Profar, so good. Jurickson Profar‘s 2 run homer in the top of the 6th put the Braves up 5 to 4 and gave them the series sweep.
The Guardians led 4 – 1 after 4 innings. Erick Fedde labored through those 4, throwing 92 pitches, allowing 6 hits and 3 walks. Fedde whopped.
Aaron Bummer, Dylan Lee, Pierce Johnson,and Raisel Iglesias shut down Cleveland the final 5 innings, though, Bummer throwing 2 of them and awarded the win. The Guardians did threaten in the 8th when Johnson walked the first two batters, but a popped up bunt and a ground out to first allowed the Braves to intentionally walk Jose Ramirez, and a flyout to center ended the threat.
Michael Harris II scored the Braves first run, reaching on an infield single that was lost in the sun. It was Michael’s only hit, ending his streak of 8 multi-hit games. Nick Allen and Ozzie Albies had 2 hits apiece; Allen scoring a run and Albies driving one in.
Atlanta has won 5 games in a row and 8 of the last 9. They are now 56 and 68, and 3 games behind the 3rd place Marlins in the NL East. If we continue the “Major League” theme we’ve been celebrating while the team is in Cleveland, this could be the part of the movie where a subset of the fan base starts to concede these guys ain’t so (insert your favorite modifier here) bad.
The Braves will try to continue to roll by taking advantage of the 44 – 80 White Sox in Chicago Atlanta on Monday at 7:15 Eastern. Spencer Strider and Yoendrys Gomez opening.
How could someone not mention the Pretenders? From Seneca to Cahoga Falls.
DEVO might be appropriate as they are the spud boys from Akron.
The White Sox series is in Atlanta. Let me see if I can fix that.
Edit: Done. Just like 1919.
Rusty, I guess that makes you the Arnold Rothstein of Braves Journal.
I wear many hats.
“this could be the part of the movie where a subset of the fan base starts to concede these guys ain’t so (insert your favorite modifier here) bad.”
Dadgum?
Dadgum works.
WD-40, duct tape, chewing gum, twine, a saved piece of wood we’ve had in the garage for 7 years.
The MVPs of this 5 game win streak.
Nice article from Dan Szymborski: https://blogs.fangraphs.com/is-all-hope-lost-for-the-atlanta-braves/
“If I do a very early 2026 projected standings for the NL East, with all the teams only having the players under contract for next season on their respective rosters, the Braves project for just an 79-83 record, third in the division and well behind the Phillies and Mets. While the front-end talent is still there, ZiPS cares about the team’s depth and injury status, and the uncertain pitching coupled with the holes in the lineup put a damper on the team’s win total in most of the simulations. Injuries will happen, and the current roster is ill-equipped to weather them.”
A Murphy trade to fill holes elsewhere still seems like the best move. He’s not a good enough hitter to warrant that many DH at bats, DH is a position where it’s relatively easy to find production, and Baldwin can’t develop as well if he’s at DH half the time. Profar’s defense is so bad, he’ll certainly need extra DH at bats next year.
That seems like a fair assessment of 2026 to me.
Maybe don’t make multiple bets on starting pitchers with no recent track record of throwing 150 innings, praying it will just sort of work out.
The offense is a bigger worry to me. Below league-average output is something we’re just not used to seeing, and it’s been pretty tough to watch to be honest.
We’re stuck with another season of Profar (sorry, he’s not been good so far). 2B and SS are very hard positions to get good production from. 3B is in concerning decline. 1B is what it is, good enough I guess, but probably in decline too. CF is anyone’s guess, but this month is very encouraging at least. RF is an injury waiting to happen, but we’re due for a full season I’d think.
Acquire a true DH. Try to fill one of the middle infield holes. Try to make the bench A LOT better. ???
Or we can do basically nothing and hope for massive seasons from Riley/Olson/Acuna/Harris. That sounds like a losing bet to me.
Nothing 10 runs won’t cure.
What if Strider never gets it back? He was throwing batting practice at times tonight.
That’s my concern as well. He is throwing batting practice most starts now and getting hammered. 10 hits and seven runs tonight in three innings after 8 hits and 8 runs in four innings last time out. This isn’t moving in a positive direction.
You have to go into next year with a plan that anything you get from Strider is a pleasant surprise. Maybe this is what he needs though, to commit to working on better location and a third/fourth pitch. The days of guys swinging through his center cut fastball probably aren’t coming back.
Nothing 11 runs won’t cure.
Nothing 12 runs won’t cure.
recapped.