Of the players with subpar years last year, I think it’s fair to focus on four as the players that Braves fans are worried most about as 2026 begins: on the non-pitcher side I think there are legitimate questions about Albies, Riley and Murphy. These are not questions I have, but I don’t think people with those questions are insane, just disloyal.

The fourth player is Reynaldo Lopez, who started one game a year ago today and is back today… but back how? Questions about his post-recovery velocity and his starter-fu in general are significant enough to undercut his brilliant 2024. What have you done for me lately, Reynaldo?

It’s only one game (which coincidentally was his entire 2025) but 1 run yielded in 6 strong innings of work (followed by one bad at-bat of work) is all the doubters ought to need to see. If Lopez makes his next start I’m ready to call him back. I admit I’m not much of a doubter, but see below…

Lopez was opposed by Michael Wacha, who I admit I thought of in his career as just another guy. But as he dominated the Braves tonight, I had to idly go back to history to convince me that my memory is, at least on this occasion, not inaccurate. But it was cap-tipping time, and after a reasonably rare error on a miscue by Olson that led to a second run, it was 2-0 going to the bottom of the ninth.

The great things about broadcasts is that you don’t have to be limited in your glee or pessimism to the exigencies of time and space. I watched the bottom of the ninth three times before I typed this, and I’d have watched a fourth time if I didn’t realize I had to write this before I passed out drunk.

If you haven’t seen the bottom of the ninth, sign up for MLB.TV. It’s only $30 for a month, so it’s worth it just to buy it, watch the bottom of the 9th a few hundred times and then unsubscribe. (I would point out that for the full $149 you can watch the other 160 wins as well, but I don’t want to sound like a shill.)

I’m a recapper who doesn’t really recap, so I’ll say the bottom of the 9th went walk-single-pop out-single-walk-single-homer. Keep track and I think you’ll see that that is more than enough runs to win the game. I’ll make one observation that anyone who watched the game has made and one that’s a little more personal.

Michael Harris II scorched a ball up the middle that would have clearly ended the game had not Carlos Estevez (or as we call him here in this country, Charlie Sheen) gotten hit on the foot, turning a double play into a game-tying single. The playoffs are a crapshoopt, and so is every at-bat. The only conceivable reason that my prediction of 162-0 might fall short of fruition is luck. One man’s luck is another’s Divine Providence.

And the game-winning walkoff grand slam by Dominic Smith forces me to eat some words. While Dom Smith has had some success against the Braves, I was quite scornful of the decision to make him a Brave. You can’t let one dramatic home run sway your thinking. Well, it turns out you can let one dramatic home run sway your thinking — it has swayed our thinking about Bill Mazeroski, and while neither of Smith’s walkoffs have anything near that significance (after all, what is one win among 162?) , it has to give you a rueful grin. (Not a lot of people remember Rueful Grin, the star of the 1875 North Adams Steeplecats.) I’m going to be hinest here (unlike everything else you write, I hear you say.) I still think Dom Smith is more likely to be Pablo Sandoval than he is to Julio Franco. But it won’t take many more outings like tonight to change my mind. There have now been seven walkoff grand slams in Atlanta history (and 297 history.) Dom Smith joins Biff Pocoroba, Javy Lopez, Brian Jordan, Jeff Francoeur, Brooks Conrad, and, amazingly, his near namesake Dwight Smith, whose picture is featured above. Welcome to the club.

Six runs every game is still on the table, as is 162-0. Holding the opposition scoreless has fallen to reality, but the pace is still 162 runs allowed; the last team to give up less than 210 runs for the season was Cleveland in 2020, and they had the huge advantage of playing only 60 games.

I will reiterate that the down side from last night continues to be intensely embarassing. The Braves had used up their challenges fecklessly after the first batter in the bottom of the first. Ronald needs a little refresher on strategy. The mechanics of correcting obvious error seems to need a little work as well, as the Braves were, for the second night in a row, denied the ability to challenge something. But I guess if you play the game well enough, you can beat both the other team and the arbiters. 162-0.

My recaps are done until next Friday. I know there are parallel universes in which the Braves do not keep winning until then, but you can blame other recappers if we find ourselves in one of those parallel worlds. True faith can work miracles.