Frustratingly, Colorado’s Austin Gomber looked like Cy Young in the series finale as the Rockies beat the Braves, 3-1.
Atlanta scored a single run when their vaunted five-hole hitter, Ramon Laureano, drove in a run. Marcell OHzuna added a pair of hits, Jorge Soler singled once, and Orlando Arcia added a hit. And that was it.
Gomber entered the game with a 4-10 record with a 4.69 ERA coming in. He needed just 92 pitches in his eight innings of work. Reynaldo Lopez was the tough-luck loser. He gave up two solo blasts in six innings of work, striking out 11. He is now 8-5 on the series.
I think the Braves have a roster full of nice guys. They are genuinely good human beings. This is no time to be nice, however. There are 22 games to play and they are all-square with the New York Mutts for the final wildcard spot in the NL.
Unfortunately for the Braves, Toronto looms next. The Blue Jays are 67-74 on the season and have yet to name their pitchers for this three-game series. Whoever they are, the Braves cannot afford to reflect on any more games this season and say the opposing pitcher looked like Cy Young.
I feel like we have seen last night’s show so many times this season. Completely over aggressive at the plate and making a ton of first and second pitch outs and letting a mediocre starter off the hook. This approach has not been good to us this year and I feel like we are at our best when we make the other starting pitchers work.
Yeah, agreed – I do not think Gomber looked like a Cy Young winner out there. I thought our guys were making poor swing decisions and bailing him out. Especially in the back half of the game, it felt like they were flailing, trying to hit a homer on every swing.
But, basically, this is a patchwork offense, we have way fewer stars than usual, and we simply don’t have enough hitters in the lineup to make up for an off night from the high-salary guys.
Sean Murphy’s horrible year, though, was cast into even sharper relief last night – 0-3 with a bad throwing error that led to the third Rockies run. We need a whole lot more than we’re getting from him.
Braves are still favored to win the final WC spot, but it’s basically down to a coin flip now. I’m not sure if they can fend off the Mets while being prone to offensive ineptitude a couple of times every week. So much is being asked of this pitching staff.
Agree 100% on Murphy. His injury in game 1 seemed to derail his entire season and it feels like every swing is trying to make up for multiple months of struggle. We do need a lot more from him or we need to look at making a tough decision (if possible?) on his future here in Atlanta.
What an utter disaster of a trade. There was no good reason to make it, and there’s a very strong chance that one move will cost us a playoff appearance this year.
Murphy’s performance this year certainly leaves something to be desired, but I don’t think it’s fair to say that this one trade is to blame for the position the Braves currently find themselves in. There are a number of guys who have massively underperformed expectations, most notably Olson with his precipitous drop off from last year (though to Matt’s credit, he’s been much better the past month). Even with his poor offensive performance, Murphy is still projected to finish the season with 1.3 fWAR, mostly due to his defense (yes, the throwing hasn’t been great, but it’s not bottom of the barrel, and he frames well and has posted a 91st percentile mark in Blocks Above Average). 1.3 fWAR is obviously not a great number, but it isn’t like he’s going to finish the year below replacement level.
Coming into this season, over roughly 1,700 PAs, Murphy had a career 124 wRC+. I think those 1,700 PAs are a lot more indicative of what he’ll do moving forward than the 217 PAs he’s had this year (and yes, the results weren’t there for Murphy after the 2023 ASB, but he had a great xwOBA every month except for one in that half season, so that doesn’t concern me).
Sure, Contreras has been great with Milwaukee, and so far it hasn’t been a slam dunk trade on the Braves’ end, but I really think that one bad year shouldn’t be all it takes to give up on the guy. The next few seasons will be very telling, and if it ends up being clear that it was a horrible trade, I’m totally willing to admit that I was wrong about it.
Just my two cents!
The Murphy trade hasn’t worked out and the way they use him like a backup is puzzling to me. It’s the one move where I think Anthopolous got a bit too cute and their refusal to even entertain improving Contreras behind the plate still baffles me. If you just wanted a backup to TdA, well, he’s on pace for a 5 WAR season in Milwaukee.
I don’t think they use him like a backup. Since he came back from his two-month injury on May 27, he’s started 54 games and d’Arnaud has started 36 games – pretty much an exact two-thirds / one-thirds split.
To be fair, Travis is playing more than David Ross used to play when he platooned with Brian McCann – that was more of a three-quarters / one-quarter split. But still, I think Murphy’s starting percentage is in line with what you’d expect.
Hey, a crooked number…
A shame I dont know how to link a picture here, cause Ozuna just got wrung up on four straight balls, two of which were nowhere near the zone.
Between the bad umps and deadened baseballs, Manfred sure has made baseball exciting again (sarcasm)
Hard to imagine people criticizing our bench when we have Luke Williams and Eli White getting semi meaningful at bats. I understand it’s because of the injuries but it’s still sad.
Recapped https://bravesjournal.com/2024/09/06/crackers-3-hosers-1/