Oh my.
It’s hard to make of what was going on in the Colosseum last night. Both starting pitchers really struggled out of the shoot. I’m really not sure what was going on with Kyle Wright. His command wasn’t horrible, and his movement was excellent. His velocity wasn’t bad. But neither starting pitcher were missing bats the first few innings.
Atlanta definitely had some luck. After two solid singles by Ronald Acuna Jr. and Dansby Swanson, a walk to Matt Olson, and William Contreras’ sac fly, Vaughn Grissom’s cue shot brought home two runs as it ate up the first baseman. Matt Olson’s home run was hit hard off the bat, but it was a line drive that just kept carrying and barely made it over.
Sean Murphy’s and Seth Brown’s homers for Oakland were also a little cheap. The ball was just flying out, bottom line.
So Kyle Wright got torched: 4 IP, 5 H, 8 ER, 3 BB, 4 K’s. He left with the bases loaded in the 5th, and Dylan Lee proceeded to nail the rare Triple Grybo.
After 18 runs were scored in the first 5 innings, Atlanta scored the go-ahead run in the 6th to make it 10-9, and then that was it. Jesse Chavez put out Lee’s mess and pitched a scoreless inning, then Raisel Iglesias, AJ Minter, and Kenley Jansen all pitched scoreless innings of their own. All 4 guys K’ed a couple apiece. Dang.
Matt Olson made a nice play to his left. He seems to be really good going to his left.
We’re tied with the Muts! What do the kids say? LFG.
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/fd/29/c9/fd29c93ea2d1a9c1a33d90a1f1abed1e.gif
Thank you, Rob.
I enjoyed last thread’s stathead discussion. Counting stats diminish short career other worldly performers like Feller, Koufax, Dizzy Dean, Herb Score, James Rodney Richards, inter alia. Steve Avery dazzled for too brief a moment, and Mark Fidrych was on another plane until he wasn’t.
The machinery is subject to war, arthritis, over use and line drives to the noggin.
Go Braves. And thanks for today’s early start.
Quote from a supporter of the NY Metropolitans: “Being a Mets fan is like being in an abusive relationship.”
The overreaction has begun…
On the other hand, it is miraculous to watch old-timers (and moderately old-timers) have some of the best seasons of their career — Verlander at 39, Goldschmidt a few days from his 35th birthday, Arenado at 31, and, I’m sorry but proud to say, Freddie Freeman at 32. The best story in all of baseball this year may be Albert Pujols; the next-best story may be the man who’s literally half his age, Michael Harris II.
What’s better than baseball? Nothing, that’s what.
Aaaand Max Scherzer goes on IL…
It is crazy to know that Pujols now has an OPS at .857. The last time his OPS was over. 800 was when he was 32 in 2012.
Mets are going through some stuff….
@5 And Marte may have a broken finger. The Mets are an old team and Sept is a long month.
Ruh roh.
@7 Dang, you hate to see it. Just hate it.
“His command wasn’t horrible…”
Uh…it was worse than horrible. He was missing by 3 or 4 feet, throwing behind guys, etc. It’s never been a question about stuff or movement, it’s always been about location/command with Kyle. He’s been fantastic with location for the vast majority of his starts, but last night it just wasn’t there for whatever reason. His breaking ball, in particular, was backing up more times than not. Let’s chalk it up to jetlag, unfamiliar mound, etc. Next outing will be better.
That was definitely a crazy game. One that, had we lost, we’d be agonizing over for the rest of the month. Heck I’m still thinking about the games we lost to the Reds at the beginning of the season, lol.
@11 Fair enough.
The Mets have a lot of talented starting pitchers, but lots of injury/fade risks there:
– Taijuan Walker had a 2.66 ERA in the first half last year and a 7.13 ERA in the 2nd half. This year it’s 2.55 / 6.25.
– Carlos Carrasco was a very, very good pitcher 2015-18, but has had some very serious health issues since then that limited him to about 200 IP total between 2019 – 21. So far this year he’s missed a month with a hammy strain and just came off the IL with a left oblique strain.
– Max Scherzer has been excellent and durable for pretty much his entire career but he’s getting up there in age (38) and has begun having more health issues, notably the dead arm he suffered in the 2021 playoffs and, obviously, the oblique issue bothering him now.
