My 2 to 5% Nordic ancestry (no DNA test, just by family genealogy) has never inclined me to study in detail the Nordic pantheon. Nor has Marvel’s reuse and twisted use of the characters therein. Nevertheless, I know that yesterday, the traditional 4th day of the week, was named in honor of him ordinarily known as Wodin. This is my first year of Wednesday recaps and most have seemed like recraps. Part of that is that Wednesday usually has the second highest NUMBER of day games (and 2022 Braves need to wear shades and brighten their daytime playing future). Thursday may have the second highest PERCENTAGE, but there are a lot of “off” Thursdays. Not many “off” Wednesdays.
The title references the reverence that the creative geniuses in that major economic hub have for the 2 letters “et” frequently followed by “s.” Jets. Nets. Mets. Maybe the simplicity of the 4 letter word is necessary for their denizens. Also, there is a remarkable affinity for words with 4 letters there.
Jake “Odor Is He” kind of wears this one on his back. Two solo homers in inning one. Another 2 run homer in inning 2. Meanwhile, the Braves faced Mad Max Scherzer. As Hoyt would say “Not too good!” And, in the 3rd, the Braves broke through. The promise of the inning was dimmed in that with runners 2nd and 3rd, Dansby got a sac fly for 1. Then, Riley was struck out on a BAD 3rd strike call and Snitker remembered his “Booby Cox Rule # __” and got himself tossed to keep Riley from getting tossed. Yay for Snit.
Well, the Odor stayed around to start the 6th. Single, double (run). So, Weiss (I guess) went to the Death Star. The Death Star has seemed like the attacks by rebel forces were causing some kinks in the world destroying ray. Well, last night it looked like the Death Star was back fully functional. 3 straight outs to end that problem.
After Yates gave up a solo homer to Starling Marte to make it 6 to 1, the Mets win probability was probably 98%. But, Scherzer hit the wall in the bottom half. strike out, walk, single, walk, pulled Scherzer with one out and the bases loaded. Adam Ottavino came in and that worked out fine for the Braves. Vaughn Grissom hit the ground ball they were looking for, but then he was called out at first only to be overturned. So, one was in. Then, to rub salt in the Mets’ wound, Grissom stole second. (I have a feeling the Mets fans are really not going to like Grissom). Then, “pretty good pick up” Robbie Grossman homered so it is 6 to 5. And, after that, Weiss, (Snitker illegally) or somebody took a little too much license with “saving relief arms.
Most of the time I agree with the “it is just 1 game out of 162” thing. But when it is head to head with somebody in front of you in your division by a few games and a chance to get rid of one of those, it isn’t quite “World Series managing” time, but it is at least half way to there. Dylan Lee got through the 8th. Pepper Sprout let them get 3 in the 9th. Why was Pepper Sprout pitching there? This offense has been on fire, and they came back in the bottom and got 2. So, if Pepper Sprout or somebody had put up a zero in 9, we would have won a game started by Scherzer against Odor Is He that we trailed 6 to 1 going into the bottom of 7. Hmm?
Need the win today to be able to cut the lead. Over the past week and a half, yesterday pythag had us out by a half game (this morning, by 1.5, rather than 4.5 “real” games.) And, that is based solely on runs. Mets are 9-2 in extra innings and Braves are 4-5. Unless a team has a noticeably bad bullpen, that should be very close to actual winning percentage. So, with a slightly below mediocre first month in the actual standings, we see we can and should take these guys.
This comment is going to sound like horn tootin’, but I really don’t intend for it to.
Back in the dark ages, aka like 3-4 years ago, you’ll recall that I was hard on the org during the rebuild and I’d say things like HRs win games, and Ks pitching win games. I was bullish on punting defense and just hitting HRs.
I strongly contend that the Braves from a 30K ft big picture overview have gotten ‘good’ because of exactly that.
The Braves are currently 2nd in MLB in HRs. 2nd in OPS. 1st in Ks by pitchers.
It’s not a coincidence that this rapid rise has been in conjunction with these things. You cannot win in modern MLB if you don’t hit HRs and if your pitchers don’t K batters and prevent HRs.
The Braves are great right now because not only are these things where they need to be, they’re also 7th in fielding percentage… (gravy) 🙂
Odor Is He. I’ll never be able to see it any other way.
Chief likes home runs and strikeouts.
