So I was sitting there watching the game in the eighth inning and I thought to myself. “Boy. I’m glad I don’t have to recap this thing.” That’s when I realized that I had promised Rusty S that I would recap this thing. My next thought is that it would have been good if I’d started watching before the fifth inning. My next thought was to paraphrase Animal House: “You f’ed up, Rusty: You trusted me.”
Ok… So what happened? Well, it was one of those games where we fell behind early as Elder coughed up five runs in the first, including two on a 400 foot homer by a pretty good-looking shortstop named Swanson. If Arcia falters at some point maybe we can trade for him. When I say he’s good looking, I mean he looks a lot like Charlie Culberson.
We managed a few half-assed comebacks. Albies homered to cut it to 5-2, but the Cubs shortly got the two runs back.
The critical inning was the sixth. Rookie Daniel Palencia walked three guys with one out. Harris got one in on a sac fly, and RAJ singled to bring another. A walk to Albies loaded the bases with two outs and Mighty Casey Riley at the plate representing the tying run. Instead, he represented the inning-endng strikeout. Wrigleyville was happer than Mudville.
Matt Olson had another two run homer in the 9th, but it was too little, too late.
Ozuna was ejected for protesting a strike. I feel like replay has really cut down on ejections. I don’t like to see the game being about umps, but I kinda miss ejections.
In any case, we won the game if you threw out the first inning. But if you’d thrown out every first inning this year, I think we’d trail the LOLMets.
RonaldWatch
Through August 5th: 147 hits, 25 homers, 52 stolen bases. Earliest achieved in MLB history:
Cesar Cedeno 1974 (25th homer and 52nd stolen base on September 15th.)
Rickey Henderson 1986 (147th hit on September 19th)
Rickey Henderson 1990 (147th hit on September 19th)
Joe Morgan 1976 (147th hit on September 21st)
We’re starting to close in on combos no one has ever reached.
Final Thought
A team that plays badly and loses by just two is a pretty good team, right?
Rubber game tomorrow.
*Everything below are Ryan’s words, not Jonathan’s. I do not have the wits to speak for him.
Braves Sunday Lineup
Braves will send Charlie Morton up against LHP Justin Steele. Steele has been quite good this year, throwing 115.2 innings carrying a 2.65 ERA and 12-3 record on the year.
Thank God. Kevin Pillar finally gets a start in place of Eddie Rosario.
Thoughts on Jose Ramirez TKO’ing Tim Anderson
A league-wide respected player sends league-wide dissed Tim Anderson into the spirit realm and I applaud him. He’s had it coming for awhile.
I hope Snit will have a talk with Ronald for 1. Not sliding into second on the play where the ball unexpectedly dropped in, and, 2. for leaving the field before the review was completed.
He also needs to talk to Eddie for not knowing that there were two outs, and stopping before continuing. Wash had to stop him at third…..instead of Eddie easily scoring.
Albies nearly hit another homer in the ninth. Hit it into the teeth of the wind to dead center. Off the bat, it looked gone.
I wondered what happened to Ozuna. I thought a lot of ball/strike calls were marginal so I sympathize.
Dylan Lee pitched a 3 up 3 down inning in his first rehab appearance.
I wonder if they will just leave him on rehab until either September or a reliever has to go on the IL.
I still think as I mentioned before that Daysbel will go to the 60-day IL and Yonny will be optioned. AA will still have to figure out what to do with Wright and Chavez and maybe Anderson.
After that, there’s no one left to option. McHugh could be a casualty.
Roger I’ve replied several times to you, but I guess you haven’t seen it, but Yonny can’t be optioned as he has more than 5 years of service time.
My guess is that unless someone gets hurt that he will stay on his rehab assignment until September. Pitchers have up to 30 days of rehab time. There just isn’t room on the active roster without someone being DFA’d or IL’d. I think Minter is the only one in the bullpen with an option, and that isn’t happening.
I also think they need Yonny over at least the next two weeks just to save us from too many bullpen games. They play 11 games in the next 10 days, before the next off day on August 17. There is also a west coast trip at the end of the month with 10 games in 10 days (no off days during the trip).
Someone will get IL’ed. These problems have a way of resolving themselves.
B14, I’ve seen it and checked up on it. Yonny does NOT have 5 years of service time. He has 4.137 years of service time. I think Yonny will be optioned and recalled in September depending upon whether they prefer Lee or Yonny on the staff.
And if we have to do a couple of bullpen games over then next couple of weeks no one will be worse for the wear. But even with roster expansion in September, I think there will be a roster crunch.
MLB Trade Rumors says otherwise.
https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2023/07/braves-claim-yonny-chirinos.html
Ah, Cesar Cedeno… talk about a ridiculously talented player.
BTW, does anybody remember that game in ATL when Cedeno lost his mind & went after the fan in the stands who was apparently calling him a “murderer”?
I’d never seen a player get that angry on the field.
I do remember that. Thanks for the reminder. And yeah… there are players you sometimes forget about the talent level. Cedeno had every tool.
Here’s your answer on Chirinos.
Thanks, Ryan. I got it off of FanGraphs Roster Resource. I don’t think AA would have gotten him without the chance to option him.
Dumb baserunning today. And Charlie is just so damn frustrating to watch.
Thanks Jonathan. My advice to us is to start drinking heavily.
I’ve seen enough of Charlie’s tightrope today.
Yeah, another mid outing from
Charlie
Horrible ball/strike calls, too.
Boy, what a missed opportunity by the offense in the 6th inning. Can’t say they haven’t been getting opportunities.
Pillar and Harris shouldn’t bat consecutively because if Rosario pinch hits late in the game, the other manager can counter with a LHP to face 2 LHB in a row.
8 walks is not going to win ballgames
Disappointing L, for sure. Hopefully Strider is on tomorrow night and we can win 7 or 8 games this week!
I just want to update you all on Yonny Chirinos. I…was incorrect and B14 was right. Yonny’s service time on baseball-reference dates back to the first of the year and they do not update until after the season. While Yonny does have an option, he can refuse said option and choose free agency.
Recapped: