The Braves lost both games today to the red hot Mets and fell to 5.5 games back.
In the first game, the offense spent most of the game in its usual day game hangover mode, and Jake Odorizzi struggled with his command in his first start with his new team, allowing 9 baserunners and failing to get through the fifth inning. Tyler Matzek and Bryce Elder (up to be the twenty-seventh man) both struggled in relief, giving up 5 runs and putting the game out of reach. The Braves did get 5 runs after the seventh inning to make the score look closer than it was, an 8-5 final.
The second game didn’t go any better. The Braves couldn’t touch Max Scherzer, and the Mets got some infield singles, bloopers falling in, and bad defense to score 4 runs off Max Fried. The Braves had a scare during the 3 run third, as Fried fell on his head after trying to throw a man out at the plate and was slow to get up and appeared dazed. He recovered though and was cleared by the trainer to continue. Travis D’Arnaud did have to leave the game after a collision with Pete Alonso in the sixth, who was initially (and correctly) ruled out, but the call was somehow overturned even though Alonso never touched the plate. Not that it mattered, though, as the Braves only scored 2 runs late against the bullpen and lost by 4 runs.
Spencer Strider goes tomorrow afternoonagainst Jacob DeGrom, as the Braves try to avoid disasterously losing 4 out of 5 and going 6.5 back in the division. A win would keep them a more manageable 4.5 games back.
Let’s hope we skip the Marcel Ozuna turn in the lineup today.
No pressure, Spencer. Go Braves!
My name is Bill Edwards Sports Editor Of The Palm Beach Tribune. The second game of the Double Header played on Saturday August. 6,2022 . The Braves as a whole have literally dropped on their heads. The team has lacked offensive motivation. In this series played August 6th , 2022. They need to get back on track they started only 3.5 games behind the New York Mets. Now today they find themselves 5.5 Games behind the New York Mets. It seems to be a lack of urgency to win games to catch the Mets. Certain players for Instance Ronald Accuna , Marcel Ozuna , and a few key players offense is lacking 😴 Brian Snitker needs to have a team meeting to correct the offense. The pitching is lacking 😑. If the team doesn’t play to win Consistently 😒 they will have a very frustrating time to catch and surpass the New York Mets 🙄 this has been the case through out July. So what I’m saying let’s get it going team. Bill Edwards 😁. Sports Editor Of The Palm coast Tribune in Boyton Beach ⛱️ Florida.
Bill Edwards > Bill Brasky
Bills back!
What the ….. ?
Can someone please explain THAT to me in the context of BravesJournal culture?
Bill Edwards! He once punched a hole in a cow just so he could see who was coming up the road.
@6–a reasonable and fair question. The commenter @3 commented fairly frequently last season, in much the same vein that you see here. We have never known quite what to make of him/it (bot?). This is the first Bill Edwards sighting this season, I believe. Anyway, someone (Rob, was it?) brilliantly compared Bill Edwards to the mythical Bill Brasky in the recurring series of SNL skits in which guys talk about Brasky.
Bill Edwards! The legend returns!
I have a serious question for the thoughtful commenters here. Yesterday, in the recap for Friday’s game, I noted with approval (and with a nod to JonathanF) that a manager during the long regular season must sometimes make decisions for the long term good that lessen the chances of winning a particular game. The best example is not overusing your best relievers, and the need to save them for the highest leverage game situations.
Then in game one yesterday, I found myself questioning Snit’s use of Bryce Elder in the bottom of the 7th. The Braves had just scored two in the top of the 7th to cut the lead to 3. At the time, I thought this game was sufficiently crucial, and not yet totally out of reach, that Snit should use someone other than the worst reliever on the staff. But realistically, you don’t want to burn higher leverage guys when the chances of winning are low. Snit was simply doing what I had praised in my recap, and here in the heat of the moment I was critical. What do y’all think?
For the future, it’s nice to know if Bryce can handle major leaguers (yet) or not.
Better to put him in a losing effort than a tie game.
Right–if they were down by 7 or 8 in the 7th or 8th the game is clearly a losing effort. Might as well see what Elder can do. We have the benefit of hindsight, of course, but the deficit was just three, and as it turns out the Braves rallied for three runs in the 9th. But because Elder gave up three in the 7th, it was indeed a losing effort.
I guess my question is, how far behind should you be when you use your lowest leverage reliever in late innings?
