The Atlanta Braves/Miami Marlins played a game, but let’s not go there quite yet…
So in 2021 the Braves sorta set the record for most games alternating W-L in MLB history. (It depends on how you treat a discontinued game.) https://bravesjournal.com/2021/07/29/alternating-current-braves-6-mets-3/ (I apologize for anyone who wants to go back and read these old posts, because something happened to the character set in the transition.)
In 2022, the Braves went as long as any team ever went without ever winning or losing three in a row. https://bravesjournal.com/2022/05/20/streak-interrupted/
But 2023 has started out different.The Braves have won 6 out of 7 and eight in a row, but have also lost three in a row and four in a row (going into tonight.) And when you think about streaky teams, tfloyd and I naturally have our minds cast back to 1982. That team was in the news at the start of the season, when Tampa Bay tied their record of 13-0 to start the season. (Yeah, yeah, the 1987 Brewers as well.)
But 13-0 was literally just the start of that roller coaster. To start with, they followed the 13 wins in a row with five losses in a row. They put together another couple of 6 game win streaks in June and early July. On July 29th they had a 9 game lead (over the Padres… the Dodgers were another game-and-a-half back).
Then, it fell apart. From July 30th-August 18th, our boys turned in an astonishing 3-27 at which point they were 4 games behind the Dodgers. This is why I always get a pained expression when someone says about some team: “Jeez. If they just go 0.500 the rest of the season they’ll still have 93 wins…” or whatever. Going 0.500 is not a right; it’s a privilege.
But then it fell back together. They then won 6 in a row, 9 of the next 10 and 13 of the next 15. They were back up by 2.5 and then had another 4 game losing streak. They played up-and-down for the rest of the season, backing into the NL West title after a loss when the Dodgers were dispatched by Joe Morgan’s Giants.
2021 proved you can play indifferently for five months and still win a World Series. 1982 proved that you can play fantastically for a month-and-a-half and horribly for a month-and-a-half and still win a pennant. But both seasons proved that baseball has a really long season. So far, we’re having another one. (The picture at the head illustrates ups and downs.)
Now to the Atlanta Braves/Miami Marlins Game
Spencer Strider is a stud. Frankly, after you’ve said that there’s not a lot more analysis needed. I have a technical term for watching Spencer Strider pitch. Wow. He set a Braves record tonight for the most consecutive games with nine or more strikeouts, passing John Smoltz. That’s kind of a weird record, but after all the statistical crap I calculate, I shouldn’t complain. Phil Niekro had nine strikeouts or more 42 times, but he spread them around his career. Bunching them up too much is show-off-y. Strider took a perfect game into the 7th, when a Matt Olson boot put a baserunner aboard, and then gave up a couple of hits in the eighth to spoil the no-hitter.
Still, though, no team has ever won a baseball game without scoring. I did a full search of the Retrosheet database to confirm this, Or, as Skip Caray used to say when the other team scored first: “No problem. We were going to have to score to win this game anyway.” (For the mathematicians among my readership, the 1-0 game on Wednesday points out the flaw in this logic.) The Braves botched a good scoring opportunity in the second, mostly by allowing Marcell Ozuna to be in the lineup with men on 2nd and 3rd with nobody out.
It turns out, though, that home runs still count. Home runs from Sean Murphy, two by Sam Hilliard, Eddie Rosario and Austin Riley gave the Braves a Rietsma-proof 8-0 lead, with three more scoring on a Keystone Kops play in the Marlins outfield in the 8th.
Cringe Inducing Confession Department
So I was out for a few Bourbons this evening before the game. If this comes as a surprise to you, welcome to Braves Journal. My waitress introduced herself saying her name was Brandy. Now, cringe-wise, what is worse than a a 67 year old guy telling a twenty-something waitress at the end of the meal, for what is undoubtedly the 47,000th time of her young life: “Thanks. you’re a fine girl. What a good wife you would be.” The only thing that redeems it ever-so-slightly is that I was with my wife at the time. I am only slightly more ashamed that Greg Maddux was on Sunday when Sid Bream said that he used to pee on other players in the shower. Come to think of it, he’s in the Hall of Fame — he’s probably not embarrassed at all. Good for him.
Complete Digression
When Brandy “saw its raging glory” was she talking about the sea or some part of the sailor who abandoned her? These are the sorts of questions that occupy me until there is some scoring in the game.
