The Braves had a mix of good and bad news in yesterday’s cancellation. It was brought to our attention that it was likely that Charlie Morton would have to go to the IL and today, the inevitable happened:
Allan Winans gets today’s start while Charlie Morton will end his regular season campaign on the IL. Winans will likely start today and could get another start considering that Max Fried is also on the IL through the rest of the regular season.
Hurston Waldrep Likely to Get Called Up
Hurston Waldrep has skyrocketed through the system and last night, he threw 4.1 innings of 0 run baseball (was on a 75 pitch limit), struck out 5, gave up 4 hits (all singles) and walked 3. I’m guessing the Braves will give him one of the starts at the end of this week to see what he’s got.
The Lineup has not been announced yet and I’ll be gone when it does get announced, but I’m sure you all will be fine~
Hope Charlie heals up quickly. We need someone to pitch in the playoffs. Speaking of Charlie, though, I wonder if the free agency of Snell and Nola affects the decision to pick up his $20 mil option. Charlie is still vintage from time to time, but it’s becoming more rare, and most starts are gutty performances pitching around lots of baserunners. It’s not bad value, still, to pick it up, but I have wished the team would spend on an ace for years. We’re always thin at SP and our own ace hasn’t shown much interest in signing a long-term deal.
Today’s twofer is in DC, which is a good thing, as it’s still raining here in Philly and is expected to do so throughout the day. They somehow managed to get the Phillies-Mets in yesterday despite Ophelia, but I think today will be a tougher slog. DC forecast looks pretty good, though.
The IL situation with Fried and Morton is exactly the kind of scenario cooked up by the baseball gods to cause the stomach of a worry-wart fan like myself to churn.
That lineout by Ronald was 118 mph off the bat and had an xBA of .830.
I hate barreled outs.
Baseball can be truly sickening
To make matters worse, it came just after a bases loaded infield hit for the Nats
Did anyone tell the Braves hitters there was a game this afternoon?
Our day game offense
Didn’t get to watch Kyle wright but line score was encouraging. What did you guys think? Also encouraged to see a homer by Murphy. He has been battling. And Winans worked out of a jam and pitched ok. If we get wright shaping up and Murphy back on track that is a productive loss.
I guess it’s probably obvious by now, but I’ll do one recap after Game 2 covering both games.
Brief thoughts on Game 1: Kyle Wright good, offense bad, Winans meh.
So at this point we apparently have zero starting pitchers heading into the playoffs
Pillar doesn’t get a ton of hits, but he sure has gotten some big ones for us
TDA’s swing on 3-2 at a pitch 6 inches above the zone reminds me of this article:
All players need to be taught to think situationally. The chances you, a hitter with a .189 average over the last 3 months who can’t catch up to high fastballs, are going to be on time for that pitch and put it in play are next to zero. “Too close to take” is a failed adage. On a 50/50 borderline 3-2 pitch a 50% chance to get on base is the best you are going to do. Taking strike 3 isn’t the worst thing that can happen, it’s swinging at ball 4 and missing.
Smile, Forrest, smile.
Awesome for him. Love it
The Nats are getting some really good swings at Strider’s fastball
Giants tie it up in the top of the 5th. Cmon Giants
In which I moan about being bored with meaningless baseball and there’s still another week of it: https://bravesjournal.com/2023/09/25/braves-and-nats-split-doubleheader-and-im-ready-for-this-pre-playoff-purgatory-to-end/