Ray Kerr gets another chance to prove his worth as a starting pitcher. Trevor Williams, whose ERA is off to a great start, will counter Kerr. Game time is set for 6:20CT/7:20 ET. If you missed it, take a gander at Alex’s recap from last night.
Transaction a Day AA
A.J. Minter has had his ups and downs this year, but he’ll be down for a bit with an injury. Jimmy Herget, we didn’t even get a chance to miss you yet.
Thoughts on Spencer Schwellenbach
Schwellenbach was through 4 innings with no earned runs, then gives up a double to Joey Gallo, then hits Jacob Young in the face. I know there are times when a manager needs to let some things play out, but the look on Schwellenbach’s face told the story. He was in a bad headspace and should’ve been removed from the game. 2 batters later, Lane Thomas cranks a game sealer. I don’t get upset with Brian Snitker often, but I did last night. Schwellenbach deserved better. He also deserved a better jersey. Sheesh…
Ray Kerr and the Braves Lineup
It’d be nice to see J.P. Martinez get a chance at some point. Oh well… at least we can cheer for Ray Kerr, who should’ve been a hitter with that name.
This team needs to stop swinging at first pitches for a while.
Maybe just stop swinging for the fences for a while.
I think Williams only threw 1 or 2 pitches in the zone after the Braves got 2 men on. Just kept throwing sliders and changeups in the dirt except for strike 3 on Duvall which was a fastball down the middle.
I swear every walk and hbp scores. 3-0 in the third should just about finish this one off. We make every team look like world beaters. This outstanding pitching depth we supposedly have is mediocre at best in the minors. Doesn’t matter when we don’t score any runs.
Oh, and Kerr as a starter isn’t it.
Game is over in the third…seriously frustrating how impatient Braves hitters are with this junk baller. Make him get the ball up in the zone and go to work.
But swinging thru 90 and 92 to strikeout is pathetic.
Ray Kerr is a good relief pitcher. RELIEF pitcher. No shame in that.
We’re barely able to find 5 starters. I think we’re gonna have to put the whole “extra rest” thing on the shelf for a while. BTW, why is it important for our starting pitchers to get extra rest but not our hitters?
Agreed on all fronts.
I think 9 Braves Journalers could hit better than these guys. In theory, they hit the ball hard but you have to make contact first…… I think the bad teams of the rebuild hit better than this.
Where is Nick Markakis when you need him.
I don’t know, maybe we should do something different with our approach? What we are doing isn’t working and hasn’t been for 6 weeks. It’s like a guessing game at the plate and we pick wrong every time. Lefty? Shuts us down. Righty? Shuts us down. Junkballer? Shuts us down. Fire baller? Shuts us down. It is ridiculous how bad we have been since mid April. What is going to change? Just keep doing the same thing and expecting different results is insanity.
As frustrating as 2021 was with the win 1, lose 1 pattern it certainly was much better than the current win 1, lose 3 of the current season.
Scoring 3 runs a game but wow, that exit velocity is still impressive…
I keep hearing that Braves hitters are on the verge of getting it together. But there’s nothing to show that this is true. The hopeful chatter just seems to be wishful thinking. Seems that the Braves have simply dug the rut just a little deeper.
I agree. A lot of optimism about the back of the baseball card but yet we still look lost and helpless. Nothing points to us breaking out and to be honest, if this was 5 years ago and exit velocity and barrel rates weren’t tracked people would be losing their minds about how bad our hitting is. The metrics help us cling to hope that may actually not be there. Outs are outs, whether they are hard or soft, they are still outs.
3-1 feels like 33-1.
And futile chasing of home runs is boring baseball.
There ya go…2-5 against high powered Pirates and Nats.
Harris: 255/296/368
Riley: .227/.296/356
Olson: .234/.323/.428
Arcia: 236/261/382
Murphy: 143/143/143
Duvall: 196/282/381
Kelenic: 258/299/.391
Ozzie’s overall numbers aren’t bad but he hasn’t homered since March.
Makes no sense that the whole offense sans Ozuna (and to a lesser extent TDA) has gone so bad.
SLG is down league-wide. Braves are collectively carrying a .713 OPS. Last year’s was .845. Collective OPS across MLB is .697. Last year’s was .734. That’s a HUGE difference and sounds like MLB has screwed with the balls again.
However, that doesn’t excuse what we are seeing now. This team is too good to stay in this rut.
Maybe they are screwing with the baseball to reduce this strategy of 3 true outcomes. If so, we are the primary team that needs to change its approach (i.e. screw the Riley/Olsons and promote the Arraez’s). Most of our guys (specifically, Albies and Duvall) are low OBP high slugging types and the baseball execs may be trying to promote OBP and SBs.
I think the reason the TdA is having some success is because he can easily adjust to the more high contact game.