Eddie Rosario followed Marcell Ozuna‘s two out single in the 8th with a 441 foot homer to center field to give the Braves a come from behind victory.
Braves pitchers came into Saturday’s play riding a 27 game scoreless streak. That lasted one pitch. LaMonte Wade Jr. led off the game with a homer, the first of 4 runs allowed by Yonny Chirinos in 4 innings of work. The Braves tied the game at 4 in the 5th on Ronald Acuna Jr.‘s solo homer, his 28th of the season. The Giants pulled back ahead in the 6th off of Brad Hand and Pierce Johnson, but A.J. Minter, Kirby Yates, and Raisel Iglesias shut them down the rest of the way.
Eddie went 4 – 4 on the night, and Marcell’s 3 hits extended his hitting streak to 16 games.
The Braves have won 5 in a row and 10 of the last 12, and with 80 wins hold a 4.5 game lead over the Dodgers and Orioles for the best record in the Majors. Atlanta goes for the sweep on Sunday at 1:35 Eastern; Max Fried and Jakob Junis scheduled.
Sunday Game Thread
Ben Ingram’s call and this angle of Eddie Rosario‘s HR was just too good not to post.
Ozzie Albies Update
Kelly stomps around the land of Vague here, but it’s good to see him moving around. This video seems to imply that he’ll be out a bit longer than 10 days.
I HAD to Do It!
Ok…so I fat-fingered a “w” in there which will likely bring the trolls out, but how on earth can someone make this comp with a straight face?
Braves Lineup
Edit: MHII was scratched with a bruised foot. Kevin Pillar will take his spot.
At one point, we Braves Journalers were worried about this team’s play post All Star Break. They went into the break with a record of 60-29 and are now sitting at 80-42, which calculates to a 20-13, a 60.6 win% for the 2nd half. They’re back to playing stellar baseball and the good $ is that the 2nd half will look very similar in the end.
Once again, Nicky Lopez starts at 2B.
They really must think Chirinos has something worth waiting for. The Bowman game story included this: “As he distances himself from a rough recovery from Tommy John surgery, there are signs he could get back to where he was in 2019, when he posted a 3.54 ERA in 18 starts for the Rays.”
So, that’s the company line. The team thinks he was good once (four years ago!) and can be good again, and is prepared to wait as long as they need. Because he’s out of options, he has to take his lumps in the majors. And the team clearly feels like it has enough room in their division lead to be able to afford to give him all these opportunities to suck, in the hopes that maybe just maybe there’s a pitcher inside him who doesn’t suck.
Well, in AA I trust. That’s all I can say.
I think it just felt like it was a 27-game scoreless streak that Braves pitchers had.
A surprise win for the Braves. I’m hoping that was the last start for Chironis. Looking forward to Fried’s start this afternoon,
One possible wrinkle to the mystery of Yonny Chirones (that is, why keep running him out there) is that they don’t want to recall Soroka before September 13. If they wait that long, apparently it will give them another year before Michael can become a free agent. See https://www.si.com/mlb/braves/analysis/explaining-the-michael-soroka-service-time-manipulation-thing#:~:text=Michael%20Soroka%2C%20right%20now%2C%20has,automatically%20updates%20during%20the%20season.
I don’t know if there’s any truth to that. That would only make sense if they believe that Soroka may get back to some semblance of his 2019 self.
I also suspect Alex is right–they still see some chance that Yonny may yet be good. Given the huge division lead, there’s nothing to lose in running him out there. And with this offense and bullpen, it’s not like his starts are automatic losses. See, e.g., last night!
Speaking of Soroka, another very good start last night: nine Ks and no walks.
I get that but Winans could also be called up. At this point, the Braves are just seeing something that nobody else does.
I think they would love to make it work with Chirinos. Unfortunately, Chirinos is just a fringe starter, and he’s probably destined for the pen where I think he’ll be really good. So if it’s truly about trying to get Soroka to September 13th, then I can deal with a few more Chirinos starts since I think Chirinos is in our plans long-term to some extent.
Soroka was probably rushed and we’re seeing it now. We do not need Soroka right now, bottom line. Let him keep working, and he could be a secret weapon in the playoffs.
Plus, I’m gonna keep beating the drum, but I remain worried about how effective this rotation will be in the postseason, and you might very well see Soroka AND Chirinos start playoff games. Some folks need to remember that Tucker Davidson and Dylan Lee started playoff games for us (Lee started in the WS, right?).
Ultimately, I am really enjoying this season, and I think AA/Snit are geniuses. So I pretty much trust implicitly.
Max might want to stop hanging breaking balls to right handed hitters. Sometimes it feels like he overthinks it out there.
Edit- sounds like a hang nail or something
I appear to have interrupted the Angel Hernandez ump show
Dooooooomed?
Bowman is speculating that Winans will be called up to start tomorrow and push the rest of the rotation back a day. I would guess they would DFA Chirinos to make room.
This is the weakest the Braves bats have looked in a while.
Iglesias pitched the last 2 days and 3 of the last 4 so I guess that’s why he isn’t pitching
Kirby is having a full-throttle Episode.
Two walks and two HBP.
Woof.
Yates has the worst FIP in the bullpen. Even worse than McHugh, who is replacing him. Maybe he shouldn’t be the top RH set-up option.
Recapped: https://bravesjournal.com/2023/08/20/giants-4-braves-3/