The epic 1984 hit by Tears for Fears was our Monday evening response…shout, shout, let it all out! Austin Riley belted a go-ahead two-run homer, and then polished off an epic play on a chaotic end to Game Two.
I dare-say all of Braves country shouted Monday night. I know I sure did!
Following Riley’s homer, and the 8-5-3 double-play that he concluded by throwing a 1000 mph strike to Olson, my phone went crazy. Friends from around the country texted to check in on me. They wanted to celebrate with me and to marvel at that finish. I said to one friend who lives 20 minutes away, “I’m surprised you didn’t hear me.”
His response? “I didn’t hear you, but I felt you.” It is pretty cool to be known by people in such a way that they feel things with you.
For a great recap of the end of Game Two, click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h84dq7c6Zxo
CBP is hostile territory
This afternoon/evening, the Braves will venture into the hostile territory known as Citizens Bank Park. In every place Braves Journalers will be watching the game, let’s SHOUT! “Shout, shout, let it all out” from the first pitch and with every comment on this game thread.
Atlanta has won five its last six games at CBP, and they see a familiar foe in Aaron Nola in Game Three. Nola (12-9, 4.46) has seen the Braves a lot in his career. And the converse is also true. Nobody has had more success off Nola than Riley. Young Thicc has five home runs, five doubles, and nine RBI while hitting .389 in 54 ABs. Ronald Acuña Jr. is hitting .327 with fiver doubles, four homers, and nine RBI, too. Riley has an OPS of 1.180 and Acuña 1.084 lifetime vs. Nola. Marcell OHzuna has also hit four bombs off Nola and driven in eight lifetime.
Respect your Elder
The Braves counter with Bryce Elder (12-4, 3.81). The young right-hander saw the Philthy offense twice during the regular season. Brandon Marsh seems to see Elder well, going 2-for-3 lifetime. The hard-to-like Alec Bohm and Nick Castellanos are both 2-for-5 lifetime.
On June 22, Elder threw seven innings of three-hit ball. He struck out six and walked two, allowing no runs. Elder poked, prodded, and located well in this start – at Philly! Elder’s most recent start against the Philthies, however, was a clunker. He walked five and allowed four runs in 3.2 innings. Mark Carlson is behind the plate tonight, I believe, and a quick trolling on UmpScorecards may mean good news for Elder. He will allow Bryce to nibble, which hopefully means he will stay out of the middle of the zone.
Jersey swap
I’ve got a different jersey on for Game Three and trust that many of y’all have, too. I’m looking at you, tfloyd! I believe the Braves are going to get to Nola fairly early and will hang some crooked #s in CBP tonight. The pressure is now on the Philthies. Let’s get into it early and often here tonight, and let’s help the boys feel us all the way up in Philly!
“They gave you life, and in return you gave them hell.
As cold as ice, I hope we live to tell the tale.
I hope we live to tell the tale.”
Roland Orzabal, Tears for Fears
The Philthies made some mistakes, we took advantage Monday night, and they gave us life. Let’s give ’em hell in Philly tonight! First pitch is set for 5:07ET/4:07CT.
If you didn’t shout on Riley’s drive the other night – you might want to get your pulse checked.
Great pre-game write-up here, Bertie (that would be what Bobby Cox might call you).
Thanks, Christian. I’ve gone to my older Aaron jersey, instead of the newer city connect Aaron jersey. I know full well that what I wear couldn’t possibly affect the outcome. But I took off the city connect jersey after the fifth inning Monday night—and we all know what happened then. So I can’t take a chance.
I took off my Chipper City Connect after the fifth, too. Got my red Riley jersey on today!
Good first inning from Elder. Good mix, attacking hitters, adjusting eye levels.
Now let’s get some runs!
Elder walks like a dude that’s headed to cut down a tree.
One time through and a lot of weak contact (save Arcia’s foul ball) and backwards Ks. Time to adjust and mash. Hopefully Bryce can continue his good start.
So far Nola’s command is impeccable. Painting the black with his fastball and snapping off that knuckle curve where he wants. At some point he will hang a curve and/or throw the heater down the middle. At that point, just like on Monday, the Braves hitters will crush it.
I’ll say it again. Acuna has to get on base.
Edit: Yeah baby. I’m tellin’ ya; it makes all the difference.
Gosh, Elder looks better than ever. Everything down until he decides to throw FB up. Between 1st half Elder and 2nd half Elder, I’m glad he picked the OG.
Big-fly time, Marcell…
No one listens to me. Should have put in Hand there to face Harper. Could have predicted that outcome.
Never EVER let Harper beat you. I thought Snit was going to have a quick hook.
Nice quick hook on Elder, Snit….
Gross negligence
Well, Ozuna striking out to end a threat and a four-run response is rough.
Guess we will see how the boys respond.
I rarely talk poorly of Snit, but that was an absolutely awful decision to let him face Harper. This isn’t regular season where we need pitchers to eat innings.
It’s what he does… Falls asleep at the wheel
I’m a huge Snit fan, but I agree that leaving Elder in to face Harper was terrible. For that matter, leaving Elder in after that was just about as bad. And then going with Tonkin rather than one of the higher leverage late inning guys was also a mistake. It is the way Snit manages in the regular season, and I’ve defended him then, but you’ve got to do all you can to keep this one close.
Yeah, it was wishful thinking. I just replaced my jersey again with a college t-shirt…time to stop wearing jersey’s, I guess
2 great innings then a complete implosion. Sigh…
Edit: And yeah you guys are right. Why not just go to the pen there? Why else is Brad Hand on the roster? If he can get Harper, then go with AJSS to start the 4th and Hand doesn’t have to face a righty.
