The Braves had been a bit stagnant since the All-Star break, and a big part of that was the fact that the overwhelming offensive onslaught that was such a big part of the team’s pre-break run had not really resurfaced after the All-Star Game. They scored nine runs against the White Sox in their first game back, then 13 in a loss to and seven in a salvage of the final game against Arizona. But they scored three runs or less in five of the 11 games leading into this home series with Milwaukee, and lost all of them. If you can somehow stop this team from scoring a bunch of runs, you’re left facing a currently quite beatable pitching staff. This team needs to score runs to win games, at least until it gets some arms back. And probably even then.
All of that to say, it was good to see the Braves absolutely obliterate a good pitching staff this weekend. They scored 29 runs in a three-game sweep of Milwaukee, finishing it off Sunday with an 8-6 win that served as their lowest offensive output of the series. And save for a good start from Bryce Elder on Saturday night, the pitching continued to be…how should I put this? Not exactly stellar. But it just didn’t matter.
Enough preamble…make with the game recap!
Sunday, the Brewers took a 1-0 lead in the first on a wild pitch by starter AJ Smith-Shawver. But a major part of the overwhelming offensive output has been the insane number of runs Atlanta has scored in the first inning. That had kind of gone by the boards during the tepid stretch after the All-Star break as well, but came back with a vengeance as they pummeled Julio Teheran for six in the opening frame on Saturday. They didn’t get that many in this one, but a leadoff single from Ronald Acuna and a two-run Austin Riley homer gave the team a 2-1 lead after their first licks.
This would be a back-and-forth affair the whole way, though. In the third, Smith-Shawver gave up solo homers to Christian Yelich and Carlos Santana to vault the Brewers back in front. In the bottom of that frame, the Acuna-Riley combo struck again, this time to put a pair of runners on (Acuna via single, Riley via walk) for Matt Olson. The Atlanta first baseman and seemingly soon-to-be franchise record-holder in single-season home runs deposited one into the front of the Chop House seats to give his side the lead back, 5-3.
Smith-Shawver left after five innings, and I would describe his outing as OK-ish. He allowed three runs on four hits, two of them homers, and struck out three. He did walk four and uncork a pair of wild pitches, though (one of which cost the Braves a run, as previously mentioned). I’ll have more on the game of musical chairs the Braves have been playing with the rotation in a minute.
The sixth inning saw Collin McHugh enter the game for the Braves. He pitched well on Friday in what turned out to be something of a bullpen game. Today, not so much. Three of the first four hitters he faced reached base, loading the sacks with one out. A run-scoring groundout and a two-run double (the latter by ex-Brave William Contreras) followed to give Milwaukee a 6-5 edge.
But then back came the Braves. Marcell Ozuna homered to level the score in the sixth. Then in the eighth, with the score still tied 6-6, Ozzie Albies led off the frame with a double off Joel Payamps (a cog in the three-team trade that also featured Sean Murphy and Contreras, if you’ll recall). Two batters later, Olson strolled to the plate and launched his 35th homer of the season (and second of the day) into the out-of-town scoreboard above the Atlanta bullpen. Two-run shot, 8-6 Braves with just three outs to get.
Raisel Iglesias seems to have sorted some things out, as he’s looked pretty great in his last three outings now. He fanned all three Brewers in the ninth to secure the win.
The Braves welcome the former California Angels (and still, really…they’re just officially identified by their metro area instead of their state these days) to Truist for three before embarking on a long road trip to face the Cubs, Pirates and Mets.
Brief thoughts on the rotation
I have been puzzled by how the Braves have handled the rotation recently. I don’t know if Michael Soroka is capable of re-establishing himself as a consistent fixture in a major league rotation, but it’s going to be very difficult to find out if he keeps getting yo-yo’d back down to Gwinnett so that the likes of Yonny Chirinos and AJ Smith-Shawver can get starts instead. Soroka was perfectly capable of giving either one of the performances that those guys gave this weekend while giving you more information about his progress. He was also perfectly capable of pitching significantly better than either of those guys did. The rotation is about to be (not necessarily in order of appearance) Fried-Strider-Morton-Elder-someone. Either trade for an actual solution in the next two days (no. Chirinos doesn’t count) or call Soroka up and give him the someone spot until and unless Kyle Wright comes back. Stop yanking Soroka around and giving his starts to bums and Triple A pitchers who aren’t ready. It’s time to see what we actually have here, before we launch ourselves into another uncertain offseason in regards to Soroka.
Here, here on the Soroka front. Why he’s not starting these games is baffling to me too.
I do like the pick-up of Lopez. Surely he can spell Riley, Ozzie and Arcia occasionally in August / September. It’s a long hot Summer in Atlanta, no need to run those guys into the ground every day with a 10+ game lead.
