Well, we couldn’t get all the way through this series without succumbing to at least a couple of the problems that had been plaguing us early in the week, I guess. Yonny Chirinos and Collin McHugh contrived to allow six runs in a disastrous fifth inning, turning what had been a 3-1 Braves lead and a decent start by Chirinos into a mess. The Braves came close to rallying from four runs down late, but came up a run short.
As was the case all series last week in Pittsburgh, the nightmare inning was part bad luck, part crappy defense and part a complete inability to make a freaking pitch when doing so would’ve ended the inning much sooner. There was a weird catcher’s interference call and Austin Riley left an out on the table with a momentary bobble on a play at third. But mostly there were four straight batters who got a virtual free pass (three walks and the catcher’s interference), and the Mets scored runs directly off of three of those plate appearances. That’s, um…not winning baseball.
McHugh was a significant part of the problem, to be sure. He would’ve executed the rare triple Grybo with a stick of the landing had it not been for the interference. As it was, he allowed a single unearned run to go with the triple Gyrbo…so I’d say a half-point deduction for a small step backward to steady himself on the landing.
I’m not prepared to take this gymnastics metaphor any further, so back to Chirinos. Uh, yeah…can we be done with this guy already? I’m not as convinced as everyone else that they’re going to cut bait here, mainly because they seem fascinated by the prospect of doing anything they can possibly do to not pull the trigger on the obvious thing, which is giving Michael Soroka the spot for the rest of the season and seeing what he can do. I very much hope that that’s what they do now, but we’ll see (and if they do what Roger suggested late in the last thread and throw bullpen games until Kyle Wright comes back, I’m going to scream into a pillow).
On the plus side, the offense still scored six runs. A bases-clearing double by Marcell Ozuna gave the Braves a 3-0 lead in the first, then after they squandered that, home runs by Sean Murphy and Matt Olson (his 43rd) brought the visitors to within a run. It wasn’t to be, though.
Still, the Braves turned in a 6-5 road trip after a bunch of people were wringing their hands over how bad it was mere days ago. And a 6-5 road trip is certainly fine. They kept their 11-game division lead too, after the Phillies lost another one to the Twins. And now for a long homestand: three with the Yankees, three with San Francisco and, oh look, three more with those loveable Mets. Unfortunately, those three games will be the last we see of the Mets this year.
From last thread: I agree with AR and JF in that it’s valuable to know what ya got going into this last month. However, what we already knew was Chirinos was a barely acceptable 5th starter beforehand and continued to show he’s barely a 5th starter.
And while I love McHugh and, at one point, just thought this was stat regression that many relievers go through, I think it’s more than that now. He needs an IL stint.
Outright Chirinos; move Dylan Lee from 60 day IL to active roster; call up Soroka – and of course, IL McHugh as noted. This seems pretty simple.
I think Winans is more deserving than Soroka.
Yeah, I’m with you, B14. As much as I love Soroka and want him to lock up a spot in the starting rotation, he just hasn’t shown any real flashes of brilliance this year. His command has been erratic and his Barrel% is up significantly from previous seasons. Winans has been quite good in his two starts, to the tune of a 1.59 ERA, 1.86 FIP, and 3.16 xFIP. His changeup is a real plus pitch and hitters are hitting only .100 against his slider. It’s a small sample, to be sure, but it’s been a promising debut for Allan so far.
Trying to remember how the expanded roster in September works. As I remember when they changed in from “however many of the 40 you want” to “28 out of the 40” (4 years ago?) I thought you could designate anybody on the 40 and not on the 10 day or 60 day IL as “active” and “undesignate as active” any time you wanted to.
I made my suggestions because of the lack of optionable pitchers. Chirinos is the only one close (and that one is iffy). If McHugh gets an IL stint then that would open another spot. I don’t think we’re going to see the Gwinnett rollercoaster any more. Maybe if McHugh goes IL then there will be a chance to see Soroka or Winans instead of bullpen games. But I think the FO is looking to get Lee and Wright back and call it a day. Next year we may look to get Matzek, Ynoa, Ian Anderson back in the mix along with Soroka, Winans and all the rest of the AAA starters. Makes me think that re-signing Max may be a pipe dream, too. Losing both Charlie and Max will decimate this pitching corps.
I am waiting on pins and needles for a shoe to drop somewhere.
1) Obligatory reminder that you can’t IL people simply because they’re pitching poorly.
2) I wouldn’t mind it that much if they chose Winans over Soroka, as long as they promise to dump Chirinos, but that still leaves them with not much to go on to make an informed decision about what to do with Soroka at the end of the season. I know some on here think they already have enough info to do that through watching him pitch in Triple A, which maybe they do. But they’re barreling toward non-tendering him (or giving him arbitration, if you believe that) without ever really watching him pitch in the majors as of right now. If they’re comfortable with that…have at it, I guess. I’d rather see him pitch in the majors before making either decision based entirely on Triple A numbers.
I note that we have released Brandol Mezquita from Rome. He was the last of the “Coppy 12” and the only one to stay with the Braves
I read a piece that said that, as was predicted on Braves Journal, Dylan Lee would be extended to pitch multiple innings and his return may be delayed until September. I think the entire Braves’ strategy is about the post season. Fried could have probably come back sooner along with Lee and Wright, but why risk it? Those guys are not needed for us to win the division, but are needed in the post-season. A rotation of Fried, Wright, Strider, and 1 of Morton, Soroka, or Elder as the 4th starter is going to be difficult for anyone. It doesn’t matter how many starts Wright and Soroka get in the next 6 weeks. It only matters that they are ready for the playoffs. Absolutely no reason to rush anyone.