When you hit a ball like Matt Olson did in a 9-2 victory Sunday afternoon at Citi Field, the phrase hurts so good comes to mind.
A season worth of frustrations seemed to be unleashed on that miserable baseball when Olson gave Atlanta a 3-0 lead. Bat met ball. Olson gave it a satisfied long look, and it hurt so good some 426 feet (undersold I believe) while he sauntered around the bases.
Matty Ice is not the only Brave to give signs of snapping out of it. Orlando Arcia-later added a solo shot in the seventh. Austin Riley sang his own rendition, hitting a two-run shot in the seventh, as well. And Ramon Laureano, redeemed himself from Thursday night, tacking on his own 2-run homer. Laureano also cut down a run at the plate with a perfect peg from CF in helping the Braves to the win.
Atlanta scored nine runs on eight hits and cruised to the win. Like yesterday, the offense got to the Mets in the fourth inning. They scored four times in the fourth, three more in the seventh, and two in the eighth to win.
Holding breath over another tight forearm
The only bad news of the day was Reynaldo Lopez leaving the game after three scoreless with right forearm tightness. That, and newly called up Jimmy Herget, blew the shutout in the eighth on a two-run bomb by the Polar Bear.
Dylan Lee, Pierce Johnson, and A.J. Minter threw four scoreless between them, striking out four Mets.
Line-up shake-up
Shockingly, nine runs from a line-up with Adam Duvall batting leadoff was a welcomed site. The win gave NY starter, David Peterson, his first loss of the season – and if you’re the Braves, it hurt so good.
Atlanta now heads for Milwaukee, where the Braves will take on NL Central-leading Brewers for three. Apparently Grant Holmes will start game one tomorrow evening. First pitch is set for 8:10 Eastern/7:10 Central. Colin Rea (9-3, 3.60) will throw for Milwaukee.
It may be the last 2, but at least it is 2 on the right side.
Gotta love these last two games.
Home runs & stellar pitching… a good formula.
They’re now saying we won’t hear about Lopez until tomorrow. I wonder if this is the same sitch as Strider where they’re trying to decide if it’s full TJ or the mini TJ.
I would also note that the Braves and Phillies have played roughly even since early June. Yes, we’ve sucked. But no, we aren’t out of anything. On July 28th, 2021, we were in 3rd place, 3 under .500 and 6 games behind the Mets.
Jesse Chavez didn’t pitch today. I suspect that he will be used in long relief after Holmes pitches 3 innings or so tomorrow.
I like your optimism, JonathanF, I wish I could share it. At this rate I’m expecting our playoff rotation to be Morton, Schwellenbach and Elder. Me, I’m taking a glass-half empty approach now to this season. If they make the playoffs then anything from then on would be a bonus.
Oh, I’m not optimistic. I’m just selling pessimism short. I was pretty clear in 2021 as well… there was no reason the club had to go on an August tear. It was just that they could. Same here. My point is that people underestimate the variability in W-L totals because they focus too intently on recent patterns. Those patterns may be good mean predictors of the future (or may not if they’re badly formed) but they cannot predict potential upsides and downsides. Out comes are too variable for that to be the case. For all that people point to the addition of Soler, Rosario and Pederson in 2021, you realize that they didn’t have to provide any particular shot in the arm. But they did. Because baseball.
JonathanF, my head agrees with you even as my heart is screaming that we’re doooooomed.
Still, my ideal approach to the deadline is somewhere in the middle: I’d love us to make moves (like trading Iglesias into a superheated seller’s market that’s currently paying a premium for good relievers) that won’t hugely affect the team’s floor. Losing a couple of relievers won’t necessarily be the make or break for getting us a Wild Card slot, and it could potentially bring back some pieces that would really improve our depth.
I’d also like it if we made moves like what I’ve seen some of the contenders do, and getting back players who are not pure rentals but rather talented reclamation projects. I’d certainly have loved us to pick up Dylan Lesko from the Padres, but I’d really have loved us to get Chisholm from Miami. Hard to say whether the Angels will trade Adell, but it seems like he’s nearly out of chances there and I’d love to try him on a change of scenery, particularly as he went to high school in Louisville so he’d be a good bit closer to family. And I’d love us to get a guy like Henry Davis, yet another young hitter whom the Pirates seem to have inexplicably ruined, even though the price would probably still be unacceptably high.
AA tends to love those kind of post-hype guys, including Arcia and Kelenic, so it gives me some hope that we might be able to make something happen.
Alex, I almost never disagree with you, and if I ever do, I’m probably wrong. But I do not see the benefit of doing the mixed buy/sell you’ve been advocating. I would not get rid of anyone who could help this team the rest of the way this year (like Fried or Iglesias). There is still a good chance of making the crapshoot and fighter’s chance of going deep into the postseason. I would not trade anyone unless it makes the team better over the next two to three months.
With RAJ and Strider coming back next year (and signed for several more seasons) , along with the rest of the core, this team ought to be in good shape for the coming seasons.
EDIT: having said the above, if trading Iglesias is necessary to land a big hitting corner outfielder, then do it. I just would not weaken this years team to strengthen next year’s.
I hear you and I think there’s a very good chance you’re right and I’m wrong! I guess I’m thinking that the bullpen is one area where we would potentially be able to receive greater value than we’d be giving up, because a) we’d be dealing from a position of strength and b) those guys just aren’t going to appear in many more innings over the next couple of months.
I’d have to agree with Alex that we’re not going to win many games scoring 3 runs or less and we don’t need such a great bullpen if we’re always behind anyway.
P.S. I also agree with doing more for this year than next.
I still haven’t seen any update on the results of the Lopez MRI. If it’s bad, I assume AA will have to get a starter
MLBTR reports we are interested in Crochet.
If it clarifies anything, the Braves have been linked to a lot of starting pitchers.
I didn’t realize it until yesterday because it inexplicably wasn’t announced by the Braves or the beat writers, but Ian Anderson and AJSS were both activated from the 60 day IL and optioned to Gwinnett earlier this month.
Both are probably 1 or 2 starts away from being stretched out enough to join the big league rotation.
Ynoa made a decent 3 inning rehab start yesterday for Gwinnett.
So if we don’t make a trade for a starter there are still some reinforcements on the way. Still think we need a bat more than a starting pitcher.
Agree completely that an outfield bat is more important than a starter, even if Lopez is out for the year. In an ideal world you’d acquire both, but the Braves’ prospect capital is awfully limited.
Darius Vines was called up and Herget optioned after the game yesterday. Hopefully Vines is only here to eat innings in the event of a blowout and not in consideration to start tomorrow. He’s been awful at Gwinnett and can’t break glass with his fastball. I’m a little surprised he’s still on the 40 man.
Braves games return to Comcast on Thursday.
https://www.ajc.com/sports/atlanta-braves/braves-games-return-to-comcast-on-thursday/STKUPC63XJBVXHHWSTDSLDADRI/
I think the fact that they haven’t said anything about López yet is a bad sign. Could be going for a 2nd opinion before announcing a surgery.
I hope I’m wrong.
Going public with bad news hurts their leverage if they’re looking to add a starter, for the conspiracy minded amongst us.
Whew!! No IL for Lopez. Just day to day.
For once this year we got a break…