You’d be forgiven for needing a good, stiff drink after that series! I’m torn about wanting to play the Reds in the playoffs, as I think that dumb stadium suits our team pretty well all things considered. Could we handle the stretch of watching it? That’s another question.
The craziness didn’t really start until the third inning today, which was a nice respite. Michael Harris tripled underneath a diving Reds outfielder to lead off the frame. He scored on an Ozzie Albies sacrifice fly, but the inning was not over. With two on and two out, the returning Sean Murphy ripped a single to left to score Austin Riley and make it 2-0 and advance Matt Olson to third. Marcell Ozuna followed with an RBI single of his own to make it 3-0.
The Reds answered back with a Spencer Steer RBI double in the bottom half of the inning, making it 3-1. However, Charlie Morton struck out Will Benson with runners at the corners and two outs to prevent further damage.
You pretty much knew that wasn’t going to be the last big threat the Reds put together and, sure enough, they tied the game on a two-run, Matt McLain double one inning later. However, the Braves took advantage of the ballpark to take the lead back in the sixth inning, as Matt Olson sliced a fly ball off the end of the bat to left field that somehow sailed out of the park (and it was the second such home run he had in this series, by the way). There were two men on base when this happened, as well, meaning the Braves were the owners of a 6-3 lead.
But here came the Reds again against the Atlanta bullpen. McLain hit a solo homer in the seventh to make it 6-4 and then hit a two-out, two-run double in the eighth to pull Cincinnati to within a single run. With the tying run in scoring position, Joe Jimenez got Steer to fly out to left.
That set up the ninth inning, with the Braves holding a very tenuous one-run lead. Raisel Iglesias struck out the terrifying Elly de la Cruz to start the inning. Jake Fraley singled on a 1-2 pitch and Jonathan India did the same on a payoff pitch, though, putting runners at the corners with one out. That brought Kevin Newman to the plate, and he thankfully hit a tailor-made double play ball to Riley at third to end the proceedings.
The Braves now return home for a six-game homestand against Minnesota and Miami, their final homestand before the All-Star break.
This series had it all! Might’ve been the best series to watch of 2023
I have a feeling that AJSS and Shuster will not be playoff starters though in 2023. (I could see AJSS coming out of the bullpen, maybe even a key role.)
What an unexpected and to the road trip. Never expected a 5-1 trip. I’m not sure anyone can beat the Braves right now. They were a little shaky last month but they are absolutely rolling now. We still have the expectation that Fried will be back after the All Star break and Wright in August. I honestly think (barring injury) that a single shutdown reliever will complete this team – especially a lefty. I hear Matzek is beginning to throw so a pure rental would be perfectly fine.
Time to fire-up the JonathanF bat-signal. All games in the season series were decided by 1-run. Is that some sort of record for 6-game or more season series? Or is it more common that I think?
Freddie Freeman is nearing shoo-in HOFer territory & we Braves fans should be happy for him.
Yeah, Freddie could be a league average hitter for the rest of his contract and make the HoF at this point. If he could somehow keep this pace for a couple more years, then have 3-4 several above-average-to-All-Star years, then he’ll be one of the top 60 position players all-time per fWAR. Back-to-back 7 fWAR seasons, like he’s on pace to do, well into his 30’s is historically incredible.
He could end up doing something like this:
At the end of this year (another 2.4 fWAR for the rest of the year, which would actually require some slumping but gives me a round number): 56 fWAR
Age 34: 4 fWAR (60)
Age 35: 4 fWAR (64)
Age 36: 3 fWAR (67)
Age 37: 3 fWAR (70)
All-time ranking amongst position players: 59th
He won’t get to, say, Chipper’s career fWAR (84.6, 33rd all-time amongst position players), but he could get into the Frank Thomas, Eddie Murray, Reggie Jackson territory. It’s really incredible how consistently great he’s been now well into his 30’s.
Braves fans resent Freddie for not being a Brave, which is their right. He signed the contract; not his agent. But where they go wrong is they think that it was strictly a Freddie vs. Olson binary decision. No, there was a very real third possibility where we end up with nobody. That with Freddie’s agent being a dick, if Beane didn’t want to trade Olson for whatever reason, we have nobody. And so Olson doesn’t have to be as good as Freddie and fans don’t have to resent Freddie because he’s better than Olson. And considering what Freddie and Olson are being paid, Olson doesn’t need to be as good as Freddie.
Ryan’s right; fans should be really happy that Freddie is becoming one of the greatest players ever and we got to watch him for a big chunk of his career.
The Twins have pretty good starting pitching. Sonny Gray vs Spencer Strider should be a great one. Gray has only allowed 2 HR all season so far in 81IP and Joe Ryan has just shut out the Red Sox in a CG 3-hitter with 9K.
Is this the best Braves lineup in team history?
I’m just going to be really lazy about this and compare this to the 2003 team, which anecodtally comes to mind as the current best. And since Julio Franco largely replaced Robert Fick late in the season, I’m just going to blend their OPS’es a little bit to get a fair figure.
Average OPS of lineup regular:
2003: 128
2023: 123
If someone wants to do wRC+, this team might edge out 2003.
Thanks, Nick. I was grateful to come up for air last night and will take the time today to ready for the first-place Twins tonight. Most people that live in my part of the world are Twins fans, so I hope it’s fun for me…though I will probably be blacked-out (by MLB.TV).
Man, what a wild series. I need for this series against Minnesota to be a little less stressful.
