You know the old saying, “If at first (or second) you don’t succeed, try, try again,” yeah? Well, that’s what we’re after tonight in the Braves, Cardinals – Take 3 game. And no, we don’t want the Cardinals to take three…Braves Country simply hopes our boy Maximum Fried shows up in order to salvage a game with the Birds.
In the first two games of this series, Atlanta’s starting pitching was for the Birds…quite literally. Michael Soroka surrendered five runs in his start on Monday, and Spencer Strider gave up 4 in the first inning alone last night. The Birds have been belting home runs as if they are the Braves. Fried hopes to slow them down tonight and end the bleeding.
Let’s hope Wainwright is Waywrong
Again, it has been the pitching that has created the issues here. Atlanta has scored six runs and had multiple home runs in each of the first two games of the series. Tonight, Fried will take on the shell-of-his-former-self Adam Wainwright. Wainwright is 3-10 with an 8.10 ERA, which means he will probably show out tonight, with the way things have gone in this series. Granted they are small-sample sizes, but we have reason to hope! Many of the Braves in tonight’s lineup have enjoyed previous success against the aging righty. Cheers to continuing to hammer the ball, but with much better BABIP luck tonight.
Despite hitting like 20 balls with exit veils of more than 100 each of the first two games, the dang at’em ball has been an issue. It was good to see Ronnie get a hit again last night, and to see Austin Riley and Matt Olson go deep, too. Let’s hope those three, and Marcell OHzuna all go yard – and do it early – so the night can be an enjoyable one. I’m on recap duty tonight, and don’t want to turn in a shorter recap than Cliff did today. I will if I have to, but I hope to hear better results from Atlanta…I say hear because of MLB’s stupid blackout rules. That’s been the only good news of this series so far – I’ve been blacked out.
Some good news
Soroka’s future in Atlanta is in question, as he is out of options, and may go as non-tendered this off-season. The poor kid finally caught a bit of a break in that his forearm inflammation apparently won’t require surgery. Heal well, young man! We’re all still pulling for you – even if it has to be in a different uniform in 2024.
Here’s to forcing Wainwright to go blackout after a good pummeling in Braves, Cardinals – Take 3. First pitch is 7:20 ET/6:20 CT.
Oh my goodness. Varsity, get ahold of yourself.
How can you not throw strikes to the Vermicious Knizner?
Right?
My bad, y’all. I was on my bike listening to the game when A unable homered, Ozzie reached, and all of a sudden
Olson was up. 🤦🏻♂️ Snit is sitting Riley tonight, so will have to hit a pinch-hit homer if he’s gonna homer tonight. 😂
Did they leave their ability to get quality starts behind in Los Angeles? This is pathetic.
Good grief, we are making heavy weather of this series.
But I will add, I’m glad to see Snit resting some of his regulars and giving Lopez at bats. It’s not the offense’s fault we’re making the Cards look like world beaters.
Riley is sick so not sure it was a planned thing.
Right, Ryan. He’s sick!
Ronald would like you to know that he does not think the Cardinals are world beaters.
Pierce Johnson has been such a great addition to the bullpen. A great pickup by AA, as usual.
If this team has a weakness that’s going to be exposed in the postseason, it’s Acuña. He only hits multiple homers in games where the offense scores a lot of runs. Why doesn’t he ever hit two homers in a 1-0 game?
Oh, Michael. You can sure catch the ball.
This is gold!
Man we hit alot of homers, mostly solo shots this series. I’m certainly not worried about the offense. The pitching, well, lets just put it down to a bad series (like that Dbacks one earlier) and move on.