Same!
Judging by the behaviors of the 30 front offices and my perusing of Facebook, I’m pretty sure the only people at this point that don’t like power pitching and power hitting are boomers.
No offense, boomers!
@ 5,
Rob,
You think the Royals followed the memo? Maybe it’s 29 front offices.
I came back from the bathroom and it was 2 – 0 and my first thought was “Not too good!”
No offense taken, Rob, but don’t forget that we Boomers grew up with Earl Weaver and the three-run homer.
Simple. Snit has not a clue when it comes to the most important part of his job. Management of the pitching staff.
Those of you who wish to disagree pick an other subject. I AM CORRECT.
Best Rock and Roll band Stones
Most talented band tie The Band and Pink Floyd
Best band live. All the above plus
Procol Harum Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band U-2 Lumineers RATM
Janis Joplin and whatever band
Best car Porsche best faucets Dornbrocht
(probably spelled incorrectly) best root beer Bulldog best golf clubs Ping
Come on Atlanta prove you have some backbone. We love you despite. If I were perfect I would ask them to be.
1953 was a great year. Dedicated myself to the Milwaukee Braves and Green Bay Packers. Won the summer county championship in baseball. I was 7-0 that year. We had three very good pitchers. Hit 426. My first of 18 MVP’s through my senior year. I owe that to great teammates, excellent coaching, and Mr. Joe Springer who was a superb trainer and Bobby Springers dad. Bobby was a pitcher and a fine all around athlete. Mr.Springer cleared space, put up a backstop and provided us with a ballfield basically in our backyards. We played every minute possible. The Parkers put up a basket on a light pole, and built a high jump pit.
No cell phone. No tablet. No TV. We played, and played, and played. We had major snow ball fights (no aiming for the head). Also we had no fast food joints. So we were in shap, mentally, physically and emotionally. We were athletes.
More than enough.
Enjoy the next four days and beyond
How’d you feel about this from Pravda?
https://www.mlb.com/braves/news/braves-8-game-winning-streak-ends-in-loss-to-mets
Down 6-5 going into the ninth, Snit went to Jackson Stephens, who has had a fine year but is somewhere around #5 or #6 in the bullpen depth chart. He clearly is uncomfortable inserting his closer when the team is down, and he may also have been trying to protect Minter and Iglesias, who pitched the day before. Matzek, Yates, and Lee had already pitched in the game, which meant that McHugh was kind of the only other option, beyond Tarnok, who just got called up.
I totally get the desire to protect relievers’ arms over a long season and not just burn everyone out on a midweek game. On the other hand… a late-inning rally against our division rival certainly seems like the wrong time to take the foot off the gas, and “we’re not going to chase something when we’re down” does not seem like a good blanket decision principle. Of course we should sometimes chase something when we’re down, like when it’s an important game against a close rival where we’re only down a run and we have the last at-bat. Snit has demonstrated that he’s able to be pretty flexible in general and I don’t think he just mindlessly goes by the book (unlike, say, Fredi), but his unwillingness to use his best bullpen arms when he’s down a run in late innings is one of the most frustrating things about him.
Mark Bowman’s clearly trying to prebut me from saying this, but I think it was the wrong call.
How about y’all?
I’m definitely going to a Rage concert with Ed.
Snit managed the postseason differently. In this game, devision-leading rival, you gotta go with your best available reliever and play for the win. Of course, had Jansen come in and kept deficit at one, Diaz would have come back out again. Then again, that might mean he would not have been available today.
@11 and I wanna drive in his Porsche.
Last night’s game was winnable and to take the first 3 would’ve been huge. Jackson Stephens, who I’ve actually enjoyed a lot as his arsenal is so different than any other pitcher, would’ve been my 4th or 5th choice in a 1 run game. It’s a team you’re trying to catch and you’ve built the best bullpen in the majors. If you don’t use it down 1 in a pivotal division game, when will you? I think I know the answer and I don’t like the answer. No excuse for not going with your best last night.
If EdK is a bot, I’d say we’re about 2 years from a bot writing the next great American novel.
Some interesting pieces over on The Athletic. DOB with a great piece on MH2 and the extension and Eno Sarris on the pitchers with the biggest improvement of “stuff”. Kyle Wright is second.
