Zack Wheeler threw 8 scoreless innings, and Craig Kimbrel pitched around a Sean Murphy homer to pick up his 401st career save as the 4th place Phillies pull to within 6 games of the 1st place Braves. Wheeler allowed 3 hits, walked 1, and struck out 12.
Nine strikeouts from Charlie Morton helped him to limit Philadelphia to 2 runs, despite allowing 7 hits and 4 walks in 5 1/3 innings. The Phillie runs came in the 5th. Brandon Marsh led off with a single and advanced to 3rd on a Kody Clemens double. Marsh scored on a Bryson Stott sacrifice fly, and Clemens scored on a Trea Turner double.
The Braves bullpen held the Phillies scoreless the rest of the way. Highlights include A.J. Minter retiring all 3 men he faced, throwing 7 strikes out of his 8 total pitches, and Jesse Chavez striking out the side in the 8th. Conclude what you will from 4 2/3 innings.
Wheeler came up 1 inning short of his 4th career shutout and thus clawing his way into 1228th on the career shutout list. For now he will have to continue to look up to such luminaries such as Mike Bielecki, Tommy Boggs, Jaime Garcia, and Pascual Perez. Maybe someday, Zack.
The series concludes on Sunday where the Braves will try to salvage a 7:10 split on ESPN Sunday Night Baseball. Spencer Strider and Dylan Covey are scheduled.
Braves Transactions
It’s happening, people!
It’s been 2 years and 299 days since Michael Soroka has played in an MLB game, so tomorrow will be a very special day for us fans and for Mike who, despite not being physically with the team, has remained a fan favorite. Incredible news and I hope that he lights the A’s up. Along with a healthy Max Fried, if Soroka can come up and solidify the back end of the rotation, a fivesome of Fried, Spencer Strider, Charlie Morton, Bryce Elder, and Michael Soroka put the Braves in position for a repeat division crown. There will have to be an active roster move, but the easy guess is Dereck Rodriguez, who replaced Dylan Dodd in the rotation… but, not really.
Last month, the Braves picked up Chad Pinder on a MiLB deal and he seemed like a shoo-in for the roster at some point, but he had other plans.
Pinder saw time at every position except catcher during his 7 year career and carried a respectable .717 career OPS.
Zach Wheeler utterly murders us. Every time. I hate facing him so very much.
I’m sorry, but what happened to this site? It’s a ghost town here…I feel bad for the people still putting major effort into these recaps. I really hate to say it, and I tried to give time for the layout to grow on me, but this new format is a complete disaster and has just about killed this blog. I’ve been visiting this site since 2004 and this is the first time Braves Journal felt like it was in an irrevocable death spiral. The Bar concept just isn’t working, the layout is hopelessly non-intuitive, and you emphasize pictures and links over the really well-written articles and accompanying comments.
There are a lot more posts now, so it would be interesting to see if the total engagement is up, even if the engagement for any single post may seem lower. We used to basically have a recap that would stay up until the next recap and be a de facto game thread. Now we have recaps, game threads, and analysis. So, the comments are more spread out.
Change management is a real skill, and it can be difficult to guide people through it. There are some things that don’t work in the way I was accustomed to using the site, but for new users it is probably perfectly fine. I don’t claim to have any insight into running a website day to day, let alone into the future. I’m sure Ryan is following the numbers closely and will react if he finds any adjustments are needed.
I have to say that typing my name and email every time instead of it being saved dissuades me from posting more.
We emphasize pics and links because it’s what gets more traffic. And I’m not upset with your comments. I knew going into the redo that a lot of regulars would struggle with the new design. While I’m not going to get into the numbers, our site is getting more views than before, more people are registering, clicking, and reading our pieces. Weekends, for whatever reason, has always been lower traffic for Braves Journal. However, the people that have been writing here are still here and still commenting regularly.
The one thing that I wish I could fix is the login issue. We have now sent in 4 requests and there’s no fix yet. It’s a WordPress issue that has yet to be resolved and it’s frustrating.
Excellent news Ryan.
Eh. It’ll take time, experimentation and patience to arrive at the right setup, but as someone who’s had zero stake in running this place, I can still understand why it needed to change in order to stay around for the long haul. Let ’em cook.
Baseball-wise, good to remember at times like these that we’re competing not against our own lofty expectations but rather against real teams with real imperfections–as the Mets come back from a 6-1 deficit only to blow it.
Looks like Soroka will be getting the start for Atlanta tomorrow. (Monday)
Sorokaaaaaa
Tomorrow might be an easier lineup for him than some of his AAA starts, the Athletics are historically bad.
It’s sorta like we’ve got the cream of the A’s lineup, anyway. 😉
(Yeah I know, famous last words.)
The A’s have a historically bad rotation and a dumpster fire in the bullpen but their regular lineup has a 98 OPS+. That is better than a lot of teams. Their bench, otoh, had a negative OPS+ when last I looked. 3.48 runs/game for those with morbid interests (Braves at 5.08 so far this year)
Let’s keep the As on pace to have the worst record since 1899. They are on pace to go 29 and 133. The 1899 Cleveland Spiders went 20-144. I have to think an average AAA team and some AA teams could win 30 games in an MLB season.
