 million and $1.7 million of that was when he was 34. From 35 on (14 seasons), he earned $78.4 million!
I’ll try to remember that beating Clemson was an underperformance.
I’ll try to remember that beating
Clemsonthe worst Clemson offense in a decade was an underperformance.FTFY.
@36, 38
Johnson and Niekro are great examples because they were late bloomers who had staying power, like Morton, and they both enjoyed MLB salary booms late in their career, so perfect timing.
I wonder how long Morton can keep pitching. He’s starting to get into rare air.
@ 42
Rare air
compare
still the bucks
self denial sucks.
New thread.
https://bravesjournal.mystagingwebsite.com/2021/09/07/100000-runs-in-braves-history-almost/