Ping Pong
A back-and-forth contest that started a little ominously. First pitch to Jazz Chisholm trailed into the seats. The fourth pitch was deposited into right field. Then, Jorge Soler, weighed down by his new ring, popped out. (It was a genius move to condition getting the ring on requiring him to wear it in his first at-bat.) The 18th pitch also went into right field. But a double play held the scoring to 1.
Ian Anderson has pitched 33 regular season first innings. He has given up 20 earned runs and 7 homers in those first innings. He needs to work on that. That said, Tom Glavine pitched in 682 first innings and gave up 346 earned runs and 59 homers in those first innings, and I hear he had a pretty good career.
Ozzie evened the game on the first pitch in the bottom of the inning. Chip was certain, until told the truth, that that was the first time two leadoff hitters hit homers on the first pitch. Details below in the usual spot.
The Braves took the lead when a ball hit by Dansby Swanson was misplayed into a triple and Ozzie’s subsequent fly ball sent him home. The lead didn’t last long. The Marlins evened it up in the top of the 4th.
Then, and this is hard for me to fathom, Alex Dickerson hit a two run-homer in the bottom of the 4th. The meticulously compiled records of MLB suggest that Alex Dickerson has hit 39 other homers in his career, so who am I to question it? I do know that his -49 OPS+ as a Brave before tonight will be improving. Only one Atlanta Braves position player ever had a worse OPS+ for a season with 25 plate appearances or more: Alexis Infante in 1990. On the other hand, when we first got Adam Duvall in 2018, he had 2 singles in his first 29 AB. So let’s give Grandpa a chance. (BRef lists “Grandpa†as his nickname, joining Ray Wolf and Jimmy Bannon, whose nickname was “Foxy Grandpa†and whose bio you ought to read if you’ve got some time. The man tried to stomp out a burning stadium with his feet I’m a Grandpa, but I’ve never done anything like that.)
The Marlins got a run back, but an Austin Riley solo blast got the lead back up to two.
That left four innings to pitch, and Collin McHugh eliminated the lead on a single riffed by Jazz. Another adventure by Rosario in right field chased McHugh. AJ Minter anti-Avilaned the lead and we (Chisholm) trailed 6-5 heading to the bottom of the 6th.
Then Dansby got a two-run single in the bottom of the 6th to regain the lead. The hit went into left-center. Amazing, isn’t it, that when he gets a hit to right-center they talk about how that’s what he needs to do, but solid hits to left-center apparently are independent of his “approach.†In any case, if this is the start of a Dansby hot streak, it comes none too soon.
Spencer Strider took the 7th, and his performance made McHugh look good: two walks sandwiching a single followed by another single coughed up the lead again. One more run was anti-Avilaned by King Richard and we enter the bottom of the 7th down 2.
For the first time, there was no response from the Braves bats, and, for the first time, the Marlins’ win probability rose to 84%. Newcomb-substitute Jesse Chavez was handed the 8th and 9th, and he anti-Newcombed two clean innings. Welcome back!
But when you’re behind, you have to score. The 3D offense of Duvall, Dickerson and Dansby did nothing in the 8th. Rumors of their revival may be slightly premature.
Ozzie, Matt and Austin gave Tanner Scott his second career save. Go get ’em tomorrow, Bryce.
Chipwatch
On September 2nd last year, the Marlins played at CitiField (This was also the day I wrote my post on why I no longer use the term “Grybo,†referenced above.) Miguel Rojas put the first pitch off Carlos Carrasco into the seats. In the bottom of the first, Jonathan Villar put the first pitch from Sandy Alcantara into the seats. QED. Eventually (in the bottom of the third) Chip corrected himself. I posted the error five minutes earlier. Anybody can make a mistake, but here’s the problem: if you don’t know, state what you think might be true and promise to have your staff figure it out. And it’s not that hard. I’m just an old fart sitting at a laptop and it took me about the same time it took the guys paid to do this.
Such a pity that on a day where the weather was PERFECT for baseball, our harridans less so.
There were at least a couple of pitches that Strider got screwed on by the HP ump, one of which, I believe, would have been a K. This crew has been terrible these two games and I think it hurt us more last night. That being said, Strider was not at his best.
Also, with regards to last night’s “grybos”, I have to give a pitcher a break when he’s brought in in a tight situation and an out can create an easy run.
McHugh is looking like last year’s Tomlin. I wish he’d look like three years ago Tomlin. I think you have to give Snit a little rope too because he’s got a lot of new bullpen pieces he’s trying to fit together. His choices will be reduced when May 1st rolls around. Say what you will about O’Day and Chavez; they get outs consistently. My guess is that we’re gonna see both Thornburg and Stephens today unless Bryce has a big game for us.
Still need two pitchers to go out on May 1st. Maybe Strider is optioned. Then one from among McHugh, Thornburg, Stephens, O’Day, Chavez.
I’m at the game today—my first time in person this season. The last time I was here was game 5 of the WS. It’s a lot warmer today than that night.
