We all know that with changes in latitudes, changes in attitudes, nothing remains quite the same. But this Braves team continues to perform at a consistently great level. Friday night in LA, our Hammers defeated the Dodgers for the second night in a row, running their season record to 89-45; they are on pace to set the all-time franchise record for wins in a season. Their lead over the Dodgers for the best record in the league—and in MLB—is up to six games.
Once again, the Braves jumped on the Dodgers early, building a 5-0 lead through five innings. That’s the point at which I gave up the ghost and fell asleep. That’s two West Coast Friday night recaps in a row for me. I stayed awake (if not alert) to the end last week, but there is only so much I can do. They built that lead behind solo homers from Travis d’Arnaud, Ronald Acuña, Jr., and Marcell Ozuna. That’s number 10 for Travis, giving the Braves 10 players with double digit dingers. That’s number 31 for Ronald, breaking (not for the last time, I’m sure) his record for homers by a guy with 60 steals (and many other records as JonathanF can tell us). And that’s 32 for Marcell, who had three hits and has pushed his season OPS to .887. Nobody knows better than Ozuna that nothing remains quite the same, although his remarkable turnaround from a horrid April continues unabated.
The Braves added a couple more in the fifth to push the lead to 5-0. The inning included a double by Ronald, an infield single by Ozzie, a steal of third by RAJ (as Urias through behind him at second), a double by Riley, and a bloop rbi single by Ozuna.
Manwhile, Might Max, our own Varsity Fried, showed why he is still our Ace. Fried was masterful, shutting them out through seven, with ten K’s and only three hits. He has been the best pitcher in baseball since 2020.
The Braves tacked on one more in the eighth. That inning began Ozuna double, TDA single, Rosario rbi single, Arcia single to load the bases with no outs. But a Michael Harris strikeout and an Acuña GIDP meant only one run scored after that promising start. Still, it was 6-0 heading to the bottom of the eighth.
In the bottom of the eighth Snit turned to Pierce Johnson, who has been practically unhittable since AA acquired him at the deadline. He had his first bad outing as a Brave, surrendering a 3 run shot to Kolten Wong in the 8th, bringing the Dodgers within three. Even more frightening, Johnson gave up a walk and a single, bringing the tying run to the plate. Fortunately, Gulf of Tonkin came in to strike out Chris Taylor to end the threat. Kirby Yates shut them down in an uneventful ninth for the save. Iggy was unavailable having pitched in the previous three games.
Like you, I had no idea Wong was now a Dodger. But Dave Roberts proved his genius once again. Wong was pinch hitting for a guy named Freeman, who was only one for three on the night up to that point, allowing his OPS to drop below 1.000, to .997. Roberts must have known that Wong gave them a better chance to come back than this slumping Freeman guy.
Seriously, have y’all ever seen anything like what Roberts did in the 8th? He pinch hit for both Mookie and Freddie in that inning. True, the Braves led 6-0 at that point and had a win probability of about 99%. I guess he was resting them in a hopeless cause. I’d like to know what folks think about that strategy. I know this game doesn’t mean a whole lot for the final standings, and the likelihood of a comeback was small, but it struck me as very odd. And when they closed the gap to three runs, and then brought the tying run to the plate in the eighth, I imagine a lot of folks could second guess that decision. With two outs in the ninth, Mookie would have been on deck as the potential tying run if Heyward had reached. Yates struck out Jason to end the game, to make that academic.
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Nothing remains quite the same, but some folks are pretty consistent. We have a few commenters on this board who seem to derive great satisfaction from complaining about our bullpen. If that helps them cope with the occasional bullpen lapse, bless ‘em, but it is still a fact that the Braves’ bullpen is as strong and as deep as any in the league.
And with Fried back healthy and rounding into pitching shape, the Braves’ rotation is the best. No one has a one two punch like Fried and Strider, and if the recent version of Charlie Morton continues, that’s a killer top three.
As to the offense, what more can be said? How about this one fact: the team slugging percentage is now .501. No team has ever done that for a season. This is the deepest and best lineup I have ever seen, with the possible exception of the Big Red Machine of 1975 and 76—and that’s close. And this Braves’ rotation is stronger than that of those Reds.
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But you know, yesterday’s over our shoulder, and we can’t look back for too long. There’s too much to see waiting in front of me, and I know that they just can’t go wrong.
Jimmy Buffett was right about life. As to baseball, as good as our Braves are right now, anything could go wrong. There will be October baseball for us, and that’s the best kind, but we also know that it’s a crapshoot. Still, I like these Braves and their chances.
As Jimmy would advise us, we should relish this moment. We may never see another team like this one.
RIP Jimmy Buffett.