Hey Snit, what if…and hear me out on this…you shift your template over by a single run and have your A guys pitch when we’re anywhere from up three to down one instead of the current setup which is anywhere from up four to tied? Stop pitching the best guys when we’re up four and start pitching them when down one. I mean, it would be better if he went situation to situation but if he just made this one tweak to the system he’s clearly using, it would be way better.
Having said all that, we might have actually weirdly had a better chance of beating the new guy down four than beating Diaz down one, so I’m not sure it mattered in this case.
Yeah, Nick’s last point is right. We did the baseball version of Rope-A-Dope… fall behind so far that the Mets pulled Diaz. It almost worked.
Oh, and I’m a Boomer HR and K guy as well. Like Remy said, it worked for Earl Weaver (except when he played the Mets in 1969.)
I feel like we punted the game before it started, so using our lesser relievers during higher leverage innings was on brand. I don’t understand using Matzek down 4 runs though, unless they just wanted to get him a low-stress inning to build him back up. I guess I can buy that.
Agree that Diaz would’ve most likely set us down in the 9th in about 3 minutes, so it’s kind of futile to second guess things. A two inning save might rule him out for tonight though, so maybe that’s a valid point. The Mets clearly were going to be fine with that though – all they really needed here is one game, and they got it.
deGrom tonight and the Astros this weekend is pretty much the same as the playoff gauntlet. Looking forward to it.
@19 I felt the same way about punting the game before it started and we almost messed around and won it. I feel like Odorizzi is Tommy Milone-ish
Side note: Can you imagine the New York media and Mets fans if we come back and win the game on whatisface after Showalter burns Diaz because we took a 4-run lead? I started laughing to myself just thinking about it during the ninth. Today would possibly have been the most delicious Mets World freak out of all-time.
The good thing about baseball is that we may know as early as tonight if keeping the main relievers rested yesterday was a good idea.
I’m a boomer, and I’ll confess I prefer a low scoring run environment. I enjoy a 2-1 game more then a 7-6 slugfest.
Having said that, I think the Braves have constructed their offensive roster very well in the current offensive environment for MLB. Earl Weaver was right, even in the different offensive era of the 60’s and 70’s, that: outs are precious, so don’t waste them on stupid things like sac bunts or hitting behind the runner; getting on base is a fundamental skill, so players who walk a lot are underrated; and yes, regularly popping the long ball, especially with runners on, is a formula for winning baseball.
Szymborski analyzed the Harris extension on FanGraphs today. With Zips still heavily weighted to Harris minor league stats, Zym still projects Harris to get a little over 3 WAR and back down to around 2.5 in the last year. By next June, we will know if ZIPS is still shortchanging Harris.
There’s a lot riding on the outcome of the game tonight.
https://www.mlb.com/braves/video/alex-anthopoulos-on-ice-cream?t=t144-default-vtp
The difference between deGrom and Fried (or anyone really) is vast
Better get that fast ball down Fried …
@26–that difference, at least through 3 innings tonight, is two runs. I don’t mean to be a smartass, but deGrom just proved he’s human. He hung sliders in 2 strike counts to both Swanson and Riley. To their credit, they got good wood on them. Our lineup is better than the Mets.
Yeah I’ll own that so far. But objectively his stuff is just otherworldly.
You’re right about deGrom’s stuff. And my being a smartass just came back to bite me. The difference tonight is back to zero.
Self inflicted by Max. Lollipop curve to McNeil and pitching behind Canha the whole at bat cost him the lead
I enjoyed watching that.
Harris was 0-2 with 2 k’s against deGrom; thanks Buck.
I love our 3rd best reliever as our closer. That hit by Lindor is essentially a double
YEAH!!!
Yes!
Get some ice cream, boys. Good game, good win.
Greetings from Key West, Fla….
Now that was a ballgame.
Great series…3 out of 4 and it easily could have been a sweep. Did what we had to do do now let’s go beat the Stros
Great game. Great series. Ice cream for all.
I just heard Vaughn interviewed. Not only has he played like a 10 year veteran so far, he talks like one. He seems to be intense but also calm and humble.
Recapped
https://bravesjournal.mystagingwebsite.com/2022/08/18/degrom-is-degryboed-braves-3-mets-2/
Speed kills. What could have, what should have been. No walks. I joy to watch two PITCHERS. And the young dudes. DAMN
Better buckle up your chin straps, a better team is arriving