Sean Murphy is the second catcher named Murphy in Braves history. If he keeps having games with two doubles and a walkoff homer, he will be the most famous Murphy in Braves history…. but he needs another hundred games like tonight. (I looked up Murphy, Braves Hero on the Internet for a picture to use, and this is the one I found. I think it’s the other one.)

This game started out as a surprising pitching duel between Bryce Elder and Graham Ashcraft. There were some minor threats, but no scoring until Austin “Roadrunner” Riley scored from first on a gutsy send from Ron Washington on a Sean Murphy double in the bottom of the sixth. Elder pitched into the 7th, hittable but scoreless. He is, so far, of the 5th starter candidates, the only one of the three to have not yet blotted his copybook.

The Braves scored another in the bottom of the 7th on a wild pitch, but Nick Anderson gave it back in the top of the 8th. The Braves regained the insurance in the bottom of the 8th on a two-out single from forgotten superstar Orlando Arcia that scored Ozzie Albies. A.J. Minter, however, hit a roadblock. A leadoff single was followed by a near-homer and a bloop single to tie the game and give Minter his first blown save of the year.

Extra innings found Dylan Lee allowing the Manfred Man to score and give the Reds their first lead. But he “earned” the ‘win” when Murphy hit the first pitch of the bottom of the 10th beyond the center field wall.

Sean Murphy had two doubles as well, as did I before the game started which might account for some eccentricities in the writing. The Braves started an outfield of Ronald Acuña, Kevin Pillar, and Eli White. One of them is a high wattage presence. The other two are insulators.

Diplomacy

Jonathan India is an obvious candidate for the All-UN team, along with Hugh Poland, Jim Canada, Brian Jordan, Ty France, Charles England, Tim Ireland, Blas Monaco, Mark Portugal, Frank Brazill, and Rich Chiles. (I’m sure I’m forgetting some people, so comments welcome. Critical to remember: first names don’t count. But, as you can tell from the last two, I’m willing to accept a stretch here and there.) The Reds also have Reiver Sanmartin, but neither Sint Maarten nor Saint Martin are countries. You have to draw the line somewhere.

Go Wildcats

The Reds’ left fielder Will Benson is the third player from my high school to have reached the major leagues; his father was a basketball star at Westminster in my sister’s class. Another Westminster player to have reached the majors, Gordon Beckham, also had a father (one of the better quarterbacks in South Carolina history) in my sister’s class. The final Wildcat pro, Frank Lankford, has no apparent connection to my sister at all.

Statistical Oddity of the Day

In the first inning, both teams went single-walk-double play-strikeout. This leads to a number of potential questions, but I can only do so much research, drink, and watch the game at the same time. What I can tell you is that there are 336 half-innings in Retrosheet history with that exact pattern going in to this year. However, never ever in the same game, much less in the same game and inning. History.