Anderson sent to AAA
Ynoa is a long reliever since the Braves had to work their bullpen hard this series. Tromp is up as TDA isn’t hurt enough to go on the IL, but the Braves don’t want to go with just 1 catcher available.
Actually, it wouldn’t surprise me if Tromp stays, so it frees up Contreras/TDA to DH more. (Without the fear of losing the DH if one of them got hurt and the other had to move to catcher) Heredia hasn’t been very useful.
I strongly disagree with Snits philosophy of not using top relievers in high leverage situations just because you trail by 2-4 runs with your team still having 6-9 outs left. This is especially true in games that carry a two game swing effect. This approach has a detrimental influence on both your offensive strategy and your players hope for establishing a successful comeback. It also tends to reduce pressure on your opponent’s pitchers and their manager’s strategies for the final innings of the game. The unknown circumstances of an upcoming game should not overshadow an immediate(winnable) situation by choosing the worst of your available choices.
Hope Ian is working out his issues at AAA. We need October-Ian back soon enough.
Amen.
I’m not sure Ynoa is a better option than either Elder or Anderson at this point. Maybe fresher is the only consideration. Anyone wanna bet if Anderson even misses a start? As far as Heredia/Tromp goes, meh. With the trade deadline passed, we go with what we got. I’d like to see Yates at some point and pining away for Ozzie now. After this debacle they may be too little too late. We’ll have to rev up for the playoffs from a wild card. Just not our year.
Although the Mets have fared worse against bad teams than we have so there may be some back door help in the future. Baseball is like the tides and our high tide came during our streak against bad teams.
Also, maybe we can get just as lucky against the Mets when we’re at home.
I’m sorry but I can’t help thinking part of the difference this season is Olson vs. Freddie. In most ways they are similar but Freddie has 30 more hits and Olson has nearly 50 more Ks. Trade those two stats and I bet we win several more games. FG has the WAR comparison at Freddie=5.0 and Olson=2.1.
Yeah, pretty sure Ynoa is just an extra arm for the pen.
Anderson can’t come back for 10 days unless someone gets hurt.
@6, in the 23 years of Braves Journal’s existence when Bill Edwards did not post, the team never won a WS. In the only previous year when Bill Edwards did post, the team won the WS. 1-for-1 is a much better record than 0-for-23, so his return may be a good omen.
The beat writers say Jethro is still with the team, though, so they may in fact IL someone with a phantom injury soon.
@21–but the Braves are actually much better this year than they were at the comparable point a year ago. I expect the Braves will finish with a good many more wins than they did a a year ago. The difference is that the Mets are much better.
And it’s true that the Mets’odds of winning the division are better than the Braves right now, but a lead of 5.5 with 49 games to play is hardly insurmountable, especially since the two teams still have 8 head to head games. Of course the Braves will have to play better against the Mets, but odds are they will. Luck does tend to even out. I think overall the two teams are pretty even.
Having said all that, if Scherzer pitches the rest of the way as he did yesterday, and if deGrom is deGrom going forward, they will be very difficult to catch.
Just looked at the schedule, and the Braves have 2 off days this week, and a double header against the Marlins next Saturday. I think Jethro can be used as the 27th man for that doubleheader overriding having to stay down for 10 days rule.
A good pitching coach would have Anderson on a positive path.
Braves lose today “forget about it”.
@10 – I can tell you from my own experience that it’s easy to make a plan for the best results long-term, but in the middle of a game it’s really hard to resist the temptation to throw that out the window and try to win every last single one of them. I respect the people who can do it; I finally got to be mature enough to do it once or twice.
@25 Yes, the Braves are better this year but they would be even better with Freddie.
@8, 9, 23 – I appreciate you humoring and educating me. Love the Brasky reference!
I didn’t think we had that good of a team last year at this time. Still kinda feel the same…maybe we’re arguably worse. Ozuna is subtraction by addition. I miss Joc too.
Anyway, maybe that’s a good sign. We just need to get into the tournament. The Phillies are closer to us than we are to the Mets. Could be a pretty exciting Wild Card finish.
Tigers, Ray’s game. Two ways of doing it.
One of which would never enter some people’s narrow mind.
According to the radio broadcast, Grossman in for Acuña, who has “lower body soreness.”
They didn’t want to play Acuña on this wet grass.
Wow…Olson missed those pitches badly
The Mets’ approach at the plate is miles better than it has been in decades.