Wow, Bryce has some filthy breaking stuff today!
How did Riley pull that outside breaking pitch?
The first thing I’d like from Dansby today is competitive at bats where preferably he doesn’t strike out half the time. The second thing is hard contact. Slow progress is fine if it’s progress.
(That at bat: not progress)
Might be time to warm the pen, Snit.
Edit: What doni know.
Enjoy tfloyd!
Elder is nothing more than an opener. Mediocre stuff that experience won’t fix
Getting BABIP’d pretty hard this inning
@9 I am confused as to how you can watch this game and think the problem Elder had today is the stuff not being good enough.
Ozuna swings at ball 3 on 2-0 , 2-1 and 2-2. What a terrible at bat. The free swinging thing might need to be toned down a bit until we start clicking
I think he does it with mirrors…Aaron Harang like. Walking the .150 hitting catcher to pitch to Chisholm with the bases loaded is playing with fire. Eventually it is going to bite him. I would much rather have any of the Marlins starters instead. Kid knows how to pitch but the stuff isn’t great
Keep walking lead off hitters keep playing with fire
Arcia has to catch that one.
Don’t get sending Elder back out for 5th at all. DH, 2 extra pitchers, dude’s control not on it today.
That Dansby at bat was progress.
Three innings away from a fifth consecutive series without a win. At what point is it OK to be concerned?
The braves aren’t playing well, but these HP umps just keep getting worse every year.
The lineup is short and unproductive. 5-9 are essentially black holes today and our starters rarely go much past the fifth if even that far. It’s a tough road right now
Elder walked 6 guys today? Come on man.
We need Acuña back soon.
@18–we are still a week away from the end of April. And the season started late. And Ronald hasn’t played yet.
So the time for concern is some time away. I don’t recommend waiting until August to turn it around, but it’s still very early.
Way too many first-pitch swings when relievers enter games.
Tyler Thornburg lives!
Duvall, Swanson, Rosario, Dickerson, Piña, and Heredia are all off to horrendous starts. Needless to say, that’s too many guys.
The bullpen is not doing so well either. I think two extra pitchers has hurt more than helped.
26 — You may have a point. Seems like when some of these guys pitch once a week or so, they aren’t very sharp.
Rosario is like a left-handed Francoeur with much worse defense. Swings at absolutely everything. Looking like we caught lightning in a bottle with him last postseason.
He’s already at -0.9 bWAR and April isn’t over.
Comeback?
#28
Maybe more like a lefty Joe Carter… he has more power than Frenchy
@29 he doesn’t have more power than rookie Frenchy, who had legit 70 power, but certainly more power than later Frenchy.
Someone needs to show both Rosario and Duvall to a batting cage. That Rosario AB to end the game was about the worst I’ve seen from anyone.
#30
Well, you could easily consider Frenchy’s rookie season a mirage.
After his first year (274 PAs), he never slugged more than .500. In fact, for his career, he finished at .416.
Meanwhile, Jock Pederson hit two long homers today…
Was at today’s game. There’s nothing good going on except for Riley. Arcia is not a major league OF (or player at all really). He’s amazing slow for someone that looks pretty athletic. Three balls hit his way that should’ve been caught, one of them routinely. The play by our backup catcher in the early innings was as good as you’ll ever see. At least it was a nice day. The left starter for the Marlins was filthy. We looked overmatched.
I was also there, and it was a beautiful day. I agree, though, that apart from Riley there wasn’t much to get excited about.
Actually, one other treat at the ballpark is our organist. Mr. Kaminski is always fun. A few choices: “You are my Sunshine” and “Here Comes the Sun” for Soler; “Free Bird” and “Theme from Sesame Street “for Berti; “Theme from Friends” for Wendle; “Theme from The Facts of Life” for Garrett Cooper; and “John Jacob Jingleheimer Smith” for Stallings (there were a lot of kids at the park for this day game). For Aguilar, he played several different songs: “Jesus is Just Alright”; “Stairway to Heaven” and “My Sweet Lord”(right after Here Comes the Sun, so a George Harrison double header).
Braves lost to the Marlins. Hawks lost to the Heat. Atlanta United lost to Miami (Inter Miami CF but whatever). How often does a city have 3 teams that all lose to teams from the same city like that?
That’s gotta be one for the books…
@36/37 if I’ve learned anything from Chip, it’s that we should definitively state that Atlanta losing to Miami in three sports on the same day is the first time that’s happened, no need to qualify that or research it first.
Offense is down bad across the league, so some of the under-performance ought not be a surprise. Acuna will take one of them out of the liner, and it’ll lengthen the lineup right off the bat. We aight.
Did they mess with the ball again this year? I haven’t kept up.
I doubt this is a big deal, but this is the only change I know of: https://www.yardbarker.com/mlb/articles/report_mlb_will_use_humidors_in_all_30_ballparks_in_2022/s1_127_37343068
New thread.
https://bravesjournal.mystagingwebsite.com/2022/04/25/marlins-5-braves-still-struggling/