That was exactly the strategy I laid out. Seems SO obvious. Elder through the order once, Hand for Schwarber and Harper second time around then AJSS for a couple of innings. It is exactly what Thomson did in Game 1. Suarez was mad about it but Thomson prevented any melting down.
Even if Snit just used Hand to prevent the 3-run HR, things would be much better.
I blame Trea Turner
I’m not sure why Hand is on the roster if it’s not to face Harper in situations just like that.
And then to leave him out there for two lies hitters is further asinine yet not surprising.
Lol. Braves are FINNISHED!
Yeah, should go on back to Helsinki
And so is your spelling.
Let him keep ranting. It’s the fourth inning.
Braves in 5
Seriously though, we are in a second straight postseason without a third starter and the catcher we traded all our assets for is worse and $20 million more expensive than the guy we traded for him. He is so bad we are starting TDA.
I like AA, but he has made a series of decisions that have put us in this situation. Can’t take 2021 away from him, but the Murphy trade was bad so bad when we lack the most critical asset in a playoff series—starting pitching.
Y’all…this is palm-face worthy. He’s taking Tonkin out now after letting Elder wear 6? How in the world can you MISS that first decision but have the gumption to make this one? None of this makes sense. And NOW it’s Hand? Jesus…
I was just about to say that, Ryan. Unbelievable.
Snitker is a players’ manager. That’s valuable. He has never been a shrewd game manager. He doesn’t have some sort of outside the box plan here and it’s unfair to expect it from him. I’m just glad he doesn’t bunt.
At least this puts to rest the “shoulda brought in Hand to face Harper”
Can we just resolve to walk Harper every time?
Maybe it wouldn’t have been so great to bring in Hand to face Harper
You know. I disagree. Timing is everything. We don’t know if Hand might have handled Harper in the prior inning. The result could not have been worse.
Welp, I guess it didn’t matter if Hand was in the game or not.
This was the game we could afford to lose and was the worst matchup for us, so I don’t know that it changes that much. Having to win two in a row isn’t ideal obviously, but it is what it is.
Yes, it’s a crap-the-bed performance from our staff, but this team’s gotta hit & score if it’s gonna win anything.
Hopefully, there are some more long balls in our short-term future.
And NOW he brings in AJSS in a situation that will most likely just waste him.
He’s there to eat innings. I don’t see a better use for him in this series at this point.
If there’s a time to throw strikes it’s when you’re brought into a 7-1 game to eat innings and save the pen.
Surprised the announcers didn’t mention Harper’s throat slashes after each of his HR, though a highlight did show it. That seems more likely to get people riled up than a staredown or two of Arcia after Arcia’s comment.
Guess it’s true what they say, momentum is the next day’s starting pitcher.
If you were only going to score 1 run all game, best to do it on a night when your starter gives up 6 in a single inning. That’s my silver lining contribution
Look, I do think the better choice would’ve been to go to Hand to face Harper and have Smith-Shawver ready, but the chances are pretty good even if Hand got out of the inning that Smith-Shawver wouldn’t have exactly been nails and we’d have been left trying to get meaningful innings from the not-great part of our bullpen and we’d have wound up in the same place. It was just very unlikely that we were going to win this game, which is why we couldn’t under any circumstances lose Game 2 and why losing Game 1 is going to wind up presenting a problem. But after losing Game 1, being down 2-1 was the best we were gonna get…and we’re gonna get it.
I’m with y’all – Snit needed a quicker hook on Elder and a higher-leverage arm than Tonkin, but losing 8-2 is on the men, not on the skipper.
This team doesn’t win much when we don’t homer, and we knew all along we would have to bludgeon them to death. If we’re gonna win, we’re gonna have to win ugly.
More home runs, please.
Good pitching beats good hitting and good hitting beats mediocre pitching. We knew we were going to struggle with two reliable starters and not much else.
This is laughable. Let ‘em get it out of their system tonight. Give ‘em a few more homers, make it 18-2…
…then go win game four and go home.
Simply gonna need a big effort from Strider tomorrow & definitely some homers.
Well I guess we can stop fretting about the pitching decisions. The only way we were winning this game was to out-slug them, and that obviously ain’t happening. Go get em tomorrow, boys.
That’s that. I’m going for hamentaschen.
Let’s get em tomorrow! And Saturday!
Well, that blowed. Strider time.
I was really hoping we’d let Elder go 1TTO and then bring in AJSS or one of the high leverage arms, but I knew that was just a pipe dream. Ugh, oh well. Hoping for a solid Strider outing tomorrow.
And has it really, truly been confirmed that Arcia said, “Atta boy, Harper?” Is the source actually reputable? I can’t actually envision Orlando saying that.
This series is far from over. It’s Striderand Max and pray for jacks!
Harper is a great player, but he’s an obnoxious narcissist, and the last thing we need is some melodramatic persecution narrative for him to revel in. It’s not a story if that happens to Matt Olson. He shrugs it off.
Who thought that Elder and Hand would win game 3? Nobody. If we can’t hit it’s not even worth discussing.
You can second guess my shirt management decisions all you want–and I concede there is a lot to question there–but if the hitters don’t start thumping, it won’t matter how dumb my shirt choices are.
https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/mUAAAOSw75NilNc1/s-l1200.webp
This is the only shirt you need
recapped.