At some time in my youth, I added the parenthetical above to the old saying. I thought it even more apropos than the original statement. But then again, the more times you are actually close in baseball, the better you are probably playing. And, in such event, you get a lot of wins out of just keeping it close.
Last night represented another Spencer Schwellenbach outing. It is wise for the multitudes to remember that he was only an occasional relief pitcher until after the Braves drafted him. And, he then went through the mandatory UCL restructuring. So, he is still quite “green” by Major League pitcher standards. With 2 outs and 1 on, he allowed three straight run scoring hits (one 2B and two 1B’s, so not any “power explosions”). Then, Sean Murphy tried to get the runner on first headed to second, but seemed to forget that there was a runner on third. So, a 4th run came in. That was the piece of fecal matter which ruined the chocolate pie.
Then Lance Lynn was the main story for the Evil Wearers of Red. He pitched 6 and 2 / 3rds with 5 K’s and 0 BB’s. 4 total hits and one of the Home Run variety (by the apparently awakened Austin Riley in the 5th inning). Usually when you get that kind of starting performance, you win.
But Ryan Helsley tried to make sure the fans got excitement to the end. I doubt his fans in St. Louis really enjoyed that. A walk to Marcel Ozuna, followed by single, strikeout, walk, single got 2 in. Then Travis d’Arnaud hit a sacrifice fly to get it to 3, but that just brought out an old analogy which was kind of worn out before you add my corollary.
Last night was an absolutely vintage May 2024 Braves™ performance: day late and a dollar short, all damn night. We had all the fixings:
• Our pitcher tried his hardest, bless his heart, but he gave up four runs with two outs and that sealed the game.
• Aaron Bummer got dinked and doinked and allowed two singles and had to be bailed out in the middle of an inning
• The Braves pulled off a double steal and had men on second and third with just one out in the eighth inning, but managed to strand both and failed to score
• Jarred Kelenic, Ozzie Albies, and Sean Murphy went ohfer as the team recorded just four hits and one run in its first eight innings
• After a two-run rally, with the tying run on second base, the Braves lost the game when their backup shortstop – in after Orlando Arcia departed with an injury – struck out, because the Braves couldn’t pinch hit for him because they didn’t have a defensive replacement for him
I bet the shares of Tums stock went up after that one!
Shrug it off, flush it, move on to the next game. At least Austin Riley stayed hot and popped another one, and at least the team threatened a lot more in the last two innings even after seven innings of almost nothing. It’s a grind, but they’re still trending in the right direction, last night’s frustration notwithstanding.
I saw only one play of this game. it was Ozzie’s drive to the center field wall that just missed leaving the park after the double steal. I knew it wasn’t our night and quickly flipped to something else.
What if Ozzie had hit a line drive single instead of going for the fence? We get two runs instead of the desired three but we get runs instead of nothing. I am getting to not like the “all or nothing” approach.
I know the 26th man isn’t that important, but seeing Zack Short come up in that situation was very disheartening for this fan. I expect a transaction today, and one that could find Nacho getting the call.
Schwellenbach having so much trouble with two outs in the 3rd wasn’t great, but he really did get BABIP’d that inning. And, as has been the case SO often this year, the Braves had another fly ball just die at the warning track. Ozzie’s flyout in the 8th would’ve been a HR in 16 of 30 parks and was the only other barrel in this game aside from Riley’s HR.
The ball where Murphy threw down to 2nd was an obvious strike 3 that was missed by the umpire. The 4th run should not have happened.
I kinda gave up on the NL east a while back, even with chasing down the Mets still fresh in my mind.
MLB messing around with the balls is the nail in the coffin for enjoying this season.
Just get the bats hot in time for the postseason and destroy the Phillies and everyone else in their way.
I was actually more impressed than ever with Schwellenbach. Everything was in the strike zone and he could have easily gotten out of the 3rd with 1 or 2 runs scored max. As noted, not much was hit hard . He came out the next few innings and looked great for great
I like the pitching matchups for the next 2 games… In fact, I’ll take Lopez & Sale vs. just about anyone right now.
Looking ahead to next wknd vs. Bucs, seems like we’ll get our first look at Paul Skenes (probably Saturday).