The west coast trip brought the worst out in Braves fans fans as well as its players, but it’s back to Truist for the weird off day/2 games/off day that, for whatever reason, seems to always be against the Red Sox. Rodrigo Lopez will face off against Kutter Crawford in Game 1 and Chris Sale will be on the mound for Game 2 against TBD.
Braves Transactions
I tweeted a few days back that I thought this was coming, but I didn’t expect to see Ray Kerr, who I’m very excited to watch on a big league mound. Tyler Matzek has not looked good and I expect his stay on the IL will be fairly lengthy.
Braves Lineup
Right the ship, boys!
I have had a nagging feeling even before Spring Training started that the Braves probably won’t win the division this year. I think they sneak into the playoffs, but we are counting on too much and have been in 2024. Will Fried stay Healthy? Will Morton stay Healthy? Will Sale stay Healthy? Will Lopez continue to impress? This could go up in a ball of flames quickly especially if our offense doesnt start clicking on all cylinders
My wife and I flew down from Michigan to celebrate our 30th anniversary today at Truist (my wife’s idea) so I expect a win tonight. I haven’t watched the Braves in person without them winning so the pressure is on…
Streak still intact
The biggest question marks I had in Spring Training were about Matzek and Bummer. I didn’t think Matzek would be ready in his rehab and I tho9ught they’d let him finish that up in AAA. And I wondered if Bummer would be able to settle in (aka Jimenez 2023 disease). The loss of Strider and injuries to Murphy and Johnson are additional blows but Murphy and Johnson will be back and we have enough SP depth to cover for Strider. We just have to believe that our heavy hitters will come around. I still have high hopes for Kelenic even if he is slumping. He sure has been a revelation in the field…..
P.S. I never thought we’d run down the Mets in 2022.
Nice job from Bummer to get out of that with a tie still intact.
The offense is completely dormant with seemingly no plan but to make outs as quickly as possible. How many games into the season before this is what it is? It isn’t like we are facing vintage Verlander, deGromm and Kershaw every night.
Chavez for the 7th in a tie game after an off day…and it works. OK.
Though maybe I shouldn’t complain about the usage of a guy with a 1.35 ERA. [shrug]
I agree — 7th inning and Jimenez was available. Then the next inning Jimenez was used against 3 LHB due up with Minter available. Almost cost us.
Olson is useless right now.
Came here to celebrate the victory, and was immediately let down as usual by the pessimists in the game thread. Hey, things worked out!
Can JonathanF confirm that there has never been another Jarren in the major leagues?
Confirmed!
https://www.baseball-reference.com/search/search.fcgi?hint=jarren+Duran&search=jarren&pid=&idx=
If it makes anyone feel better, I have a Facebook memory today from 2016 stating that I was tied for 3rd in home runs for the Atlanta Braves. That’s right, at this point in 2016, only 2 Braves on the roster had homered. (And it would be another week before another one did.)