In the immortal words of Bill Edwards, Sports Editor Of The Palm coast Tribune in Boyton Beach ⛱️ Florida, “let’s get it going ream.”
The difference in the two teams is hitting approach. Many of our hitters are trying to hit homers with two strikes and the Mets are pesky and trying to put the ball in play
Braves down in 10 pitches, Mets first hitter gets ten pitches and a single…..sighhhhhhh
Why aren’t we challenging Nimmo grabbing Adrianza?
Ozuna is getting to the point that when TDA is healthy one of the catchers should be the DH everyday.
@41 not that I disagree, but TDA hadn’t had an extra base hit in over a month until yesterday’s game.
Our lineup is kinda thin with all the underperforming.
I believe CB Bucknor is today’s home plate umpire.
I know the Mets try to make contact more than the Braves do, and they put the ball in play more, but weak contact shouldn’t generate so many hits. The number of infield hits and bloops they are getting is a matter of luck.
Edit—I typed the above before Alonso just hit that grounder that struck the bag. Jeez.
God is clearly a Mets fan this year.
Luckiest team I’ve ever seen.
Haha, what was that, Tfloyd? An infield hit, a 60mph bloop and now hit off the bag.
I need a break from this BS.
One run probably wins this one anyway. The second run is just gravy
Get Strider out, save the pitches and the innings. Just punt this one.
Edit- here comes Lee
Maybe time to start watching the Wild Card race instead. The Braves currently hold the #4 seed and are 3.5 games up on the Padres and Phillies, who are tied for #5.
This umpire killed us and Strider. I’m not sure any of the runs would have scored if the strikes were strikes and balls were balls.
Are we cursed?
@52 hey, if we used up all our karma to win last year, I don’t really mind being cursed.
A lot of things went right for us in the last 2 1/2 months last season. It was always extremely unlikely to happen again. Besides, as much as some here don’t want to admit it (including me) the Mets are better than us this year. I would imagine this series puts that issue to rest for any objective person. Maybe it will even “run off” some who have stubbornly held otherwise. Heh.
@51
It’s C.B. Bucknor. This is par for the course for him. He’s as bad as Angel Hernandez, but at least he’s nicer about it.
This game is speeding towards patronize-the-sponsors-walk-the-dog territory.
I believe we have 3 guys in the lineup today who are below 0 WAR.
Scherzer + DeGrom is gonna be a helluva tough challenge for whoever they play in the postseason. It’s painful to say it but I think they have to be WS favorites.
Don’t be discouraged, a grand slam will tie it.
If the Braves lose, that will be 6-2 in the last eight games. A genuine ass whooping.
I have been a Braves only fan since 1953 and I will continue to be. The Mets use a professional approach to achieve their sucess. The Braves do not. So when two good teams play each other guess whom wins the most? The all or nothing approach to often results in nothing.
Still a lot of games to enjoy. Than the playoffs.
That Jacob deGrom sure is good at baseball.
Maybe they’ll leave him in to go for the perfect game, and we can get him tired for next week.
Rocco goes crazy. For good reason. Baseball gets worse daily. Those of you who think you know baseball, this is not major league baseball, this is AAAA baseball. Those who call it Major League baseball should be embarrassed by their lack of accuracy.
Loosing 4 of 5 to Mets really set us back … 2 of 5 would have got us out 4 1/ 2 games out .. no excuse for our top hitters the get schooled like that and compared to all the blunders in field and base paths … 19 strikeouts today .. wow .. very bad plate approach .. maybe they were afraid not to swing since the worst ump in baseball was behind plate .. how the hell is he still a mlb umpire ????
A team simultaneously in a funk ran into a buzzsaw. Unfortunately, the buzzsaw is ahead of us in the division, so that’s a double whammy.
Just get TF away from the Mets, for crying out loud. And I can’t help but think they’re in the dog days of summer, and they’re just tired and struggling. I feel for these guys. Day off tomorrow, 2 @BOS, day off, 3 @MIA, then the Mets come to town again for 4 games. Got a little over a week to get out of this funk. Tromp and Contreras should probably get TdA from behind the plate a little bit. I almost wish TdA was hurt just a teensy bit more on that play so he could have gotten 10 days off. Get Ozuna out of the lineup a little more often. Ian to AAA was the right move. I know it’s wishful thinking, but I think we need Soroka both back and pitching well for this rotation to have a shot at the division.
Recapped