Coming off two electrifying wins, Uncle Charlie takes the hill in Game 3 of a four-game set tonight in the desert with the Serpientes.
The “I can’t believe it’s not butter”-uniform-looking Serpientes struggled with Chris Sale last night. Tonight, the Diamondbacks will send five left-handed hitters to the plate.
Two things to look for
Two things to look for in this move. First, who will be wearing the most armor when they stand in that left-handed batters box? And secondly, when Uncle Charlie takes the hill, who will be the first to wear that back-foot breaking ball? Do any of the betting services offer a line on these things?
Seriously, for all our collective complaining, a 40 year-old Uncle Charlie (5-5, 3.96 ERA) is still getting it done most nights. Tonight, he faces Slade Cecconi, a 6-4, 219 pound righty. Cecconi is 2-6 with a 6.10 ERA and 1.31 WHIP in 62 IP.
The story of last night’s game was Adam Duvall. Duvall had another two hits, including a 441 foot moon-shot in the sixth. The three-run blast gave the Braves some breathing room and raised his batting average to .191 and his OPS to .596.
Atlanta poured out 11 hits on the night, with everyone but Eddie Rosario and Orlando Arcia recording hits. Arcia did make good contact with the ground hard twice after both of his strikeouts, though, for those of you scoring at home.
First pitch is again slated for 9:40 Eastern/8:40 Central. Hopefully, Uncle Charlie takes the hill with the lead.
Head-scratching moves
Moments after posting the game thread, these transactions yo-yo’ed across the wire. Thanks for hanging out for five minutes, AJ Smith-Shawver. Did he piss someone off in the clubhouse? Bro didn’t even get his stuff unpacked, nor did the force that is Dylan Lee. Welcome back, Dylan and Brian Anderson..
Same as it ever was: Give Charlie a lead and he vomits it right back.
And he did it again one inning later.
Mantiply sounds to me like a bad name for a gay bar in the 80s.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Oh, boy. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
I hope Snitker doesn’t try to extend Morton into the 7th just because he has a low pitch count.
Maybe Arcia should start bunting more with men on base.
Or not.
I’m glad that the real Austin Riley has joined us again.
I think Olson should be hitting 5th behind Riley and Ozuna now. Also think the catcher platoon should be 6th and not 8th.
Snit bear!
The broadcast blathers on about how good the bullpen has been when Johnson replaces Morton … and of course, tonight the bullpen folds up. Jiménez has been good for one Episode a month and tonight looks like it. The announcer jinx is undefeated.
Well, Jimenez doesn’t appear to have it tonight.
A rare bad night for the bullpen. Johnson gave up a Grybo and 1 of his own too.
Jiménez has allowed earned runs in just five of 36 appearances this season — but in four of those five, he allowed crooked numbers. When it comes apart for him, it’s never in bits and pieces.
Big game from Perdomo. 3 hits, a sac fly, and now robs TDA.
The bullpen’s mostly been good. Off night for Jimenez and a basically standard issue Charlie start.
At least we scored 5 runs again. Our offense is finally scoring. If we can keep that up, we can keep winning more than we lose.
Morton shouldn’t have been out for the 7th, and why do you follow him up with another curve ball pitcher ? Then send Jiménez out to face three lefties when Lee was ready as well.
Typical garbage bullpen management from snit.
Like the signs of life from the offense, though
Recap is up.