My first game at Truist yesterday was no bueno; hoping for a better outcome tonight. Went to quite a few games at Turner Field, just hadn’t gotten down for a game at TP until now. Let’s get on the board early, and let’s go Quadzilla!
Well, Big D, you called it. Couldn’t be much more different than yesterday.
To put it in perspective, the Athletics are on pace to win fewer games over a full 162 game season than Atlanta has won in 52 games.
This guy pitching tonight for the Phillies has a 6-29 career record and the Braves have hammered him.
Yes sir! I think that qualifies as getting on the board early! Me gusta mucho.
The Braves are up 7-0, which, I guess, means that it would be inappropriate to kvetch about the bullpen.
So instead I’ll just say that Ronald Acuña went 2-2 in the first inning and I frankly think we should just start yelling MVP! whenever he comes up to bat.
Yurp
Greetings from JFK Airport! It really kills me to say that I won’t be able to recap Soroka’s return tomorrow, but I’ve punted it to Christian’s able keyboard… Do me proud, C.
I’ve gone on a scouting trip to Iceland. If I see any five tool players there (and crampons don’t count), I’ll report back pronto.
Greetings from San Francisco…
Hopped the BART train to Oakland today for the Astros/Athletics tilt. Hadn’t been to the Coliseum since 2003 – when the A’s were actually good – but, sadly, the joint is still a concrete dump of a stadium. (Still, pretty easy to get there – just 6 stops from my Union Square hotel.)
This being 2023, the “Triple A’s” are on a pace for a record-low 30 wins (29 now, actually) and seem to be headed to Las Vegas where a $1.5 B retractable-roof stadium right on the strip is being discussed. Given those facts, an announced crowd of 8,809 watched the home nine get waxed 10-1 by the world champs.
Yep, it was ugly. The Astros hit 6 HRs, including 2 by Yordan Alvarez, one of which probably tore out some RF seats. (If Pete Alonso is the new Harmon Killebrew, then Yordan Alvarez is the new Willie McCovey.) The Astros also had a pair of B2B shots. Not a fair fight & it was the 11th consecutive loss for the A’s. Like I said, u-g-l-y. (And let’s hope the streak extends to 14.)
But taking it all in & talking w/ the home fans, I couldn’t help but feel sorry for the locals. Gotta be pretty hardcore to rep this team right now, so bully for them. Most of them seemed resigned to their fate. However, in the right-field stands there were at least a dozen homemade signs criticizing ownership (“Weasels!”) and the proposed move (“Vegas Beware!”). Go down fighting, I guess.
Because they’re probably leaving, the team doesn’t highlight the future or its current players at all – it’s all about the glory days there. Tons of highlights from back in the day – Reggie/Catfish… Billy Ball… McGwire/Canseco… Hudson/Zito, etc. In fact, their “big head” mascot race is Rollie, Eck & Rickey – I did like that.
Stumbled through their Coliseum Hall of Fame & got a kick out of seeing plaques for George Blanda, Fred Biletnikoff & Ken Stabler, in addition to the famous A’s. But when the A’s leave Oakland, it’ll be a complete sweep… Raiders, Warriors & Athletics all gone.
DFA McHugh to make room for Soroka.
Don’t worry, Alex. Kvetching about the bullpen is inevitable here, no matter the score.
But I’ll be happy to. chant MVP for Ronald until I’m hoarse. We are blessed to be able to see him every night.
Nice job by Pudge’s son, I think he can be of more use than Luetge, at least.
Some signs of life from M.Harris.
Wishing for the best for Soroka tomorrow
I’m content with the split although I think we could have swept them. This team is back up to the best record in the NL and 4th best record in MLB. Oddly, two of the teams ahead of us have lost series to us (BAL and TEX). If this team really pulls it together (strong SP, solid RP, strong hitting), we will win going away.
Recap up: https://bravesjournal.com/2023/05/28/bats-explode-to-help-braves-salvage-series-split/
I was thinking that Morton was having a much better year than last year, but after looking at his stats, he seems to be just more lucky. Here are the stat comparisons:
ERA – 23 – 3.59 22 – 4.34 (Vast improvement)
WHIP – 23 – 1,472 22 – 1.233 (Digression)
H/9 – 23 – 9.5 22 – 7.8 (Digression)
HR.9 – 23 – .9 22 – 1.5 (Improvement)
BB/9 – 23 – 3.7 22 – 3.3 (Digression)
SO/9 – 23 – 9.8 22 – 10.7 (Digression)
RE: luck, if you believe HR/FB is more luck than skill for all pitchers, then Morton was quite unlucky last year and has returned to normal this year.
Performance-wise, his 2022 xFIP was 3.60 and his 2023 xFIP is 3.97, so yes, he’s a bit worse on the whole. It’s good that flyballs have been treating him better for whatever reason.