Charlie Morton was decent on Sunday in a 3-1 win, but do you know how it feels when a win feel like a loss?
The Braves wrapped up a 6-4 road trip with the 3-1 win. However, Austin Riley was hit in the wrist by a 97 mph fastball in the top of the first. He stayed in the game momentarily, but was replaced by Luke Williams later. As of this writing, news on Riley’s injury was inconclusive and he was awaiting more tests. While he struggled on the road trip, the Braves desperately need him in the lineup. If he is lost for any time, Sunday’s game is definitely when a win feels like a loss.
The Angels managed just three hits against Morton and the Braves bullpen. Their lone run didn’t even come on a hit. It came on the obligatory hit batsmen in the bottom of the fifth, when that back-foot breaking ball hit Mickey Moniak. The light-hitting CF was done a favor, but Morton somehow wiggled out of the jam and preserved a 2-1 lead at the time.
Atlanta added an insurance run in the top of the eighth on Jarred Kelenic sac fly. Marcell OHzuna scored the insurance run and was 2-for-3 on the day. He is hitting .309 and is in the hunt for the triple crown. What an amazing season he is having.
With Riley awaiting more tests, and flying home after a 10-day Western road trip, the Braves will enjoy an off-day Monday. The Phlies come to town for three games tomorrow. Reynaldo Lopez will come off the IL to make the start for the Braves.
It sucks just waiting for the news you know we are going to hear.
My source tells me it’s a fracture and, at the earliest, Riley will be back last week of September. At this point, they think he will avoid surgery.
Riley will avoid surgery and we will likely avoid the playoffs with a steady diet of Luke Williams or Zack Short type at 3rd base.
Not doubting you Ryan at all. But how would the Source know when the initial tests were inconclusive and we are still waiting for the results for the MRI?
Classic “looks like a fracture but we’re not 100% sure”
Lotta $$$ involved, so might as well take a few more looks before putting him in a cast.
I mean it did look bad for sure
Braves announced the fracture, 6-8 weeks. So, see ya in North Port, Austin.
Is Chipper Jones healthy?
That might be the final “death” blow on the 2024 season as far as a playoff run goes if we can even make it in the dance. It has been a rag tag lineup all season and now we will ultimately have another sub replacement level player in there every day.
Nacho time again?
I hope so!
Nacho hasn’t played in a week for some reason, he might be hurt too.
The new market inefficiency is consolidating future bad luck into one season, thereby ensuring you have nothing but good luck for the next few years. That AA, he’s a smart dude.
😁
Aside from the injuries to Acuña, Strider, Fried, Albies, Harris, Riley, Murphy, Minter, Lopez and Matzek have there been any key players who have missed time?
No!
This team is in great shape for a playoff run.
I was beginning to blame Atlanta’s conditioning for injuries, but not much conditioning will keep someone from breaking his hand when hit by a 97 mph pitch. Is there any way Albies returns before the end of the year? Gio Urshela makes sense to me. Even if he continues with his putrid .619 OPS, it is probably better than Nacho or Williams would do.
This has been quite a season of body blows… and now, it’s gotten borderline ridiculous.
Well, just try to hang on & still roll the dice in October. “Max & Sale & pray for hail… or at least some bit of good luck.”
Saw quite a bit of Urshela when he played in The Bronx. He had a terrific year in ’19, a real good one in the Covid year, then… offensively, he’s mostly gone off the map.
Upside: He can play every infield position & he can pick it.
The Thumb says Nacho has been fighting pneumonia for the last few days. So our in-house options aren’t great. There might be waiver-wire ranking/order shenanigans to deal with if we try to get anyone from the outside who’s replacement-level. Is playing without a 3B an option? Ozuna would get a few more ABs this way.
Whit Merrifield has 18 career games at 3B. Merrifield at least has wheels and has a 0.709 OPS.
Luke Williams has 44 career games there, but he can’t hit. Neither can Zack Short.
Yuli Gurriel has 92 career games at 3B and has an 0.878 OPS in Gwinnett this year, but he’s 40 years old…
What a mess.
Looks like the Braves are closing in on a major league deal with Urshela. https://bleacherreport.com/articles/10132497-mlb-rumors-gio-urshela-contract-eyed-by-braves-after-austin-rileys-injury
Urshela should be a better option than Short and Williams. It sucks that Gurriel doesn’t have a position, but we’ve stacked too many hitters who can’t play defense, so what can ya do?
Atlanta would be right to under-promise and over-deliver with Riley’s timeline. Play it right and it could be this huge boom of optimism to get Riley back right before the playoffs. We’ve clearly seen these past couple years that the playoffs are a fickle mental beast.
I like Urshela far better than Short or Williams. He at least has performed in the past and has a track record of being serviceable or better (or worse). Tough to expect anything positive out of Short or Williams at this point.
There isn’t a ton to like about Urshela at this point but perhaps he’ll get a boost from getting dropped into a pennant race.
I hate to be the guy that always defaults to intangibles, but I fully expect the lack of energy in a place like Detroit where they’re going nowhere has an effect. The difference between a .600 OPS player and a .800 OPS player can be a couple doubles a week. He’s only 32, and who knows, he might get hot at the right time. He’s also had 82 PAs in the postseason, so he’s more experienced in the postseason than almost Harris, Kelenic, and Murphy combined.
And if we can find a spot for him on the roster, Gurriel has more postseason PAs than almost our entire TEAM combined. Considering the entire team collectively got stage fright these last two years, this could have some value. It probably didn’t hurt that Pederson, Soler, Rosario, and Duvall provided about 60% of our postseason experience by PAs in 2021.
At this point, as a Braves fan over the last 25 years, you have to acknowledge that what happens in the regular season is completely irrelevant and there’s something unconventional about what creates postseason success. And considering these are still humans, the pressure cooker of the biggest stage with the biggest pressure probably impacts the less experienced more than the more experienced.
“you have to acknowledge that what happens in the regular season is completely irrelevant and there’s something unconventional about what creates postseason success.”
Just to be a broken record here (remember records? Does the phrase “a broken record” have any meaning to someone under 40 except as some sort of bizarre idiom?) there isn’t anything unconventional about what creates postseason success. It’s called luck, and operates both in the regular season and in the postseason, but looms larger in a lesser number of games, on average. And the regular season isn’t irrelevant… it’s just that luck doesn’t carry over.
Is Albies expected to be ready for the post-season?
Yes
What Urshela has done well in the past is hit and get on base (I would guess sort of a poor man’s Arraez). If he can combine with Merrifield to keep those two areas going then Olson/Ozuna/Soler etc… can provide power. Maybe that’s the kind of spark we can use. Make some of Ozuna’s HRs not solo shots. Neither Urshela nor Merrifield bring much power (and Merrifield has more speed than Urshela who’s more an Arcia type) but the Braves have been missing OBP. Maybe this will help…..
Also, moving from Comerica Park to Truist might help.
Urshela was 4 for 5 with a homerun against Seattle on Aug 13. If he can do that 2 or 3 times a week for the next 6 weeks he will be okay.