– Jacob DeGrom is basically unfathomably great when he’s healthy (which he is now, after rehabbing for most of 2022), but even with his “clean” mechanics it feels like only a matter of time before he’s hurt again.
– Chris Bassitt has been healthy and good. No real injury or performance concerns of note.
– David Peterson is a very good 6th starter (3.32 ERA supported by peripherals).
Mets are reeling for the moment, sure, but the schedule still favors them dramatically.
Tylor Megill is coming back for them too, and other than some homer happiness he’s a very good back-end starter. Guillorme’s a big piece for them, and he’s coming back at the same time. And Scherzer’s eligible to come back on September 19. I expect he will, and I expect he’ll be Max Scherzer. If Marte loses time, that could be major. He’s such a good player and one of the bigger threats in the lineup.
They’re too good of a team to be totally derailed by this, and Showalter really does seem to have given them a different vibe. I expect this to come down to the wire. Good thing our team is deep, well-rounded, and gelling at exactly the right time.
It’s basically a 26 game season now. Naturally, my money is on the Braves. This team is battle-tested. The Mets are not.
@15 Yes. Expecting to be toe-to-toe with the Mets until the last weekend.
I actually enjoy being in the hunt like we have for the past couple of months.
Any loss the Mets get on their remaining schedule we need to take advantage of
Just my opinion. Better than baseball as it stands.
Concert at Red Rocks.
NCAA Wrestling Championships
Scuba Diving at Trunk Bay
Driving your Porsche on the Nuremberg track
Sunset in Tasmania
Dinning at Royster and The Till
Walking the streets of Copenhagen
Years ago I would agree, few things were better than baseball. Now I could list hundreds. Game has suffered. Actually the planet has just as much.
But we are united in our love for the Braves in whatever form. And I will never devalue your opinion.
Oh man, I already have 2 Pitching Ninja t-shirts (a Vandy one and a Braves WS Champs one), but the new “Quadzilla” (his nickname for Strider) edition is really tempting me.
Doug Gottlieb apologized and recanted his claim that “Casey Close never told Freddie Freeman about the Braves final offer.”
https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/34542980/radio-host-doug-gottlieb-admits-made-false-claim-freddie-freeman-contract-talks-atlanta-braves
I’m going to go to the Mets/Braves game on 10/1 & wanted to open it up to other Braves Journalers. Anyone interested, shoot me an email: cothrjr at gmail dot com
Sheesh…The Scoop Syndrome…probably more prevalent in the social age than ever before. I don’t know.
But Doug Gottlieb could supply Waffle House restaurants in Georgia for a year – – given all the egg on his face.
How that guy still has a job, I have no idea… re: Gottlieb
@20 Thanks, Big D. I ordered the Quadzilla shirt.
So far, I’m going to get to meet John Adcox and Timo on October 1st. I’ll wait until this weekend to order tickets, but would love to meet more!
No help from the Pirates in Game 1 of their DH . . .
@27 and it’s DeGrom v. [Undecided] in the nightcap, which… uhhh… I think makes the Mutts favored to win that game as well. But it’s baseball so you never know.
What is going on with the braves starters in Oakland?
Someone speculated last night that this mound is a pile of dung.
@29 Maybe it does have something to do with the mound?
@30, 31
Yeah, it could be that, or just the weather there giving a different feel on the grip of the balls…
Sad to see one of the worst offenses in MLB teeing off on them
Good execution mentally and physically
brings good results. Doing so varies with all of us, especially athletes (?).
@19. That’s a good list EdK.
Some combination of the fact that it’s very dry out there and you’re playing one of the worst teams in baseball in front of like 1500 people, I should imagine. I don’t think it’s supernatural. Blaming the mound seems pretty cheap, as well, IMO.
And Strider only had one bad inning, also.
Yeah, whatever happened in the first inning, he has definitely figured it out.
And how bout those rookies? Where would the braves be without them?
Home plate ump appears to be particularly shitty. Or maybe this is just the norm these days.
DANSBY!
I would love for Chip to explain how striking out 16 guys over 106 pitches in eight innings is more tiring than striking out fewer guys with the same number of pitches and innings. Because he sure seems to think so.
Imagine if Ozuna got really hot for two months.
With a 4 run lead let’s see if we can avoid using Mintglesiajansen.
This is more like it
@40. Jansen looks unavailable.
Some relievers are perfect for 4 run leads.
