Statistical Catchup
We’re at the halfway point (not counting tonight). 137 teams have been 37-44 at that point. None has ever made the playoffs. None has ever won 90 games. The 2006 Angels won 89. So we’re looking at baseball history here! We don’t even need 81-0 in the second half, even though that’s what I’m predicting. 118 wins should be plenty.
Ronald Acuña Jr. (including tonight). His line? 33 Games Played, 32 Runs Scored, 42 hits, 5 doubles, 9 homers, 18 RBIs and 27 Walks, Exceeding or tying him in all six categories is…. no one, Three players exceeded this output in 5 categories, and all three are in the Hall of Fame: Babe Ruth 1928, Buck Leonard, 1937 and Larry Walker 1997. Unsurprisingly given the performance of the rest of the team, his walk number is starting to get hard to match.
The Game
This game developed like so many others. Schwellenbach was great, the Braves got a lot of base runners, but had only scored 2 runs, leading 2-1 going into the bottom of the 7th. Then we got a grand slam from Murphy, whose recent at-bats I’d found concerning. I’m less concerned now, as long as he gets hanging sliders to hit.
So we’re 4-4 against the Phillies and 5-4 against the Mets. If that’s all I’d told you about the season after 82 games you’d take it. Indeed, subtract the games in March and we’re right in it. March shoudn’t count. Who’s with me?
Rubber game tomorrow: Strider against Suarez. The battle for 81-0 starts at 1-0.
We still have only 15 road wins which is 4th worst in MLB. All of our optimism comes after a big win at home. Until we start winning more games on the road, this team will flounder.
I still stand by the fact that we are 12 games under .500 against the NL West which means we are 6 games above .500 against everyone else and we are about done with the NL West. That is a good sign.
There’s obviously some recency bias here — we see him a lot and he’s pitching against us right now — but I’d pay Ranger Suárez a lot of money this off-season.
He’ll eat quality innings and it frees up some of the pitching prospects to be traded for bats.
God, do we need bats.
Letting Stuart Fairchild bat in the bottom of the ninth with the tying run on third is, I’m sorry, an organizational failure. The guy cannot hit. Can not hit.
I have tried to discern some principle which explains when Snit uses his only competent pinch hotter: Drake Baldwin. I have failed. (Actually, there is something that explains the actual usage — call Baldwin first!– but it’s so transparently stupid that there must be some other algorithm at work. But I do note that he didn’t use the other guy who plays Fairchild’s position. He might not be any good, but he’s better than Stuart Fairchild.
Sellers.
Punt the rest of the season and focus on 2026.
It is hard not to like Spencer Strider. The guy gives up two runs in 7 innings and fully takes the blame for the loss in the post-game interview because he had the stuff to shut the Phillies out and he just failed the team. Personally I will take 2 runs in 7 innings any day. One run in nine innings by the offense is the real travesty.
Recapped.