I agree with Nick yesterday. If they’re not going to take playing the game seriously, I’ll be damned if I’m going to take recapping seriously. (I don’t think you can get any lazier than the illustrative picture above.) The 3D Chess version of the last two weeks is that the Braves want to face the Marlins in the playoffs for some reason and fear the Philles. It’s an idiotic position, but it’s a position. Me? I just like to watch entertaining baseball games.
The Game
Kyle Wright wriggled out of trouble in the first, but gave up the lead on a two run homer in the second, catapulting the Phillies over Ozzie Albies’ solo shot in the first. A solo shot from Bryce Harper made it 3-1. A leadoff homer from JT Realmuto in the 4th made it 4-1. Wright pitched well, ignoring the homers, which has a bit of the “Other than that, how was the play, Mrs. Lincoln?” feel. It does not appear that Kyle has much to offer the Braves in the playoffs – certainly not as a starter.
The Phillies weren’t done. Nick Castellanos and Kyle Schwarber hit homers off Gulf Tonkin to make it 7-1.
A rally of sorts emerged for the Braves in the 6th, but Wheeler struck out The Mime with the bases loaded to end the threat.
After that, both teams executed plays which conformed to the Rules of Baseball until the conclusion.
Statistical Oddity of the Game
Zachary Harrison Wheeler is one of the few players with the first and middle names which match the first and last names of two different US Presidents of the mid-19th Century. I’d make that precise, but like the Braves, I’m saving the good stuff for the playoffs.
BestOfBothWorldsWatch
Well, the quest to lead the NL in both most runs scored and fewest runs allowed is not well served by a 16-2 loss. Atlanta has no chance of giving up the fewest runs any more. (Well, I estimate it at around a 0.4% chance, and you can cue the Jim Carrey references, but I really didn’t like that movie all that much.)
That said, they are at an 87% probability of leading MLB in runs scored. That’s nothing to sneeze at.
Enough of this crap, eh?
I hope the Braves know what they’re doing by putting on the brakes. Losing can take a set and become habit forming.
Depending on exactly how I read your criteria (whether the pitcher’s first name has to be the ex-President’s first name and his middle name has to be the other ex-President’s last name or whether it can go either way), a current Brave may meet and even exceed them. Pierce William Johnson has the first name of William Henry Harrison (1841) and the last name of Franklin Pierce (1853-57), as well as the last name of Andrew Johnson (1865-69).
So I went from Van Buren to Pierce, created the cartesian product of first and last names less the actual names and then compared it to the given names in the MLB database. That leaves us with:
name name_given mlb_played_first mlb_played_last
Truck Hannah James Harrison 1918 1920
Tyler Greene James Tyler 2009 2013
Taylor Phillips William Taylor 1956 1963
Bill Nagel William Taylor 1939 1945
Will Harris William Taylor 2012 2021
Zack Wheeler Zachary Harrison 2013 2023
@JamesD: well sure, if you’re going to be incredibly lax about the criteria, almost anything is possible. [JK. Nice find.]
I couldn’t help myself and did a little research. When the visiting team hits 5 homers and the home team hits one, the visiting teams are 194-11. I’m amazed it’s even that close. It’s 206-12 when it’s the home team hitting 5.
Wright did a few things well in this outing. He struck out Castellanos on just three pitches, froze Schwarber on a 3-2 front-door sinker, and threw some nice biting curveballs. Clearly, though, the command is still way, way off. A 5/4 K/BB ratio and three homers allowed is pretty awful.
We’re fortunate that one of Fried or Wright was able to come back at all this season and be reasonably effective.
And Fried seems a bit fragile, at that.
Yeah, the rotation suddenly looks very volatile. Need a good Strider start today.