Graet recap, thanks, Nick. Completely agree on Soroka.
The Braves mismanagement of pitchers that remotely struggle is the worst part of this very very very well run organization, right now.
I don’t mean for this to be an I told you so, but remember in the rebuild when I told you that all that matters is hitting HRs and striking out batters in the modern MLB. Yeah that. Home runs win games. They’re all that wins games now. It’s too hard to win games any other way.
The Braves defense this year is bottom tier.
Defense means absolutely nothing in MLB.
You did indeed say that, Chief, yes.
Also, I am expecting Culberson to retire at the end of the season and become a Braves coach or manager.
This is an over-simplification.
Yes, the Braves lead the league in HRs. They’re also 2nd in BA and 8th in SBs. And even though they indeed hit an insane amount of HRs, they have the 6th-fewest strike outs in MLB. They don’t just hit home runs. They’re just really good players. It almost insults this team to suggest that they’re a bunch of Dave Kingman’s or whatever Chief said you need to score a bunch of runs.
Let’s take the pitching part of this argument. They strike a bunch of guys out (5th in MLB). But they also don’t give up a lot of HRs (6th-fewest per 9), and they’re not terrible at avoiding walks (16th in BB/9) and generate enough weak contact (21st in BABIP). Just like the hitters, they’re just a bunch of really good pitchers, on the whole.
The reason the Braves are so good is that they have a down-to-earth and respected field manager and staff, a GM that squeezes every last drop out of the 40-man, and both Coppy and AA knew who to trade for and who to keep. And they’ve also largely avoided bad contracts. It’s over-simplification to say that they’ve struck to HRs and K’s.
Clearly, the Braves have a strategy that depends heavily on options. They’d like these guys to continue to make starts on a regular basis, sometimes in the majors and sometimes on the farm. I agree that often, it’s best for guys to take their lumps at the major league level and figure it out and I made that case for Michael Harris II.
That said, as I’ve said many times before, I’d much rather work a pitcher out in the major league bullpen, if at all possible – call it the Max Fried method. For guys like Soroka and Smith-Shawver, one of the biggest issues seems to be their basic ability to trust their stuff and consistently execute pitches in the zone against major league hitters. That could be a question of focus, it could be an issue of confidence, or it could just be building up the athletic skill of repeating their mechanics precisely. I think the highest level is the best classroom. But I basically have to just trust AA and Snit on this, especially as Soroka’s in genuinely uncharted waters in terms of his injury recovery. They’ve earned that trust.
And… Minter is back from the IL, and Smith-Shawver is back to Gwinnett. Charlie Culberson got DFA’d again to make room for Nicky Lopez.
https://theathletic.com/realtime/VUucJ7ZFAkTH/
I don’t know about DFA’ing Culberson again for Lopez. I am skeptical that Lopez’s hair is half as good as Culberson and I don’t think he will look anywhere near as good sitting on the bench.
The Braves have essentially been working with a 28 man roster as they have manipulated the 4 and 5 starters and called up relievers after their starts.
Problem is, Alex, are you really going to stick ASS or Soroka or, really, any of these guys in the bullpen? They need innings. If we reach a point where the AAA season is over and there isn’t a spot in the MLB rotation, then sure, and for the same logic: they need innings. But at this point, if they’re struggling in Atlanta, I think they just need to be in AAA.
This is our situation, bottom line. We’ve had to try a lot of guys out. Soroka, Shuster, ASS, Dodd, and Allard have combined to make 26 starts. Not a single of them has an ERA below 5 except ASS. Which of these guys deserves to stay in the rotation instead of playing the Gwinnett Shuffle? Not a single one. Soroka’s probably the closest and the only one with a fair argument to be able to work through his stuff. And had they not acquired Chironos, he probably still would be in the rotation.
I hate that Chironos cost anyone the opportunity to start an MLB game but here we are
Honestly, I think the bullpen is the single best place for JASS. We need at least one more reliable high-leverage arm, and he needs a chance to learn how to trust his stuff at this level enough to throw it in the zone and challenge guys there. Worked pretty well for Strider, wouldn’t you say?
JASS to the bullpen. Yes, AAR.
I used to pay attention to some of the trade rumors and speculation, but I completely ignore it now. If I’ve learned anything about AA, it’s that he is unpredictable. Given how everything has died down about Ohtani, I wouldn’t even be surprised if we got him – I’m not expecting it, but the only thing that will surprise me is if AA goes the expected route.
I liked the press report that Atlanta checked in with the Mets about Verlander yesterday, even if it was only to troll Mets fans. We’ve had mixed results with our other Uptons, though.
The comments aren’t on in the new thread.