Sonny Gray and Joe Ryan have been great this year, and will certainly test our offense. The Twins’ offense, however, has been middling at best. They’re 17th in runs scored and 18th in fWAR with a league-average 100 wRC+. I’m hopeful that Strider, Elder, and AJSS will fare well against them.
A.S.S. sent down and Dereck Rodriguez recalled. It looks like he will go back down for Soroka in a few days. If Soroka doesn’t work out, it’s a good bet that the Braves would target a SP at the trade deadline.
Braves 24
Reds 23
Glad to get out of town +1 in runs & games.
I’m grateful that Freddie did what he did in ATL & I’m generally happy for him, as long as he doesn’t beat us in the post-season. Otherwise, he doesn’t really keep me up nights. At the moment, our new guy (who’s 5 years younger) is on a pace to set the Braves single-season HR record.
And it does seem that the Mets are descending to new lows every week. Amazin’.
Last night, I noticed Dusty Baker was trending. It turns out that some fairly high-profile Astros fan accounts (you know the type…perhaps you are the type) want Dusty fired because they feel he’s mismanaged the bullpen.
I wonder how many MLB teams currently don’t have these kinds of accounts calling to fire the manager? The Braves don’t seem to. Probably not the Rays. Probably not other teams that are overperforming expectations relative to the start of the season, e.g. the Rangers, Orioles, Reds, Diamondbacks, Marlins (I know…in order to have overly critical fans, you first have to have fans…), maybe the Giants too?
So, would a good place to set the over/under be eight of 30 teams?
Noticed that as well. Astros, Mets most prominently. But don’t go over to Battery Power, many of those good folks feel the same about Snit and his bullpen management as well as third time through the order for starting pitchers (guys do have data to back it up their opinions on TTO though)
Just one more reason why I love this bar over here. I think Snit is doing a very good job managing the bullpen. And yes, get a shutdown reliever (easy…) at the trade deadline and we’re set in the pen.
Astros fans acting like Yankees fans. Sigh… They’re a half-game out of the WC! Oh, no!
There were Yankees fans who wanted Joe Torre fired at various times during his stint in The Bronx for a variety of offenses. “Let’s see, this guy is the most successful manager since Casey Stengel, but it’s still not good enough because Tanyon Sturtze gave up a grand-slam to the Orioles & you didn’t pinch-hit for Tony Womack in a big spot the night before…” Three-game losing streak — catastrophe!
Some of those fans had become so accustomed to the managerial merry-go-round there that they didn’t realize that this was the best it was gonna get.
That said, there is a bit of a drumbeat for Buck’s head at the moment. Don’t think it’s really justified, but Mets fans can’t really get mad at ownership anymore.
Those guys on Battery Power act like we should manage every game like it’s a playoff game. Our bullpen would be destroyed.
Yeah, the TTO brigade on Batter Power is certifiable. They would literally take a pitcher out when the opposing leadoff hitter is coming up for the third time every time, regardless of any other context whatsoever. Doesn’t matter if the starter’s 45 pitches into a perfect game at that point…too bad, he’s out! The numbers say he’s 100 percent certain to implode, so we’d better go ahead and put Collin McHugh in!
It makes zero sense.
What’s going on in NYC is a lot bigger than Buck, but being a better tactician than Larry Bowa won’t prevent him from losing the clubhouse.
That said, Ububba, should the cranks in the Bronx be going after Boone? Or who exactly would you blame in NYC for the general pretty-good-but-not-great results they’ve been getting over the past 12 months?
Boone is viewed as GM Brian Cashman’s puppet, and I don’t necessarily disagree. It’s Cashman… the good & the bad.
And I don’t think he’s going anywhere. Ownership seems fine filling its stadium and running YES Network, winning a series in the post-season — they got a great business going. Can’t see them blowing up a relatively good thing.
It’s a decent team, but not one that would seem to threaten winning a pennant unless they hit an inside straight in the post-season. Fact is, I don’t think this team is as dangerous as the Phils or Padres were last year. The Yankee lineup is limp & they don’t have 2nd or 3rd starters that you can trust. Severino & German have been pretty bad, Clarke Schmidt’s getting better, but… c’mon.
There are reasonable Yankee fans out there & they see this team as somewhat ill-constructed (not enough lefty power) & unlucky w/ injuries (fact is, that team has like an ambulance brigade for awhile now). Stanton & Judge never seem to be healthy at the same time, and their big FA signing Carlos Rodon (6 yrs/$162 M) still hasn’t pitched an inning this season.
Also, aside from some serious short-term overperformance from one Billy McKinney, the backups & youngsters haven’t been very good. They’ll let Volpe play SS (he’s hitting .195), but he’s been underwhelming overall. And, of course, you have the unmitigated disasters of Aaron Hicks (hit .188 before his DFA) & Josh Donaldson (.197). That’s on Cashman — he thought Hicks was going to be something special & Donaldson looks done.
This year, the only things that have gone right are: Cole, Judge (when he plays) & the bullpen (#1 in MLB so far). I’m sure they’ll do something at the deadline, but at the moment this is a pretty uninspiring club.
I went to the Yanks game yesterday & I gotta say, Texas looks impressive — really good lineup. The Yanks, shockingly, got to the Texas pen late & came back to win. But I left the game thinking that the Rangers could definitely be a WS foe.
Yes, I’ve wondered about the injury brigade up there. Stanton has always been injury-prone, but the Yankees have seemed like one of the most fragile teams in baseball for many years now. Wonder why that is?
Karma?