If you didn’t read the previous comments, Ryan lost his Dad today. He knows how to do game threads, so we’ll be treading water until he’s ready to return. We love you, man.
This thread got buried but I revive it just in time for the Phillies to celebrate their walkoff win against the Mets.
Well, looks like crickets here. Thread got buried. Let me use this space to say August 11th felt like a turning point. We had just been utterly brutalized by a Milwaukee team we helped turn into the best in the NL, and after splitting 2 with Colorado, we managed to blow a 6 run lead. That was the low point of the season. We sat 61-56 after the most improbable of losses. It seemed like we were circling the drain.
But just when I think the Braves couldn’t possibly be any more pathetic, they go and do something like this…win a 1-0 extra inning game against the Giants…and totally redeem themselves! They would win by 1 again in extra innings the next night and continue on a 20-11 run against some pretty stiff competition. The main blemish on that run is a 3-2 loss to the Phillies that we shoulda had and one that would’ve turned our only lost series in this run into a split.
The only hotter team in the league, unfortunately, has been the Mets, who were 61-57 on that same August 11 and stumbled to 61-58 on August 13 before catching on absolute fire. Their 20-9 streak has mostly coincided with our own hot streak.
I am personally feeling very optimistic, and I am betting on the Mets and Braves to make the playoffs while the Dbacks sit home. This team is very flawed but very gritty and I like our odds.
Phillies beat the Mets with a run in the eighth and a run in the ninth,
Heard Albies is going to return in a week or so, but he will only be able to bat right-handed. This could be a blessing in disguise, since I have been desperate for him to give up LH hitting for years. His bat control looks sub par from the left side, and while he does produce some power, he seems to chase the high pitch so much more and whiff more.
Along those lines, does anybody here have batters’ splits by pitch location? My impression is that as a LHB, Albies has almost all his success on low, even below-the-strike-zone, pitches (which isn’t inconsistent with Stampton’s impression that he does poorly as a LHB against high pitches). To me he looks like a cricket batsman on low pitches, but only as a LHB.
Actually – yes!
https://www.fangraphs.com/players/ozzie-albies/16556/heat-maps?position=2B&ss=2017-08-01&se=2024-07-21&type=0&hand=aL&count=all&blur=1&grid=10&view=bat&pitch=&season=all&data=pi
Thanks! If I’m reading this correctly, Albies as a LHB does in fact do better against low pitches than high ones, but the effect isn’t as large as I had expected, and his sweet spot seems to be slightly outside of center rather than inside as I had expected.
Thanks for this Alex. Jamesd compare his contact percentage as a L vs as a R. Huge diff at top of zone.
To my eye it looks like Albies uses a larger bat as a LHB. Might give him better low power at the expense of contact on high pitches.
Can we please stop leading off with Harris? Wish Snitker would put Merrifield at leadoff.
Charlie having an ill timed episode but cheesed his way out of it
He threw a great pitch to Ohtani that he hit at 114 mph and pitched Betts well. I was very nervous the third time through, but you have to let these guys pitch in a 4 game series.
I swear Arcia swings at the first pitch every time
I think the umpire has meaningfully impacted the game in favor of the Dodgers. Lots of strikes a few inches off for them
That and the pitch clock violation. How can that happen at the end of the second year? That was a killer.
The end of the Arcia era can’t come soon enough
Runners on second and third, no one out … and how are we gonna blow it?
By swinging, swinging, swinging against a pitcher who can’t locate the strike zone with a compass and a map. He didn’t find the zone with regularity until he faced Kelenic.
Goodness, the bottom of this lineup is SO bad.
And they pinch-ran for Ozuna, too, meaning if you go extras, you don’t have your best hitter. Good job, Snit.
In their defense, they’re not very good
I realize it’s very hard to hit a 101 mph fastball, but our guys seem incapable of taking anything off their huge swings to just hit a chopper somewhere. Surely it’s possible. I hate that I knew we wouldn’t score when it was 2nd-3rd and nobody out.
Yeah between Arcia and Kelenic with their answer to high velocity is to swing harder the outcome was obvious after TDA flew out
Swinging out of your shoes against 100 mph with the game/season on the line would be a benchable offense if I’m the manager. I freaking hate Arcia.
And … ballgame.
This team isn’t going to the postseason and doesn’t deserve to go to the postseason. Also, nice job with the intentional pass to face Betts (!) so you can concede even more runs.
Sometimes, you’ve just gotta pitch to The Man when the lineup is stacked behind him. The Dodgers don’t give you the option of giving the free pass to Shohei. But the players love the manager!
Nice job, Snit. Now you’ve broken the closer.
This season just needs to end.
AA has some work to do to improve SS, left field and the bench as well as replace Max. Should be a busy offseason (hopefully).
The game was won by the Dodgers having 4 great hitters in their lineup who all had key hits (Betts, Freeman, Ohtani, Smith). We have maybe one great hitter. Everyone pitched pretty well. The main opportunity we missed: when we had Walker Buehler on the ropes after 3, our guys came out making sure they were hacking on the first pitch. Imagine a team of players where they think–they think “we have this guy on the ropes…if we can make him throw 25 pitches this inning, he’s done”. We don’t have that team.
Igglesias has been great, but no one in baseball history has been as good as he’s been in the last 2 months over a full year. He was bound to come back to earth. Shake it off and start another scoreless inning streak tomorrow.
Agree with that.
A seven-spot in the 9th of a tie game? This one’s gonna leave a mark.
One of many marks left this season
Only counts as one loss. Max tomorrow!
I did not have “Iglesias will give up five runs in the ninth” on my bingo card.
Agreed that we had Bueller on the ropes and we let them off.
I hadn’t realized that Tylar Glasnow was out for the season again. That poor bastard.
Well, “poor” bastard is not exactly how I’d describe him…. The dodgers knew what they were getting into when they signed that contract.
Right, certainly not “poor”. Haha