File this one under “you can’t win ’em all.” Kolby Allard gave up two in the third and had just 71 pitches through five innings, so Snit sent him back out for the sixth, which he probably shouldn’t have. Amed Rosario immediately made him pay with a solo home run, which brought on the bullpen. Snit’s next five men pitched the next five innings and gave up another three runs.
The Braves did nearly all their scoring in a four-run fourth, and were white-knuckling the rest of the game. One issue with an offense that hits a ton of home runs is it can be difficult to score by any other means, and that was true last night, as three of the Braves’ runs came via Ozzie Albies‘ two long flies. The team otherwise left nine men on base. That will happen, as will the mediocre starting pitching and the okay-but-not-extraordinary relief.
You can’t bludgeon ’em all. Hope you and your loved ones enjoyed some alternative fireworks last night.
I was only able to catch the first 4 innings of this one. I was disappointed to see that Hilliard got thrown out at the plate in the 10th. Watching the replay, I’m surprised that he tagged up on such a shallow fly ball.
Allard relied on his curveball a lot less in this outing. I was really pleased with the way the curve looked in his previous start against the Twins, but last night he wasn’t able to locate it. I hope he regains a good feel for it and utilizes the curve/cutter combo more heavily.
At the time, I thought that the CF was going sideways (perpendicular to the plate) when he caught the ball, so it would be difficult for him to get much speed on the throw, and accuracy might be an issue too. As long as the chance of scoring on the tag is greater than the next batter’s expected batting average (roughly, as wild pitches and errors would tweak the percentages a little), it seems like a worthwhile gamble.
With the new rules, I’m surprised everyone faster than Olson doesn’t run on Td’A all the time. Baserunners are attempting steals on him about twice as often per inning as they did last year and are succeeding at an 84% rate compared to a 76% rate last year.