After rallying past the Cubs in dramatic fashion the last two nights, Los Bravos kicked the Cubs while they are down, earning a 5-3 win Thursday evening.
Matt Olson set a new franchise RBI record (136) with a two-run homer in the bottom of the first, perhaps driving the final nail in the Cubs playoff coffin. The Braves scored two more times in the second and added a single run in the third to seal the deal.
Solid pitching performances
Young AJ Smith-Shawver shoved in 3 2/3 innings of work. He walked Michael Tauchman to start the game, which is rarely a good sign. Tauchman eventually came around to score, but that’s all the Cubs got off the Braves rookie. Smith-Shawver struck out two and didn’t allow a hit before being lifted for Kyle Wright in the fourth inning. Wright followed Smith-Shawver and earned the win, allowing a run and three hits while striking out four in 2 1/3. Joe Jimenez worked a clean seventh, AJ Minter allowed a run in the eighth, and Raisel Iglesias saved it with a clean ninth. The eighth could’ve been much worse for Minter, but he induced a 6-4-3 double play from old friend Dansby Swanson to end the threat.
Austin Riley seemed to have some issues with the outfield fence Thursday night. Perhaps he was trying to create an escape route for the Cubs while they are down, I don’t know, but he pounded balls off the right-field and center-field wall in a 3-for-4 performance. Riley singled in the first, tripled in the third, and doubled to center in the fifth. Unfortunately, he popped out in the seventh to fall short of the cycle. Quietly, Riley’s OPS is up to .865 and needs just four RBI to be fourth Brave with 100 RBI.
Record watch
Atlanta is also three homers short of the Minnesota Twins all-time MLB homer mark. Ozzie Albies needs two home runs to be the fifth Brave with 35 or more HRs this season. And Kevin Pillar is sitting on nine. Wouldn’t it be awesome if he could get one more this weekend? That would mean all the position players, save Nicky Lopez, have 10 or more HRs! Well, save Forrest Wall, too, I guess. The numbers are still impressive!
With the win, the Braves have the home-field advantage as long as they are playing in the 2023 post-season. They improved to 103-56 and have the GNats coming to town to conclude the regular season. There are more records to break, but I also imagine some of the regulars may get some rest here and there. Allan WINans gets another opportunity to build his case for making the playoff roster tonight. He will take on Trevor Williams (6-10, 5.55). First pitch is set for 7:20 ET/6:20 CT.
Crossposting my comment on Ronald from the last thread:
Ronald’s ability to make adjustments is easily the thing that has impressed me most about him since the moment he got called up. (Same with Harris.) Obviously, he cut his strikeout rate in half this year, and he did it while increasing his average exit velocity. Quite frankly, to me, I think that’s the single most impressive thing he’s done this year.
He nearly halved his launch angle (it was 14 before this year; now it’s 7.5) and he’s pulling the ball less than he ever has before; basically, he’s hitting lasers all over the field and he’s so strong that a lot of them just go over the fence despite themselves. If he sold out for power like Ozzie does – Ozzie’s launch angle this year is 16.4, and Matt Olson’s is 16.2, more than double Ronald’s 7.5 – he could hit 60.
Remarkably, his BABIP is actually pretty much identical to his career norms (.335 this year, .333 for his career); he’s hitting .336 because he is making tons more contact with the ball, and yet, whenever he makes contact, he’s not getting cheated. Along with everything else, he nearly halved his infield fly ball percentage, from 8.3% before this year to 4.7% this year.
He’s walking, making contact, and stealing bases like a traditional leadoff hitter, and he’s hitting velocity nightmare line drive home runs like Gary Sheffield. And he’s 25 and has demonstrated the ability to continue to learn, adapt, and adjust. All of the adjustments he made this year have served to make him a devastatingly more complete hitter. It’s really pretty astounding.
For td from the last thread: Ronald has seven streaks of two consecutive hitless games this season but none longer. Three were before the ASB, three were after, and one straddled the break.
It’s not really a record, but here’s the list of most runs scored in a single season since 1937 (or since WWII or since integration if you want a non-cherry-picked year):
152 – Jeff Bagwell, 2000
150 – Ted Williams, 1949 (in a 154-game season)
146 – Rickey Henderson, 1985; Craig Bigio, 1997; Sammy Sosa 2001; Ronald Acuna Jr., 2023
There have been 65 player-seasons with 146 or more runs scored. 58 were before 1900 or in the 1920s/1930s. Ty Cobb’s 148 in 1911 was the only one in the 1900s or 1910s.
RAJ’s year just shows what it takes to score 150ish runs: a leadoff hitter, missing only 3 games all year, leading the league in OBP, driving himself in with 40+ HR, stealing 70 bases to put himself in scoring position often, having good hitters behind him to drive him in, and having a high-OBP team in general so he gets more opportunities. I suppose he could’ve scored a few more runs with HOF-type hitters behind him, and if he hadn’t missed those three games, and if the Braves pitching had been weaker so he would’ve had a few more chances to bat in the bottom of the 9th, and if the Manfred Man didn’t exist so he could have had a few more PA in long extra-inning games.
[Apologies for the crossposting… I had two BJ windows open and didn’t realize it.]
When the “Ronald-Acuña-has-been-passed-by-Mookie-Betts” talk started in July. there was a reasonably big gap in WAR that gave Betts some ammunition, Now Betts leads by 0.1 in WAR and has one more RBI. He trails in every other stat, though only significantly in BA and stolen bases. https://stathead.com/tiny/XShTL I continue to think that the MLB-leading CS number (14) significantly detracts from the true import of 70 SB, but not nearly so much to overcome RAJ’s enormous lead. He’s a bridge-jumping lock now.
I have my playoff predictions ready, but I’m not going to post them until next week. Suffice it to say that the best team every year has about a 22-25% chance of emerging as champion. The rest is mere speculation.
Right. In last year’s ALCS, it was 1 vs. 2 seed; but in the NLCS, it was 5 vs. 6 seed. Pretty sure nobody predicted that.
Three 3 more HRs, maybe a 20th Strider win & zero injuries vs. the Nats would make for a successful Braves wknd…
Weird, But Kinda Important Series of the Wknd: Houston @ Arizona.
And if the Marlins have to finish that suspended game at Citi Field vs. the Mets on Monday (they’re up 2-1 in the top of the 9th w/ 2 on & 2 out), how long will it take to finish? Will there even be one single fan in the building?
Don’t know if you have seen this, but Angel Hernandez is up to his old tricks again. I think this may be the most egregious check swing call I have ever seen. Sure hope he’s not assigned to any of the Braves playoff games.
https://www.espn.com/video/clip?id=38515004
Wouldn’t break my heart if he calls the Phils’ WC series, of course…
the 14 caught stealing isn’t that bad, it still works out to 83% success rate, which is actually slightly higher than the 82% mookie has for going 14 for 17 in sb attempts.
It never would have been possible without Braves Journal…
‘Merriam-Webster also used its latest update to legitimize a popular “Simpsons”-ism coined in a 1996 episode: “cromulent.”’