I have seen demonstrable evidence that obnoxiousness is now in control of the world (that might apply to the universe, but I don’t get many communiques from Jupiter, or Alpha Centauri or other points out there). A sitting President says “fight, fight” and acts surprised when people fight. A current President has an explosion in net worth in the past 10 years while his son receives 20 million in known wire transfers and acts like he knows nothing. People paid to be journalists run tape in the background of burning buildings and describe that the day has been one of “mostly peaceful protests.” Senior health officials are caught in lies and continue to deny the lie. “Freedom fighters” cut off the heads of infants. Obnoxious one and all.
Neither the City of Philadelphia nor the Phillies franchise reach such levels of obnoxiousness, but then again, they don’t contribute to lessening obnoxiousness, do they?
So, continuing the Braves season is down to 2 things. 1. The Kirby Smart question needs to be answered by Spencer Strider and Max Fried. “Either you are elite, or you are not.” 2. Where the hell did one of MLB’s most historic offenses go? If those 2 questions are answered in the affirmative, then the Braves will get to try to kill snakes in Atlanta in a few days. If negative answers, then the long offseason begins.
I give Brian Snitker a little slack on the starting pitcher decision, but only a little. There weren’t any great hands to play. All of the AAAA pitchers NOT on the roster had shown blow up tendencies most of the year. With Bryce Elder you had a chance. And, somehow, that chance worked for 2 innings. 6 straight outs. 4 K’s. 1 outfield line drive and 1 infield ground ball. I think I would have tried to have Max Fried warm up and do his “side session” for inning 1. Mainly to try to stop the early lefthanders (Schwarber and Harper). Then, maybe go to Elder and see how long he could spin the web. Snitker’s aversion to analytics (which AA has to address this offseason, or maybe today) led him to not realize that at this point AJ Smith-Shawver’s stuff absolutely will not work against major league lefthanders.
So, nothing to nothing going to 3. The Braves get a one out Ronald Acuna, Jr. double, an Ozzie Albies single, and that is a run. Austin Riley makes a line drive out and Matt Olson walks. So, Marcel Ozuna has a chance to keep it going and strikes out. Looking pretty good there. But, not for long.
The long 3rd inning started out with Nick Castellanos homering. Now tied. Then Brandon Marsh singled. But then, a fielder’s choice. Then, an infield single. Still a chance to get out of it, but Obnoxiousness Incarnate (Bryce Harper) came to the plate. Suddenly it was 4 to 1 and I didn’t feel so good. Well Snit decided to leave Elder in (I know it was early and lots of pen innings and also that Obnoxiousness Incarnate does those kinds of things, but really???) After a single and a walk, Snitker goes to Michael Tonkin. Then J. T. Realmuto sends a line drive to left (not fair to call it left center) and as soon as I saw it head out there I thought “I wish Pillar was there). Eddie Rosario didn’t get there, so now it was 6 to 1. Old “win probability” is moving over 90% for the Phillies now.
I am tired of thinking about this game. I am tired of writing about it. I really had hope as long as it stayed at 6 or 7. But as innings clicked by and runs got added (mostly by the Phillies) I sought out other entertainment. Well, actually I sought ENTERTAINMENT, because after the top of inning 3, there wasn’t any.
There was no better image than to “join the bar.”
So, Spencer, are you elite or are you not? Braves position players, are you elite or are you not? We will find out a little after 8 EDT today.
Braves in 5.
Yo why so much bitterness? If you’re all about ridding the world of some fatal obnoxiousness I don’t get why you’d also demean an entire city haha
Damn the saltiness in here is palpable! Also you guys are right, everyone from Philadelphia is stupid and Bryce Harper’s panache supersedes his ability
I hope that Strider can withstand the immense pressure that he’s going to be feeling and throw a gem tonight. At the same time, I’m hoping that the Braves won’t hesitate to utilize their fully rested bullpen if it looks like Strider just doesn’t have anything or if there’s a leverage/matchup concern. We all saw what might happen when you fail to do this.
Also, the offense will have to wake up. Outside of the last few innings of Game 2, they’ve been almost totally lifeless. They had the league’s best offensive approach this year, so nothing there needs to change. Just hope they’re able to crush any mistakes that Suarez/the Phillies’ relievers make.
If we win tonight I believe we will win the series at home. Spencer pitched well enough to win game 1 and if he does that again, I think we get it done this time.
It is important to have a game plan vs Suarez or any pitcher that keeps the ball low effectively. I don’t know any other way to do it but making him earn strikes and hitting the ball to the off field when you have to swing at a pitcher’s pitch. That curve on the shoe tops I have no answer for except to take the pitch and hope it’s called a ball.
Two runs were never going to win game 3.
The homers will happen when we’re not trying to hit them. Maybe it’s not too late.
I think there’s got to be a lot of strong “Nobody believes in us” energy in that clubhouse right now. It isn’t easy for a 104-win team to convince themselves they’re underdogs, and I think it wouldn’t be a bad thing for them to start feeling some wounded pride – the same way that, apparently, Bryce Harper did last night.
Hey man, another team in the state of Georgia can somehow be the heavy favorite and still convince themselves they’re underdogs. If they can do it, we can do it. I do think Atlanta can while also being pretty pissed off that a fairly innocuous comment by Arcia turned into all this. If I’m the Braves, I’m pretty pissed that they’re going after Arcia this much and Harper is playing BS games again.
Yeah man good call Bryce Harper isn’t good
Arcia giving Harper bulletin-board material is just inexplicably dumb.
