Behind another dominant start by Kyle Wright and a clutch two run double by Matt Olson in the 7th, the Braves defeated the Fish 3-0.
Kyle Wright was indeed masterful, tossing six shutout innings. For my money, he is the story of the year so far. His ERA is now 1.06 after three starts. In those starts, he’s struck out 26 while walking only two. Tonight, he threw 95 pitches, 67 of which were strikes; he struck out 11 and walked only one. Perhaps most impressively he induced 20 swings and misses. He’s throwing both his four seamer and two seamer with confidence, his breaking ball is filthy, and he had a great changeup tonight.
O’Day, Matzek, and Jansen drew tonight’s night shift duty and maintained the shutout through the 7th, 8th, and 9th.
The Braves took a 1-0 lead in the first which turned out to be the only run they needed. The run was directly attributable to the fleet feet of Olson and Ozuna. Leading off, Ozzie worked a 3-2 count but in typical Ozzie fashion swung at an outside fastball that would have been ball four. The good news is he didn’t try to pull it and lined a single to right.
After the Ozzie single, Olson beat out a double play ball by hustling down the line to first. He advanced to second on a Riley walk, and when an errant pickoff throw went into center field, Olson scampered to third. Ozuna grounded to third, but beat the throw to first to prevent a double play, allowing Olson to score. Man, it’s great to have speed in the lineup.
After having lots of baserunners in the first two innings and forcing Trevor Rogers to throw a lot of pitches, the Braves went into hibernation mode for the next several innings. The score remained 1-0 through 6 innings. Wright faced his only real trouble in the 6th, but Snit allowed him to pitch his way out of it and preserve the shutout.
In the 7th, still clinging to that 1-0 lead, the team rallied. With one out, Swanson walked (he also had a sharp single and a lineout earlier in the game) and Rosario, pinch hitting for Demeritte, reached on an error by the second baseman. Ozzie went to another 3-2 count, but unlike the first inning, Ozzie took the outside pitch. The ump called it strike 3 in one of the worst calls I’ve seen in a long time. It was bad enough to see the ump get it so wrong–he was terrible all night calling balls and strikes. The worst part of it is that Ozzie will likely decide to never take another pitch. I don’t mean to be too hard on Albies—he’s my favorite player, and a terrific hitter (two more hits tonight). But if he could just take a few more pitches he could be Joe Morgan.
Fortunately, with two outs and the runners still on first and second, Matt Olson came through with a double into the right field corner to score both baserunners. As good as he’s been, those were Olson’s first rbi’s that weren’t the result of solo home runs. Shows how the bottom of the order and the leadoff hitters have been so poor at getting on base.
That’s not going to be a problem for much longer, though. Ronald had his third rehab start at Gwinnett tonight and reached base three times, stole a base, and even scored from second base on an infield hit (according to our announcers). Soon Olson is going to have plenty of rbi opportunities.
* * *
Travis Demeritte made his Atlanta Braves debut tonight. In his first AB he stroked a ringing double to left. I don’t know whether Travis will turn out to be a productive major league hitter, but it was good to see him get the start and get his first Atlanta hit. I had followed Demeritte’s minor league exploits for the Braves for some time. He showed promise in the last decade, but the Braves traded him to the Tigers for Shane Greene in 2019. His numbers for the Tigers were pretty abysmal, and when they released him the Braves picked him up again. He had a pretty good year for Gwinnett in 2021, and may yet have a major league career.
Thinking about Demeritte reminded me of Adrian Garrett, who passed away on this date one year ago. There won’t be more than a couple of you who remember Garrett. He was a rookie who made his big league debut with the Atlanta Braves in the first month of their existence. I remember being very excited when he appeared for the Braves. Garrett had been the first baseman for the Atlanta Crackers in 1965, the AAA affiliate of the Milwaukee (but soon to be Atlanta) Braves. That Crackers team is the first team I followed every day. Garrett hit 20 home runs, second in the league, and made the International League All Star game. Everyone said his swing reminded them of Ted Williams, and my ten year old self was sure he was a can’t miss prospect. After a strong spring training in 1966, he made the big league roster. He appeared in four games in April, with three pinch hit appearances, going 0-3 with two strikeouts. They sent him back down to AAA where he spent the rest of the season. In fact, he never appeared for the Atlanta Braves again.