34 Uncle Sam allowed me to travel many countries. Than there is my love for music and architecture.
My thoughts on Harris and Grissom.
Harris-I was thinking good defense. 270 average. So much better.
Grissom-I thought he would struggle. New position. Big league pitching. Every time I think he will be on his way to 250, damn the dude says #$%^ %^. I love hearing it. Amazing, truly amazing.
Both big pluses. Both ballplayers.
Both catchers + offensively work on defense
Olsen –
Albies- could be one
Swanson+ ball player
Riley+ ball player
Acuna- could be one
Ozuna might end up a +
Rosario and the rest-
Fried+ ball player
Wright+ ball player
Strider+ maybe
Morton+- ball player
Anderson-
Relievers you never know from day to day
Most are not
All the Braves can do is take care of their business. These bad starts need to be addressed.
Francis tonight. Only Americana left in the mens.
Pretty incredible to see this team go 63-24 over it’s last 87 games. 54% of a complete season. .724 winning percentage. That’s a 117 win full season pace. With the rookie additions and return to health of some contributors it’s not crazy to think this really is the team we have. And we have not seen Soroka yet. The playoff roster could get even stronger. I’m sure JonathanF or someone can easily tell us the best half season or more stretches of Braves play. This has to rank near the top all time.
Anything can happen from here on out. But I don’t think there’s a single question this team hasn’t answered.
@44 At the time, the ’93 stretch run was the best for any team since the late ’40’s (Cardinals).
UCL surgery for Huascar Ynoa. Get well soon, kid.
The best record in any span of 87 games belongs to the 1906 Cubs, who had a stretch (four overlapping stretches, actually) of 74-12-1. The 1927 Yankees had a stretch of 70-17. The 2017 Dodgers went 68-19, as did the 2001 A’s. The 2000 Mariners, 1997 and 1998 Yankees had 67-20 stretches. So 63-24 is really good, but far from historic.
As far as our franchise goes, and ignoring streaks that cross year boundaries, the 1914 Miracle Braves had a 65-18 stretch (with a few ties) and the 2002 team had a 63-24 stretch, several actually. The first went from 5/2/2002-8/9/2002. There were some better stretches which started in 1993 and carried over into 1994.
The Keith Meister…doing his surgeries…
@46, 48. Thanks!!
@49 Keeeeeith.
Yeah, so here we all were, having a perfectly pleasant evening, and then the team says that, oh, by the way, Ynoa went under the knife and is out all of 2023.
@49
Had to go back and watch this.
The Stinglehoffer!
It looks like DeGrom is learning how to win. If he can convince the Mets to score 10 runs every time he pitches, his won/loss record will improve dramatically. We are now .5 games back, but I still like our chances. Of course it doesn’t help that we play the Mariners and the Mets play the Marlins this weekend.
Strider righting the ship after the first and going another 5 in dominant fashion was almost as impressive as the 16K.
Does anyone have information on Luis De Avila down in Rome? He is have a very nice season as a 21-year old lefty.
Also Salinas has had much better results in his last few games. For the season, he now has 175K in 102 IP (incl Augusta).
Strider is definitely beyond his years. As a matter of fact, he has put up Cy Young type stats over his last 12, now 13 starts. Here is a quote from MLBTR before yesterday’s game, over his last 12 games he’s had, “10 of 12 starts in which he’s allowed two or fewer runs. Over that time, Strider has a 2.15 ERA and surrendered only a .176/.233/.258 slash line. He’s struck out nearly 40% of batters faced while only walking 6.1% of opponents.
recapped.
Watching the condensed game, I noticed a couple of things. First of all, he was clearly varying his fastball velocity — I saw it anywhere from 96 to 100. He was actually gaining velocity as the game went on; it seemed like he intentionally took a little off his fastball to regain feel as he was battling back in the second inning, which was cool to see.
The other thing is, his slider is clearly continuing to evolve. The slider in the 16-K game appeared to have a lot more horizontal sweep than I’d seen before. Yesterday’s slider seemed to have a lot more 12-6 drop. In his PitchingNinja interview, Strider talked about how his primary focus is on the arm action and on tunneling the slider with the fastball, and basically figuring the shape would take care of itself. And as he’s continued to develop consistency the movement has absolutely improved all year, from where I would say his slider looked okay to not great earlier in the year, to now, to my eyes, it looks absolutely filthy.
What did you guys see? What do you think?