Baseball Redux
So this has been a weird offseason for me for a few reasons. I’ll leave the personal reason for the end and keep the Braves stuff up front. My normal Opening Day mode is to anticipate showing all those naysayers that this Braves team is going to have a great season. I should note that I have done this for 100 game losing seasons, so it’s not like I’m being analytical here. And even for the great run in the 90’s and beyond, there were prominent questions about each new iteration. This year, there are no naysayers to confront. There are teams that think they can play with the Braves, but there is no team the Braves have anything to prove anything to. And it’s been that way all through the winter. And don’t talk to me about the Dodgers… they obviously had the splashiest winter, but I don’t want to talk about the Dodgers.
So anyway, I feel weird because I feel like saying: “It all looks good, but the Sombrero of Doom lies just over the horizon if you’re not careful.” That feels weird. It makes me feel almost like a Yankees fan, and I never want to feel like a Yankees fan. I have to talk to them all year long.
Another reason this season feels weird is that my sister got married in January and my wife and I stayed at the Omni Hotel overlooking Truist Park. It was my first time in Atlanta since Truist was built and I have to say the view from the hotel is pretty awesome:
Unfortunately, I was there two-and-a-half months too early. Weird.
The Game
For Opening Day, we took on (and beat) the team that cruelly ended 2023. For Home Opening Night, we take on the 2023 National League Champion Arizona Diamondbacks. But let’s be onest, crapshoot aficianados: how many of you really think of the Arizona Diamondbacks as the Champions of anything? Sure, they’re a good team. but they won 84 games last year, finishing 16 games behind the Dodgers and the same number of wins as the Marlins, whose Championship credentials were surely lacking. Fine. I admit it. I’m a regular season snob. I’m incredibly hypocritical about it, because I celebrate a World Series win by the Braves as loudly as anyone.
In his first 53 starts, Spencer Strider had given up 19 runs. In 54 starts, it’s now 22, as a Ketel Marte leadoff homer and a variety of hard- and soft-hit balls spotted the D-Backs 3 runs. The Diamondbacks started a fefty with Tom Glavine‘s number and with a first and last name befitting the Aaron brothers. (Yeah, I know: Tommie Aaron spelled his name differently.) He gave one back in the bottom and a solo homer to Matt Olson in the third. He held the Braves after that, though, with some assistance from the home plate umpire, who called RAJ out on a ball about three inches outside with the bases loaded in the 5th. Once again, a lightly-regarded soft-tosser makes us look bad.
Strider, on the other hand, gave up another two runs in the fourth which included the always-dreaded bases-loaded walk. Uncle Jesse Chavez pitched two scoreless innings. Joe Jiminez had a perfect 7th and Aaron Bummer pitched a non-bummer 8th for his first non-bummer appearance. Iglesias was scoreless in the 9th.
But the Braves always make it interesting, right? They claw one back in the 8th on doubles by Arcia and RAJ. The bottom of the 9th started with Riley reaching on an E6 and an Olson double to pull it to 1. An Ozuna grounder advanced Olson to 3rd. A bloop double for Jarred Kelenic‘s first Truist AB plated the tying run.
Pierce Johnson kept the Manfred Man planted on second, but Travis d’Arnaud sent his home with a double off the wall. Easy peasy.
Statistical Anomaly of the Day
I have a database of 190,771 MLB games. Of those 1,095 were 3-1 in favor of the visitors after one inning. 638 had the linescore
30
10
74 games had the linescore
300
101
3 games had the linescore
3002
1010
and no other game in MLB history started
30020
10100
It’s not exactly anomalous, but there aren’t that many different baseball scores; even so they often combine in ways that nobody has ever seen before. Not all linescores are unique by the end of the fifth inning, but those who find all baseball games to be the same are wrong.
Three Guys in the Booth
Frenchy, freed from any actual announcing duties, specializes in shtick. He’s not bad, but he doesn’t seem to have much new to say. I am impressed by Nitkowski with Gaudin. Nitkowski seems to be actually preparing.
A Closing Personal Note
A few of you already know that my wife has been in the hospital for the last two weeks with a brain bleed subsequent to a fall and is looking at an extended period of recovery. My entrance into this season is colored by this, and I’ve been more than a little distracted. (I missed opening day, for example: thanks Christian, for taking up the slack.) If I don’t seem my usual self, well, I’m not, and I suspect my joke level will be slightly suppressed for a bit, for which I hear a sigh of relief from many of you. Baseball is supposed to be an escape from life, though, and as Coop has taught me, one faces adversity with grace if you can.
JonathanF – most importantly, family always first – prayers and good vibes to you & your wife. All the best.
Strider getting an MRI on elbow. Yikes.
Jonathan, I can’t thank you enough for how much you’ve done for Braves Journal and me personally. I wish your wife the recovery similar to Acuña’s knee.
Great win.
And here’s to Mrs. F’s speedy recovery. All the best.
Well, all this recent news puts the home opener win in perspective. Fingers crossed for Strider’s MRI, but these things are almost never good.
May the Braves can give you much joy and many pleasant distractions this season JonathanF. I wish you and your wife all the best on her road to recovery.
Hasn’t Strider already had Tommy John once?
Yes, Strider rebuilt his mechanics with an eye toward extension during his
Tommy John recovery.
Amen. Jonathan, all my thoughts and well wishes are with you. We’ll take a win however we can get it. It will be a long season. And, I hope, much happiness to come, after the intervening months.
All the best to your wife, JonathanF. This is more important than anything else.
Our hearts are with you and your wife, JonathanF. Hope y’all find many tender moments during the recovery and long life, health, and happiness after a full recovery.
You and coop both are both role models for grace in adversity.
I love this bar.
JonathanF: I hope all turns out well for your wife and you. Thanks for all you do for Braves Journal. There are so many folks here I respect, and you are right at the top of that list.
Well there it is…UCL damage for Strider…sigh
Your wife, family and you are constantly in my prayers, Jonathan. May the Great Physician heal your beloved quickly and completely, comfort you and bring you peace.