But Garrett was just getting started. He went on to play 19 professional seasons and hit a total of 398 home runs. The reason you’ve likely never heard of him is that only 11 of those dingers came in the major leagues. He smacked 280 homers in the minors and another 102 in Japan and Venezuela. His major league numbers were not so impressive: in 263 at bats over parts of eight seasons, he hit .185, with an OPS+ of 70 and a career WAR of minus 0.7. Still, you’ve got to admire someone who sticks it out so long.
* * *
I’ve said it for the last two weeks, and I’ll say it again: this is a good time to be a Braves fan. This is a very solid club that will battle the Mets all the way. It’s still the Braves’ division to lose.
Ian Anderson goes tomorrow, looking to repeat the strong start he had last week in San Diego. I think this is the beginning of a streak.
Wow. Adrian Garrett. I’m signed up for your memories of Arnie Umbach.
Does anybody here find anything but annoyace and embarassment with Chip Carey’s incessant “a fan from East Bumf””k caught a foul…at least pasd a law thst he is banned
from baseball after more than 1 per game,.
I remember Garrett. He had red hair. My first game I ever saw was an exhibition game in Birmingham in ’69. And there he was, warming up. The first redhead I had ever seen. I was convinced he was Hank Aaron because he was different from everyone else.
@2
Got to give Chip credit for stealing that bit from Ernie Harwell’s Detroit Tigers broadcasts. I mean if you’re going to steal from someone, steal from a Hall of Famer.
(His dad did it also on TBS. The acorn both does and does not fall far from the tree. Does this mean Chip is Schroedinger’s Announcer?)
@31 on the last thread, Ng was the Fish’s GM last year too. Or am I missing something?
Anything that reminds me of Skip Caray is OK in my book. (Somehow, nothing else about Chip does that!)
@5
November 2020 according to the book. What is really interesting here regards the departure of Jeter…did the owners take that decisive step as Alex suggested or did she live up to her reputation and insist he left if they wanted her as GM?
I’m 83 today…check your calendars so one day you can be too. Cheers.
@1 and 3–Because I knew JonathanF would be reading, I knew not to assert that no one would remember Adrian Garrett. I did say that not more than a couple of you would remember him–and we are up to that number already. I imagine there are actually a few more on here who were obsessed with the 1960’s ATL Braves.
More folks probably remember his brother Wayne Garrett, who had several good seasons with the Mets, including his rookie season of 1969 when he had a huge LCS against the Braves, including the go ahead home run in the clinching game. Wayne had also been a Braves draftee, but the Mets selected him in the 1968 Rule V draft. His hair was a brighter shade of red than Adrian’s.
@7 Congrats, blazon! May you have a most excellent day and stay healthy as long as possible.
@1–my memories of Arnold Umbach are too painful to recount. He was perhaps the first of scores–nay, hundreds–of young pitchers who broke my heart. He helped me learn the truth of TINSTAAPP, long before I heard the acronym.
But my disappointment in Umbach is nothing next to my disillusionment over Dick Kelley.
Congratulations, blazon! Let’s celebrate with another win tonight.
Great to see that the house was completely packed last night.
Thanks for the awesome recap, tfloyd. Wright was awesome and the strike zone was terrible.
Well done, tfloyd.
Go Braves.
Happy birthday, blazon, and many more.
@10: You and me both. I also had high hopes for Herb Hippauf and his renowned pickoff move. I had a lot of high hopes once….
blazon… you’re just getting started.
Live long(er) and prosper, blazon
Throw guality strikes and you will be Wright on. Hoping it lasts.
Miami’s lineup sucks right now, but man, what a turnaround for Kyle Wright. So happy for him, and so happy I was wrong. This rotation 1-4 is as good as it gets. If we get Soroka back ever or one of the other guys turns the corner, we’re going to be good for a verrrry long time.
I know we spend a fair amount of time mocking Chip around here–and rightly so. But one of the other Braves’ mouthpieces, Mark Bowman, is also pretty bad at his job.
Every time I read him, I get triggered. And so it was with today’s piece, which opens thus:
“As Kyle Wright progresses through this season and beyond, there may be reason to reflect on the potentially significant moment that occurred when Braves manager Brian Snitker enhanced the rejuvenated hurler’s confidence during Friday night’s 3-0 win over the Marlins.”
Snappy, it ain’t.
I’ve occasionally considered giving my first-year (college) students some of Bowman’s passages to revise, just for fun. But it might be even more enjoyable for some of the regulars here, who could write circles around Bowman and other so-called professionals, to give it a shot.
The floor is now open . . .
Happy birthday blazon.
“If Kyle Wright’s future is anything like the past three games, some of the credit will have to go to Brian Snitker’s faith in him when others doubted.”
Bowman often seems to write from the same pre-printed script of cliche that Chip reads on-air.
There was a point 10 years ago or so when Mac made fun of Bowman using the cliche “silencing his critics” in every other headline.
Boob strikes again.
Happy birthday, blazon! Here’s to many more!
Ok, keep it together now, Ian
At which point do we start worrying about Anderson? His stuff seems kinda mediocre right now.
@2 I’ve somewhat softened in my anti-Chip-ness recently, just because I listen to more games on the radio (yes, there are a few of us in our mid-20’s that still listen to baseball on the RADIO!) or I just tune out the TV announcers. But the “fan from Rednecksville, Georgia” bit never struck me as funny, it took me a few times to even realize it was a joke. I know it was a Skip thing, but it occurs too frequently to be funny. Feel like you’ll hear it almost every game… It’s a “joke” with no real punch line, so I’m not sure what the point is. I far prefer it when announcers say funny things about the fan who caught it that are actually true, either about their skill, how maybe they should be on the outfield instead of {some player who recently made an error}, or something else. I’ve heard you have to be clever to do that, however.
Also, don’t think we should be serving fastballs “medium well” to Jazz Chisholm ever again. Time to IBB that guy like Barry Bonds… unless our ace, Kyle Wright, is on the mound!
TWO first-pitch leadoff homers?!!
Maybe Dansby is hurting? Keeps touching his right hip.
It will come as no surprise that when Chip Caray opines without notes about baseball history, he is wrong. Details in the recap.
And Chip is obviously reading this, because he corrected himself.
9/2/2021 — Citifield
@30 I always love a good prove-Chip-wrong piece! Can’t wait for it.
Dansby hit a triple!!! After I (jokingly) said we should put a Make-A-Wish kid in his spot in the lineup every evening in the last thread. See, kids, bullying works!
Three spinners in a row to Chisholm wasn’t going to work,. This dude throws batting practice. Not really impressed with him thus far, but when your starter limps through five your choices are slim
McHugh is McTrash so far.
McUgh
Too many soft tossers in the pen with O’Day, McHugh and now Chavez. You don’t need that many that can’t break a pane of glass.
I thought McHugh was supposed to be good.
@20: I knew you’d deliver, JonathanF.
How many more times do we need to hear Chip say “this the the way the Marlins envisioned their offense would look like”?
Dansby is back, baby!
Here comes Dans
These non-Night Shift relievers appear to have spent the pregame doing some day drinking.
Tough without a secondary pitch especially if you can’t throw strikes.
Feel like if Minter starts the 6th and Smith the 7th it is probably 7-3. Snit got cute and it cost us
Why does Snit wait too long to pull guys … pen is getting hammered ..
McHugh been a bust …for sure ..
Rosario looks absolutely terrible.
Continually moving Rosario farther up in the lineup isn’t working. He looks completely lost
Nice job, Jesse. Let’s rally.
Glad I missed this one. Looks like a bullpen implosion with some hibernation mode for good measure.
Recapped.
Pathetic. Don’t fool yourself, Snitker is barely an average manager.