Always in groups it is important to get along. Sometimes that is done by going along with trends that the groups display. Usually, with sports teams, it is bad to go along with the bad trends. A player should try to move the trend in another direction. Max Fried did not succeed in that last night.
Harken back to last Friday. Fried pitched 7 innings and gave up no runs and pitched 72 pitches. One fifth of the rotation looked stabilized. Now, we have gone through 5 and gotten 5 lousy to horrendous appearances. Interestingly, we have won 2. .400 ball won’t win the NL East, but it may be late enough to back into the Wild Card. Not exactly for what we look (really hard to avoid those ending prepositions).
Max Fried wasn’t probably as awful as I made it sound. Certainly, the sons of Blackbeard had a little “BAPIP” luck. But still, giving up 4 in 4 innings and using 79 pitches isn’t anything to call “good.” The offense had 15 hits and 2 walks and scored 6 times. By its usual standard, that sounds a little light. Well, it probably was. 4 doubles and no home runs. STILL, they scattered them up and down. They hit into one GIDP. So, it looks like “oscillation” cost a couple of runs. I wish Ol’ Os would add a couple when we really need them.
Weird / great play of the game came in the 8th. Tie game, 5 to 5. The “successors” (Ronald Acuna, Jr. and Michael Harris, II) were at 2nd and 3rd respectively. Austin Riley had a chance to finish off the international law breakers. But, he lifted a pop up into shallow right field. The second baseman didn’t have to go nearly as far back for it as the Cardinals shortstop in the “infield fly” game. Triolo caught it a little bit leaning back. Well, Money Mike took off, the throw wasn’t great, but he was in easily. The international lawbreakers appealed that Harris left too soon. How could you NOT do that. No way he could score there unless he violated a rule. Braves appealed and, lo and behold, NEW YORK OVERTURNED ONE IN THE BRAVES’ FAVOR. Who knew such a strange thing could happen?
A.J. Minter and Raisel Iglesias kept the international lawbreakers off the board, and the Braves got the win.
We get an early start today at 12:35. Bryce Elder just needs to be a consistent playoff No. 4. Get 6 innings and give up 3 or 4. With this offense and this bullpen, we take another series.
Braves Thursday Lineup
It’s nice to see Kevin Pillar in there against LHP Bailey Falter, whose name matches his performance thus far as he’s 0-7 on the year. Yikes for them. Yippee for us.
This has to be a temporary rotation probably. Too good to keep this up much long. Strider, Fried, Morton, etc. will be back on track in a week or less. Meantime, offense will win braves a few more games.
Thanks, Cliff. You know, even if the Braves play at a .400 clip the rest of the way, they are likely to win the division. The Phillies would have to go 30-17, a .638 clip. The latter could happen, of course, but it’s not likely. It’s also very hard to imagine the Braves going 20-30.
True, more starting pitching like the last 5 games is a good recipe for .400 or worse. But let’s give credit to the Braves’ bullpen, which has been outstanding since May. In the last five games, the pen has surrendered only 4 runs in 21.2 innings. That allowed the team to be in all five games and to win the last 2.
Of course, the fact that the pen had to pitch 21 plus innings in five games is not exactly a formula for long term success.
Thanks, Cliff.
I like our boys. Fried and Strider will be okay. Perhaps Elder will revert to first half form today. Perhaps.
If not, hey, a fully restored Michael Soroka is just around the corner.
Old men dream dreams.
This will serve as the afternoon game thread.
Holy cow, that’s ABC baseball! A single, a stolen base, a single – man, the Braves are devastating in the first inning.
Arcia gave that one a longer ride than I thought – it looked like a gapper off the bat! I think there’s just a possibility that he’s the guy his numbers say he is. Man, what a player.
Matt Olson is good.
Our starting rotation is absolutely dog right now.
The HBP was BS. The batter leaned into it and let the ball gently caress his elbow guard. It didn’t deflect and it was barely outside the strike zone.
