It is an ancient belief in the three Abrahamic religions, that the serpent would always be the enemy of mankind and was accursed among the animals. Ever since Randy Johnson tagged the Braves for a perfect game, I have felt the Diamondbacks deserved their accursed status.
I hoped for an Uncle Charlie Morton show, but we didn’t get that. He was fair, at best. Not a disaster (particularly with this team’s usual ability to score runs). Great first and fourth, and fifth. Bad second, third, and sixth.
Offense was mostly crap. Marcel Ozuna hit a solo shot in the second and the possibly suddenly awakening Austin Riley hit a solo shot in the seventh. Otherwise, not much there.
Today is an early game with Spencer Strider on the mound. Last iime out was not vintage Strider.
If you haven’t been watching, FanGraphs has its annual “trade value listings” up this week. I haven’t looked for today’s entry, but Braves will probably have at least 5 in the top 30. But, we still need a pitching push before the trade deadline. maybe 2 relievers or maybe 1 starter. With our depleted minor leagues it will be hard, but it is Wins time, baby.
Max Fried Update
I don’t want to be telling tales outside of school, but looks like Max Fried could be back in the rotation in about a week. Exciting times!
(Someone may have to come and correct my formatting here so that the link works…it’s very important.)
I did not watch last night’s game. When I saw the final score, I said to myself, “There must be some misunderstanding. There must be some kind of mistake.”
Breaking out Phil Collins now, I see.
Nice.
This will serve as today’s game thread.
Wow Fun Police has unleashed the Collins.
No comments about Acuna’s antics in the 9th last night? I was there and I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like that happen. He definitely rattled their pitcher, but at what cost? Will he get thrown at today? I’m so glad he’s on our team, but if he wasn’t, we’d hate him, lol.
Diamondbacks manager blamed it on his pitcher, not Acuña. I think he’s in the clear.
Seriously? It seemed to be entirely Ginkel’s fault. Ronald wasn’t doing anything unusual or illegal — he was simply positioning himself a few feet off the 3rd base bag during/between pitches because there were no Diamondbacks anywhere in the vicinity of the bag. Ginkel apparently took offense to this and began mouthing off and walking towards him.
I profess more weariness with Acuna’s antics than the vast majority of folks on this site, but even I say that was 100 percent the pitcher’s fault. I was actually hoping Acuna wouldn’t try and score on that wild pitch just so that he could stay there standing in the pitcher’s line of sight some more, since it apparently bothered him so much. The only thing Ronald did that anyone could give him the least bit of side-eye about was staring down the pitcher as he crossed the plate, but I say the pitcher earned every bit of that.
Some might say that invoking Phil Collins when you’ve got a 9.5 game lead is premature. Not me. It’s a good time to nip this skid in the bud.
Forgive me, Braves Journalers…
Partly our fault. Partly not our fault.
Strider 12 Ks and no walks through 5. That’s what we’ve been looking for. Now, need to do something against Gallen…
Getting a perfect game thrown against us would be the cherry on top of this homestand.
I’ll accept all plaudits for ruining it.
The Braves will pay for Money Mike’s basepath blunder. Can’t do that anytime, but particularly in a game when you’ve only generated three baserunners in six innings.
We certainly made sure the baserunning blunder wouldn’t be the reason for the loss in the top half of the 7th
Those HRs are partially on the lack of a functional bullpen to bail out Strider after the obvious signs of fatigue with the BB and HBP. Snit just doesn’t have good options.
As we’ve seen in recent days, even a team with a massive lead in the division race is fragile. There’s some regression and bad BABIP luck lately, but it seems like the rubberbands keeping the pitching staff together finally snapped. This may get worse before it gets better.
I don’t think Snit would have taken Strider out there even if Minter, Anderson, Chavez and Lee were all available.
The roof falls in on our pitchers awfully quickly. But hey, everything is fine…nothing to see here.
The starting pitchers in line for Milwaukee this weekend could ensure this streak reaches eight.
There has got to be an element of the time of day and being better able to see the ball. Both pitchers falling apart in an inning and a half after being unhittable seems to indicate something besides being tired to me.
Austin Riley!!!!!
Well, I guess the hand-wringing about Austin can stop for the time being.
Austin!!!
Back-to-back! Let’s go!
Matty O!!!
AA, we need a closer. Iggy ain’t it.
He really isn’t
C’mon, Iggy. Buckle down and finish this thing.
Y’all just calm on down now.
That was a great game and a huge win
Iggy is currently the only member of the back of our bullpen. Like, he’s it. I don’t think we have the luxury of trying to replace him right now. And, he’s fine.
Yeah, can’t say that Kirby is inspiring much confidence either. I trust Jimenez more than Yates.
Another day for you and me in paradise.
Austin Riley is absolutely capable of putting the whole team on his back, and it would be really neat if he did.
Winning sure is more fun than losing!
Amen.
Been traveling all day…Game recap coming late tonight or early tomorrow morning. Sorry for the delay!
For all of those people that have been talking about Allan Winans, he’s getting promoted on Saturday and will start. Way cool.