Braves win! Braves win! Braves win! It was our first sweep of a three-game series since April 22-24. (That was our literal high-water mark of the season; following the sweep, the Braves were up three games in the division. Since then, the team has gone 24-25, while the Philies have gone 34-11 and picked up 10 games in the standings, so the Braves are now in second place, seven games behind.)
As the solstice nears, the team is finally beginning to resemble its April antecedent, and today was as complete a game as we’ve had all month. Reynaldo Lopez went five scoreless innings, scattering seven singles while getting six strikeouts against just one walk. You could quibble a bit about his efficiency, as he needed 93 pitches to do his work, allowing five runners into scoring position while stranding them all. But he limited damage well, and Aaron Bummer, Daysbel Hernandez, and Grant Holmes pitched the final three scoreless innings while allowing just one hit.
(Four innings, two scoreless appearances, and a truly epic Kenny Powers hairdo into his Braves career, Holmes is officially reaching folk hero status.)
Meanwhile, the bats scored one in the second, two in the third, two in the fourth, and two in the fifth, the kind of relentless attack that ground the league into dust last year. Ozzie Albies had two hits, Austin Riley had two hits, and Ramon Laureano had two hits and a homer.
But the game ball goes to Sean Murphy, who literally raised his OPS 217 points by going 4-4 with two homers and four RBI. It was his first four-hit game since July 5, 2023, his first two-homer game since May 1, 2023, and just about the first real indication we’ve seen this year that he could return to the offensive force he was for much of last year.
It’s been a rough year, but it was a heck of an afternoon. Off day tomorrow as the team travels to the Big Apple, with Chris Sale set to face the Bronx Bombers. Have a fun day in the city, you guys!
Greetings from Singapore.
As we all know from just two years ago, there are worse things than two months of .500 ball. The fact that people panicked is a testimony to expectations.
That said, it is still true that there were a couple of weeks where the offense was completely unwatchable. Let’s not repeat that.
With his start yesterday, Lopez is now a top-15 pitcher in MLB by fWAR. He’s been so fun to watch.
He has been a bit fortunate in the home run department so far (HR/FB rate is at a super-low 5.1%) and has allowed a decent amount of hard contact, but the strikeout, whiff, and chase rates are all good. Even if his HR/FB rate regresses some, he still figures to be a really solid pitcher moving forward.
His ability to reach back and hit 97-99 mph when he needs to, even deep into his outings, has been especially impressive to me. He’s done a great job of pacing himself and saving some velo when he needs it most.
The team has also done a good job of managing the pitch count of Lopez and not pushing him too hard. I like that we can get 6 lockdown innings out of him and then give it to the pen to shut down the last 3 innings. It has obviously been a great recipe for success for him and the team.
Saw a stat that opponents are hitting .082 with RISP vs. Reynaldo Lopez so far this year. That explains a lot.
Sale, Morton & Fried are lined up for the Yanks. I’m guessing we’ll face Stroman, Rodon & Cortes. Lotsa lefties on the bump.
Anybody headed to The Bronx this wknd? Beers on me at the Yankee Tavern. And thank goodness we get a rare Saturday-night game here. Gonna be pretty toasty for the next few days.
And JonF, hide your chewing gum…
I hope Murphy has turned a corner and will be a good hitter moving forward and can bat 6th. With Kelenic at leadoff, the lineup is beginning to gel if we can keep it as is (Kelenic/Albies/Ozuna/Olson/Riley/Murphy/xx/xx/Arcia. That leaves two spots at the bottom of the lineup for OFs (Duvall/Laureano/Wall/Martinez/Liberato/Anderson/and anyone else we might add). When Harris comes back, he can hit 8th and this lineup will be dangerous again. Duvall can help against lefties but we could use one big bat (Acuna replacement) or, knowing AA, one extremely underrated bat (Soler-like). I think Arozarena can fill that bill if we can get him cheap (not likely). Elsewise, the best chances seem to lie with the A’s or Angels (Ward/Adell/Rooker/Andujar) (maybe Robert from White Sox?).
What if the Braves pick up a DH (Gurriel???) and put Ozuna back in the field??
Three reasons not to put Ozuna back in the outfield
He’s a horrible fielder. If any metric says he is close to average, the metric is bad.
It would open him up to more injury possibilities
It could affect his hitting by focusing on relearning the outfield.
There are probably a hundred more reasons. Whatever the case, no, no and NO.
I agree, but I’m opening my mind to possibilities the front office might consider. They might think it’s advanced planning to go ahead and get a new DH this year and let Ozuna go over the winter.