With the standard disclaimer that I am neither an MLB manager nor someone privy to the inner dynamics of Dodgerland, I agree that the decision looks odd. And it looks even odder given the fact that there was a guy on when Peralta came in to hit for Betts. The best explanation I can come up with is that Roberts didn’t want Pierce Johnson to get extra experience pitching to Betts or Freeman, playing the long game for the NLCS. But note that Mookie Betts has an OPS of over 2.000 against Pierce Johnson! (In 8 career plate appearances, some of which were in Coors Field)
Overall, I’d say that Kolten Wong’s homer was wasted away in Margaritaville, or whatever it is they drink there in LA.
I would say that pinch hitting for Betts and Freeman (and even Muncy earlier) were some of the most mind-boggling managerial moves I have ever seen. He pinch hit for two of the top 5 hitters in the league and sacrificed over 1.100 points of OPS with the 3 hitters. The Dodgers are a good enough team where 6 runs should not be considered an automatic loss. After the totally lucky hr by Wong, they even had the tying run at the plate. I don’t think this was the case, but if it was someone besides Roberts that was the manager who was very controversial, there could have been accusations about tanking for a betting line or something. It was just all kinds of odd.
I don’t think it was totally lucky, Kolten went down below the strike zone to put it over the fence.
Pirate looks at forty, one of my all time favorite songs.
We are so lucky. Go Braves!
While I understand and agree that our bullpen is one of the best in the game, I still think there’s room for improvement at the bottom (Hand? McHugh?). Maybe it only makes a difference for the playoffs but I was hoping a waiver acquisition or Lee or Chavez/Anderson might be able to make an improvement. I still hope Vines will stabilize the 5th spot but I saw a thing from Peanut where he said the Braves don’t care too much about instability in the 5th rotation slot.
A big question I have for the future is if we have to choose between a long term deal for Fried and another year of Morton, which way should we go? I think the obvious answer is to extend Fried and let the farm take care of Charlie’s spot (give Morton’s money to Fried). I have a hard time believing we couldn’t find three excellent rotation pieces (behind Fried and Strider) from among Elder, Wright, Vines, Soroka, I. Anderson, Shuster, Dodd, Vines, Waldrop, AJSS, Ynoa. Among others, too.
When Fried pitches against the Dodgers, he’s auditioning.
I saw this tweeted clip the other day and thought the part that they didn’t quote, where Charlie Morton says he wants to be involved in helping other pitchers in their day-to-day “mostly off the field,” was telling.
I agree with Roger that although the bullpen is solid there is room for improvement at the bottom end. But that’s where Dylan Lee figures in. He’s been excellent in his short time in the bigs, and figures to be a big improvement over McHugh. But Roger knows that, of course. No one has been more resolute in asking about Lee’s return than he has!
As to Fried, I’d love for AA to sign him long term. I like Max almost as much as our former poster Bethany does. But I suspect there is very little chance of that. It will take more money and more years than Anthopoulos has been willing to give to anybody.
When Fried took off his cap in the dugout after the 7th, it looked like he was losing the hair on the top of his head. My perhaps unfair or illogical first thought was “even if he’s at his peak now, that’s not a good sign – no long-term contract.”
Maybe it’s just nostalgia, but I don’t see this lineup as quite as good as the Big Red Machine’s. The BRM had four HOF-caliber players (counting Rose, and acknowledging that Perez was borderline), two of whom are in the conversations for best ever at their positions. Ronald has a good shot at the Hall, but I doubt many serious people would argue that he’s in the class of Aaron or Ruth. I doubt any of the other position players will make the Hall. What this team has is a bunch of All-Star caliber players and, now that Rosario and Ozuna are hitting, no real weaknesses. As I see it, the Reds win at C, 2B, SS, and LF (Foster), while the Braves win at CF and RF, with 1B and 3B (Rose) pretty even. Don’t know how to factor in the DH. If you consider the teams over several years, it’s not too different, though the Braves may pick up 1B by adding in Freeman’s last years, and SS may be closer, while Rose probably takes the lead over Riley at 3B. The Braves are only 0.2 R/game ahead of the Dodgers, and behind in OPS+, which includes a park adjustment, while the 1975 Reds scored 0.65 R/game more than any other team in the NL.
The Braves pitching is better, especially as far as top starters. The 1975 Reds had something I don’t think I’ve ever seen before, though – their 11 main pitchers all had W-L records over .500, and their only other pitcher was 0-0 and gave up no runs in two innings. Even the 116-36 1906 Cubs had one guy with a 3-5 record to go along with their 0-0 guy in 1 IP and their 7 other pitchers with .714 or better.
The 2001 Mariners had 14 pitchers at .500 or above. The only exception was the 0-4 closer, Sasaki. It would be almost impossible to have a winning record as the closer of a team that won 116 games.