And the throw from the outfield was also way up the line, or the sacrifice fly wouldn’t have been a sac fly.
There have been a fair amount of bad defense and bad luck on this road trip which haven’t helped the pitching at all. That being said, every one of those instances seems to have spiraled partly because none of the starters on this trip through the rotation have managed to nut up and make a pitch when needed. Fried last night could’ve held it to two but instead allows the game-tying hit; Elder could’ve not allowed the walk or the two-run single; Strider could’ve made a pitch at any point to get out of that inning; etc.
Elder is often his own worst enemy. He walks way too many people and if he gives in he tends to get hit. When you rely on missing the fat part of the bat sometimes you can’t and things escalate from there.
I guess we should have traded for Hayes and Reynolds just so they couldn’t act like Ruth and Gehrig this week.
Were we not due for a crappy roadtrip?
We were but Elder seems to by trending toward pumpkin status at this point when not facing the Brewers anyway. Between he and Yonny we have a whole patch starting to grow out in the lawn.
I’m not even willing to grant Putter’s implication that this week means anything long term. It’s gonna have to be crappier for longer before I actually start worrying about anything. But none of that means I should enjoy watching bad baseball…and that’s what this week has been from a non-offensive standpoint.
If Brad Hand is the answer, then … what was the question? Ugh our team ERA has to be nearly worst in baseball post ASB. I guess the offense just needs a challenge.
Not far wrong – coming into today, we’re 27th. Guess who’s 28th? The Pirates!
At this very moment, we’re at 5.17 and they’re at 5.21 post-ASB. So we’re just barely clinging onto 27th place.
https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=all&stats=pit&lg=all&qual=0&type=8&season=2023&month=1000&season1=2023&ind=0&team=0%2Cts&rost=0&age=0&filter=&players=0&startdate=2023-07-10&enddate=2023-08-31&sort=17%2Ca
Just a little slump for the starting rotation. I was worried Elder might be hitting a wall with his first full MLB season, but he pitched 155 innings last year across levels, so he’s probably ok for a little while longer. I’m probably more worried about Strider in that regard.
I have to admit that I’m a little disappointed with Harris’ defense. There are 2 balls he couldn’t get to that has led to multiple runs, one of which because he mistimed his jump. The advanced metrics don’t love his defense, which is the only thing keeping him back from being one of the game’s elites. Hopefully he cleans a few things up.
I am tiring very quickly of the opposition scoring lots of runs.
Oh, that strike three call to Olson to end the game was utter horse puckey. The umpire called that like he had a bus to catch.
Yeah, that was clearly up. Too close to take, but out of the zone nonetheless.
In other news, our man Sean Murphy is now hitting .263/.338/.458 since his hitting high mark on May 6th. So that’s not good. He’s still, however, leading all catchers in fWAR. Murphy has been so valuable behind the dish that he matches Olson’s fWAR in 165 less PAs. Per PA, Fangraphs thinks he’s been about as valuable as Acuna.
Oh, and I’ve been meaning to ask the Journal this question: Mickey Moniak has really blossomed in LA after leaving Philly. Really an incredible waste of a #1 pick by Philly when all they got back was 9 starts of Noah Syndergaard. Since the Great Rebuild, who’s the guy that’s done the best since we traded him away?
Probably Andrelton with the Angels. Alex Wood also had a couple of good years.
Evan Phillips? William Contreras? Craig Kimbrel? Alex Wood? We let Christian Walker get away on waivers. Lucas Sims has turned into a pretty good reliever. Joey Wentz still has potential. We let Kevin Gausman get away on waivers. If you include players not re-signed then Freddie, Dansby, Joc Pederson, Adam Duvall, and Jorge Soler come into play. Will Smith has been better than Jake Odorizzi.
I didn’t get to catch much of this game, but it seems like Braves were maybe a little unlucky offensively? The game log on Baseball Savant is showing plenty of hard-hit balls that went for lineouts, groundouts, and flyouts.
Recapped