He didn’t. He’s in the clubhouse talking to his teammates, and some dude with less Twitter followers than my great uncle Remus goes and puts it out there. He didn’t say it on the field, and he didn’t even say it in the dugout. d’Arnaud’s right; what’s said in the clubhouse off the record should stay in the clubhouse. I hope teams across the league ban that nerd from all clubhouses. He can go sniff Philly jockstraps.
That’s exactly right, Rob.
Next, a reporter will overhear a playing telling his wife over lunch at a restaurant that he thinks Bryce Harper is “kind of a dick.” The next day, said player will require a police escort. Tabloid headlines will blare the quote all over the place. Sports-radio hosts will say, “You can’t say that to your wife in a public place! This is the playoffs! Who knows who might be listening???” And krussell will say, “[Insert player] giving Harper bulletin-board material is just inexplicably dumb.”
Still think it’s dumb to talk shit when you’re not in a guaranteed-private setting. Is it why Harper went off last night? Probably our weak pitching had more to do with that for sure. I just don’t like the look.
Yeah, I’m sure that such shocking words never fell from Harper’s fair lips when he was joking with his teammates. Hypocrite. He’s mad because he screwed up; his manager admitted as much. But he’s not big enough to own it and move on.
Harper is a thin-skinned narcissist. He is one of the most insufferable pro baseball players in history. This would not be a story for over 90% of players who have more resilient egos. I can’t imagine any player on our team burning with vindictive rage about such a benign comment. Even Acuna who legitimately has a whole pitching staff trying to injure him on a regular basis has not been affected so much as Bryce has by the private suggestion he made a mistake. What an absolute prick. Nobody has ever deserved to lose more, and in a just world, he would.
The funny part is if they lose this series, Phillies fans will immediately switch to blaming his baserunning gaffe for their defeat. They already were the other day before this Arcia thing got out.
Haha! Yeah demonize Harper. How’s his personality relevant in this case? He might be a douchebag but he still came through with at least one huge hit, which he’s continually done…it’s such an easy fallback to belittle Philadelphia as a whole and it’s equally easy to hate on Harper. I’m a Phils fan and will readily admit I didn’t expect to beat you guys again this year, let alone easily. That doesn’t mean it wasn’t earned! The Braves—despite playing far below their standard—were way closer than ppl will remember, and had every opportunity to win this series. And please, give the Phils some credit as a team for responding to a crushing loss in game 2. I don’t hate people because of sports I find that to be counterproductive…y’all have a nice Friday for real.
Yup, need an elite Strider today & some elite ABs against their succession of moundsmen.
As a successful college-football football coach has said, “We gotta win one moment at a time…”
Win today & everything feels different.
“Win today and everything feels different.” – ain’t that the truth
Let’s get a quality start from Strider (to start with) – – and hit the ball. Be smart Braves. Don’t act like a caveman with a big ol’ club. Hit like a professional.
Come on.
DOB is the guy who writes the feel-good stories with the team’s perspective. Schultz is the guy who holds their feet to the fire. I think this piece is about right: https://theathletic.com/4955516/2023/10/12/atlanta-braves-philadelphia-brian-snitker-bryce-harper/
We’ve got the hoss on the mound and we’ve got the bats in the lineup. Let’s go beat ’em.
Is it accurate to call Snit averse to analytics? I just remember that in 2021 (Mayish?), the team switched on a dime to shifting much more, and much more successfully, because of what the analysts said.
I’m pissed about the manufactured Arcia drama, but Harper didn’t homer because he was mad about being mocked in the Braves clubhouse. He homered because Snitker left Elder in and he threw a meatball.
We need to score early off Suarez tonight before getting to the parade of hard throwing relievers.
Braves batters don’t need to be uptight, but they do need to adopt an approach. It’s like everything went out the window in pursuit of the big fly. Work the count. Show some discipline and discernment. Make the pitchers throw strikes. These are clichés, yes; nevertheless, they are true.
Go, Braves!
if Arcia didn’t want his shit talking to get out, he probably shouldn’t waited until the reporters left or done it before they came in, nothing the reporter did wrong, don’t talk shit if you can’t back it up. I’m not going to sit around and pretend to be offended when Harper backs up his shit twice, even if the braves radio announcers want to get hurt over a hand gesture (the complete lack of self awareness is absolutely hilarious btw).
I’ve loved every bat flip that acuña’s done this year, sports are more fun when people are excited about the awesome things they do.
The entire 1st paragraph was obnoxious.
Keep politics off the sports page.
Gi Braves
I’m going to call tonight a “must win.”
How was the thread before Game 4 last year? Optimistic? Pessimistic?
I think this is it.
More optimistic than today, it seems. Which I think is backwards, but whatever…we could easily lose this game just as non-competitively as we lost last year, and we need the offense to wake up. Our starting pitching is lined up in a much better way this year, though.
Wearing my Strider Pitching Ninja “Quadzilla” shirt. Trying to force some optimism.
It’s time for the best offense in the history of baseball to start looking like it! On, Bravos!
I don’t know who this is in Ranger Suarez’s body and his uniform, but he’s not the same pitcher we’ve seen so much over the last few years. He moves it in and out and changes speeds, as always. But he hasn’t hung any breaking balls or grooved any fastballs down the middle. That’s pretty much been the story for all Philly pitchers this series–no mistakes..
Man I hate Philadelphia all those people are so unintelligent how do they maintain 1.6 million residents
Strider doesn’t have command of the slider tonight.
I’d like to think the Phillies will be regretting all these stranded baserunners.