Anecdotes
Thinking about the 1982 season, I am not going to repeat either of my two favorite Braves anecdotes, the ones about Rufino Linares or Dale Murphy. Maybe another day. This is one nobody knows. Joe Torre, the Braves’ manager in 1982 was in his second year as the Braves everyday catcher in 1966, when the Braves came to Atlanta. Joe Torre was fat and slow…. but mostly fat. The anecdote comes from my Uncle Gerald, who told the ten-year-old me: “The only way Joe Torre could steal second would be if they put a pizza on second and they planned on him stealing mouth first.” My Uncle Gerald might not remember that line, but I’ve never forgotten it, even though I’ve had no chance to reuse it…. until tonight.
Statistical Anomaly of the Day
Chipper Jones is 51 today. He’s never been 51 before at any time in MLB history.
OK. That’s not all that anomalous. I had a much more interesting statistical anomaly until the bottom of the eighth when the Braves scored three runs on a Marlins miscue. Up until then, all eight runs had scored on homers. That ruined the calculation I spent two innings working up. Maybe another day. Oh, what the heck. the record for most runs scored by a team in a game, all scored on homers, is this game in which the Brewers scored 14, all on home runs.
We have had some great recaps in the past, but I can’t remember any of this entertaining! It is my hope that you were still a little drunk when you wrote this!
Let’s just call it “loose.”
Great as always, JonathanF. One of the mot common memes (though they didn’t call it that) about Torre when he was a Brave was that he was fat. Was he really? Did he lose weight when they traded him to the Cards? I can’t remember. He could always hit, though.
The comment to the waitress is indeed cringeworthy. Not least because the Looking Glass song by itself is quite cringe inducing. And now you’ve implanted that stupid song as an ear worm and I can’t get rid of it!
Torre did get into a fitness plan when he went to the Cardinals and did lose weight. By “look” I would say 20 to 30 pounds.
Great recap Jonathan F. May the remaining schedule be played much the same way. Overwhelming offense and defense.
Someday, when dreams come true, I’m going to sit at a table with JonathanF and T Floyd and just listen.
Some day.
Thank you, JF.
No. Thank you coop.
I have not only used the “fine girl” line on a waitress named Brandy, I was once introduced to a Presbyterian minister named John Wesley and blurted out “You should have been a Methodist.” Unfortunately there was no hole nearby to crawl into.
Another anecdote about Torre from 1982: The organist in Pittsburgh used to play “Lady of Spain” when Torre visited the mound, and it visibly annoyed him. Even at the time, Pittsburgh seemed an unlikely place to make fun of someone’s ethnic background, but anything to get under the opposing team’s skin, I guess.
Hesitating to ask this, but does anybody else almost feel sorry for Ozuna when the boos rain down? He brought it on himself, but it’s still a sad spectacle, being hated by your team’s fanbase.
You’re a fine writer. What a good recapper you would be.
1982 was insane.
An argument (of sorts) has erupted on Twitter regarding Ozuna. A tweeter essentially stated that the Braves have lost 5 games of which Ozuna was starting and it’s highly unlikely that he caused them to lose. Here was my argument:
•The Braves are scoring 5.09 runs/game.
•Ozuna is responsible for 4 of them in 63 PAs.
•That’s a 6.3% chance per PA of him either collecting an RBI or scoring a run.
•At 5.09 runs/game, 117 runs and 76 RBIs (excluding the 35 runs/RBI that scored the hitter via HR), Braves hitters have been collectively responsible in some way for 193 scores, whether scoring themselves, or driving someone in.
193/889 total PAs= An average 21.2% chance of scoring per PA.
Ozuna’s results for the year: 6.3% chance. Less than 1/3 of the average. If he was JUST average (which he’s responsible for dragging down) across his 63 PAs, he would be responsible for 13-14 runs already, instead of 4.
It seems pretty clear to me that AA thinks that the Braves as constituted are going to make the playoffs, and it won’t be particularly close enough to worry about a regular season game or five, and that he will take his chances on the crapshoot once there. That is really the only way to explain why there’s been no effort to improve in some areas where adding almost anyone else would be an improvement.
It’s not what I, as an experienced internet rando would do, but as far as plans go, there could be worse.
Rusty S, that sounds about right. I think, as an addendum, that corporate has let AA know that it won’t eat 38 million, at least not yet. Maybe if we are down a few games at the all star break. Even then, my guess is that Ozuna won’t be let go until early next year, no matter what he does on the field (off the field, the org is relying on MLB to handle this problem, and they haven’t yet). So, until then, Ozuna and his pitcher’s batting average will play probably 4 out of 7 games.
I would hope that corporate understands sunk costs and that future revenue is tied fairly directly to the product on the field, but I would not like to put odds on it. Again, calling on my experience as an internet rando.