As you all know, I’m a school teacher. This last week was our spring break and the whole family: Ryan, Anna, 8 y/o daughter Murphy Jo, 5 y/o daughter Finn, and our 1 year old Rocco, took to the mountains of Estes Park, Colorado where my wife and I found out rather quickly that our 2 oldest like the idea of snow, but have 0 desire to actually partake in the playing outside in the snow. What a long week it was and luckily for me, my sanity was solidified with the swing of the Braves bats. After the Opening Day beating, I was sure that Aaron Nola and Max Fried would give us a little bit of a pitcher’s duel. Oh…I be dumb sometimes.
Alec Bohm, who’s just not meant to field baseballs, kicked things off by backing up on a Ronald Acuña Jr. tap job, then had an “Oh, dang, what am I doing?” moment and tried to barehand it and failed miserably. Acuna reached 1st then Ozzie Albies did what he does:
And Orlando Arcia apparently did what he does…
Yikes. Moving on….
Fried was gifted a 2-0 lead, but was shaky in the 1st: Single, K (1 out), BB, Double Steal, BB, Popup (2 outs). Then, Fried had Nick Castellanos in a 2-2 count and throws this…
I get it…Fried was not sharp. He likely didn’t have the command needed to go deep into a game. But DAMMIT, an umpire just CANNOT miss that call and Max Fried should’ve been in the dugout breathing a sigh of relief after only giving up 1 run. Unfortunately for Fried, it only got worse from there as Bryson Stott singled in 2. After his 43rd pitch, Brian Snitker wasn’t going to allow Fried to go any longer, so Jesse Chavez came in and immediately got Whit Merrifield to fly out.
Though, let’s not show favoritism to the Phillies SP Aaron Nola. Rather, let’s give a hat-tip to Robby Thompson for allowing Nola to throw 4.1 innings of 12 hit, 7 run baseball while Jesse Chavez was doing things that Jesse Chavez does when he dons a Braves uniform (3 IP, 2H, 1R, 0BB, 1K).
The Phillies scored all of their 4 runs in innings 1&3, and were blanked from the 4th on. Tyler Matzek, Pierce Johnson, Dylan Lee, and Raisel Iglesias combined for 5.1 innings of 4 hit baseball, while the offense did this…
The final tally, 12-4. The Braves have now outscored Philadelphia 21-7 in 2 games. If we want to keep it looking like a pigskin total, might I suggest a 7-0 shutout tomorrow for Chris Sale, who I cannot WAIT to see pitch in a Braves uniform.
Ken Giles and Daysbel Hernandez Sharp at AAA
While the MLB bullpen is incredibly deep and without a weak link, the news gets even better as both Daysbel Hernandez and Ken Giles are starting off strong at AAA. Anthopoulos has created depth upon depth this year and stored a lot of that depth 30 minutes away.
Sunday Game Thread
Chris Sale makes his Braves debut today. Chadwick Tromp will get the start behind the plate and Adam Duvall will start in left field against LHP Ranger Suárez.
And on the 3rd day, the Braves swept the Phillies.
I wonder whether part of Max’s nerves has to do with this being his platform year before free agency. If I were him, that would be in the back of my mind. I know the Braves don’t like spending money, but I’d love us to give him the same money the Phillies gave Nola. And for the same reasons. I don’t care about one single stinker. The guy’s track record speaks for itself, and there’s nobody on the farm with a prayer of turning into him.
I said it in the game thread, but for me, Jesse Chavez gets the game ball. The offense is on some kind of run – our team has an aggregate triple slash of .390/.444/.659, so you know that as long as the pitching keeps us in games, this team is never too far from being able to hang a crooked number. The three innings Chavez threw totally turned the game around.
I don’t know about y’all, but this team is even more fun to watch than I remembered. Ain’t baseball great?
Pros:
– Four home runs after a homerless win on Friday
– Jesse Chavez doing Jesse Chavez things (3 IP, 2 H, 1 R); really love the way his curveball looked
– Jarred Kelenic with a great day at the plate and an awesome diving catch to boot
– Good to see Lee pitch 2 scoreless; hoping he can return to pre-injury form
– Riley looking better in his last at-bat
Cons:
– Rough outing from Fried, but he’s still one of the best pitchers in the game; if AA could figure out a way to convince Max to stay, I’d be ecstatic
I like the pros/cons after every game. Provides a little depth to the recaps. Keep ’em coming, Stephen!
I’ll do my best!
The whole Braves bullpen has been strong so far. Lee better than I expected. If I were forced to provide the weak links, I’d have to say Matzek and Bummer. Matzek will get better as he gets farther from his surgery. Bummer looks like this year’s Jimenez. I expect him to start slow and eventually deserve more high leverage. Having Daysbel and Giles as the next men up is rather unbelievable.
I would like to have seen Guillorme get a start today as well as the others. Both Duvall and Guillorme have had good results against Suarez and TdA can use the day off. The Braves have uncharacteristically done poorly against Suarez.
Look on Ozzie’s works, ye mighty, and despair!
Ozzie, man. Dios.
That runner normally gets to second, but Duvall made a fantastic play and the runner should’ve seen that and stopped after a big turn.
This guy wearing Chris Sale’s jersey is looking a lot like Chris Sale. I’m getting excited.
Damn.
Aaron Bummer is living down to his surname. He’s this year’s trash arm that the organization thinks it can fix.
I tell you – Bummer is the weak link. He needs time to settle in and he’s getting trashed this inning.
On the other hand, 3 runs is not gonna cut it.
Umpires have been very biased in this series with balls and strikes; Phils get the close calls and Braves don’t.
Aaron Bummer isn’t it. Glad we let him cut his own throat in game 3.
Bummer should not be anywhere near high leverage. This is on Snitker or whoever is making the decisions
The wizard of Oz.
Well, darn.
Didn’t get to see the game. Was Bummer getting hit hard or was just getting BABIP’ed on bloop hits?
New thread: