It’s a long season. It’s long every year, but some seasons feel a lot longer than others. This one we are suffering through has felt like one long slide since a terrific April. And the week since my last recap was starting to feel interminable. The slide seemed to get worse every day, culminating in the horrendous loss in Denver on Sunday. They appeared to be sliding right out of playoff contention.
But the last two late nights in San Francisco show how nothing is inevitable. For the second night in a row, Travis d’Arnaud drove in the go ahead run in the top of the 10th, Raisel Iglesias kept the Manfred Man from scoring, and the Braves celebrated a one run victory. Our Braves are just six back of the Phillies, and now have a two game lead over the Mets—and 3.5 over the Giants—for the final playoff spot.
Lots of good things last night:
–Charlie Morton bounced back from his last abysmal start to deliver six strong innings of two run ball. And he struck out the 2000th batter of his career, which is places him 89th on the all time list. That’s quite a feat in itself, but even more remarkable is that up to his age 33 season he wasn’t even a third of the way to 2000. Charlie is a hero to older guys like me.
–TDA is no spring chicken himself, but he’s put together another solid season (OPS of 798). He knocked his 13th homer in the third, and his AB in the 10th was a thing of beauty. He fouled off several pitched before squeaking one through the right side to plate the go ahead run.
–The bullpen continues to be a real strength. Speaking of old guys, Jesse Chavez pitched a perfect seventh. Dylan Lee was his usual shutdown self in the ninth (never send him down again!), and Iglesias showed great resilience and strength to save it in the 10th, just one night after the two inning save on Monday. Pierce Johnson gave up the tying run in the 8th on a wild pitch. That runner had stroked a leadoff double; to my eyes, it was a ball that could have been caught by a left fielder other than Jorge Soler. Anyway, a terrific dp turned by Merrifield and Arcia helped to limit the damage.
–Speaking of great defense, Eli White may have saved the game with a running, leaping catch in the ninth.
–Speaking of great defensive center fielders, Michael Harris II was in the dugout and should be activated today. That was a sight for sore eyes. The Braves have had the worst outfield in the game since RAJ and MHII went down; all help welcome.
–Reynaldo Lopez made a rehab start for Gwinnett. He’ll likely rejoin the team this weekend.
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It has seemed like a long season, but you know what? There is still a long way to go! Our Braves still have 43 games left to play. That’s a lifetime! I’m thinking of the great Braves pennant races of my memory: 1969, 1982, 1991, 1993, 2021, 2022. In each of those seasons, there were lots of twists and turns, ups and downs, highs and lows, from mid-August until the end. They are in the thick of a pennant race once again this year, both for the wild card but also for the division. There’s not much better in life than a great pennant race. Might as well enjoy this one.
Amen, tfloyd. Thank you!
I know it will never happen, but I actually think Juan Soto is one of the very few players in the MLB who will be worth a monster contract. He is one of the 10 best hitters in major league history and he’s astonishingly young to reach free agency. The value you would get out of something like $500MM/12 is probably very positive. You’ll probably end up spending the same $40 million per year on two or three disappointing stop gaps and a 1 WAR reliever, and he has a great chance to average 7 WAR over the life of that contract barring injury. The only question I have is whether his age is honestly 25.
Since Soto’s acquisition, the talk in YankeeLand has been: How do the Yanks pay Soto more than Judge?
Because everybody knows that the club across town is willing & able to do so.
Love the positivity, TFloyd. Hope the Braves can cash in on MH2 and Kelenic/Duvall or Laureano covering 3/4 of the field and giving Soler a tiny range to make basic catches.
Thank you, tfloyd! Truer words were never spoken. Go Braves!
The Braves optioned White despite his game saving play.
Duvall is still here despite being 1 for his last 28 including 17 Ks. And he’s the 2nd worst hitter in all of MLB among hitters with 300 or more PAs behind only Rosario. Oh, and he’s not even a good fielder anymore.
He obviously has The Pictures. Or is ownership nixing the DFA over the remainder of his 2 million dollar contract?
It wasn’t over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor, and sometimes there is more to come even after the fat lady sings.
To paraphrase Churchill:
But for everyone, surely, what we have gone through in this period surely from this period of four months this is the lesson: never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never-in nothing, great or small, large or petty — never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy…. We now find ourselves in a position where I say that we can be sure that we have only to persevere to conquer.
Not that it means much, but it was good to see Michael Harris absolutely maul AAA pitching to the tune of .435/.500/.565. He wasn’t the best version of himself at the start of the season or even last year. If we stand a chance to be the Miracle Braves, it seems like Harris has to be the spark plug.