It was a good night for the Braves’ pitching staff on Tuesday. Spencer Strider made his second rehab start following his oblique injury. Pitching for Gwinnett, Aragorn was excellent. He went four and a third shutout innings, tossing his limit of 65 pitches. He struck out eight and surrendered only one hit, a bloop single, and one walk, on a close 3-2 pitch. Most significantly, his fastball looked a lot like his pre-injury fastball, consistently 96-98 mph with 18 inches of vertical break. And he got ten whiffs on his slider on 15 swings at it. They say Strider can go 80 pitches in his next start. Don’t be surprised if he makes that one in ATL rather than Gwinnett.
More good pitching news: although Raisel Iglesias was placed on the 15 day IL with shoulder soreness, MRI showed no structural damage, just inflammation. A couple of weeks rest and some ant-inflammatories should take care of it. And no more sleeping on your right side, Iggy! They are still claiming this was a result of sleeping on it wrong, but I suspect throwing a baseball 95 mph at 36 years of age had more to do with it. In any event, he has been fantastic so far, and they will miss him, but not nearly as much as they would have if they did not have Robert Suarez, the NL saves leader for the last two years. And some early season rest for Iggy may be helpful come September and October.
To be fair, the Braves’ pitching in last night’s 11-4 loss was not so good. In fact, it was putrid—12 walks (!) and 10 hits in 8 innings. But here’s the good news: the bad performances did not come from anyone who will likely be on the playoff roster this fall. The pen had to turn in seven innings, thanks to a one inning start from Lopez (more on him in a moment). Ian Hamilton and Joel Payamps went an inning apiece, and each gave up three runs. Jose Suarez went three no hit innings, although he walked four. The only 1-2-3 inning turned in by a Braves pitcher was by Aaron Bummer.
Lopez claimed after the game that his shoulder feels fine, but I have my doubts. He was actually fortunate that his line of 1 IP with 4 R, 5 H, and 3 BB wasn’t worse. After 6 batters in the bottom of the first, he had already given up three runs and had the bases loaded with still no outs. Somehow he escaped with no further damage—but having already thrown almost 50 pitches. He came back out for the second but quickly surrendered a homer to James Wodd and a single to Luis Garcia. At that point Lopez was mercifully done for the night. I said above that Lopez is not likely to be on a playoff roster. He has not pitched well so far this season, despite some early good results. But his fastball velocity is not consistent and command of the heater and the slider has been very uneven. As to starters, I am assuming some combination of Schwellenbach, Waldrep, Fuentes, and/or Ritchie will be better options by the end of the season. On the other hand, Lopez may be healthy and just needs to work out his mechanics after a season long layoff. If so, he will provide valuable depth for the rotation or the pen. For now, though, I don’t feel good about him.
As to Payamps and Hamilton, either or both could get the old DFA sooner rather than later. Even so, they’ll probably go through waivers and sign with the Braves again. That’s how this works, right?
There were a few offensive bright spots. The Drake crushed an 0-2 pitch for a long home run—and the pitch was less than a foot off the ground. Dubon had two more hits. MHII had an rbi double. Eli White had a solo home run just inside the right field pole, and also was robbed of a triple to right on a great sliding catch by Wood.
I saved some of the best news of the night for now: each division rival lost. The Mets led the Twins 3-0 after five innings, but lost 5-3 for their 12th straight loss. The Phillies lost to the Cubs, and the Fish lost to the Cards. So the Braves lead the division by five over the Nats and Marlins, 7.5 over the Phils, and 8.5 over the Mets. God’s in his heaven—all’s right with the world.
So Tuesday was not a bad day for the Braves. Still, it’s better to win than to lose. They will aim to do just that behind Martin Perez tonight, going against some guy with a 7.11 ERA.
EDIT–Sure enough, Ian Hamilton has been DFA’ed. Interestingly, they called up Didier Fuentes, who is scheduled to start tonight. Perez is pushed back to start the series finale Thursday afternoon. Chris Sale, who was to have started tomorrow, has been pushed back to Sunday (with Homes and Elder going Friday and Saturday).
I dunno… “Slept wrong on it” is one of the few things that I have in common with these guys.
I know what you mean. My right shoulder is sore every time I sleep on my right side–and my left shoulder is sore every time I sleep on that side. But I’m twice Iggy’s age, and I never came close to throwing 95 mph with either arm.
MedCline shoulder relief system, professor. Check it out
From the BravesVision broadcast last night in amplification as to King Baldwin I’s home run: that home run was the furthest hit ball which reached the plate at or below 1 foot in the Statcast Era (419 feet).
You’re gonna lose 50 games. Okay to lose one of them like this. Exciting to have Fuentes start tonight. Go Braves!
Great start by Strider, very encouraging. Also the Hartman guy in the minors with 3HRs last night.
Respect his authoritah.
The Braves are the only team this season, able to score a single run against Angels’ SP Jose Soriano. And the Braves 3 hits are the most he has allowed in a game so far. JonathanF, is this the best start to a season after five games (32IP) for a starting pitcher in terms of ER?
I bet when Strider comes back Lopez goes to the IL. I thought Holmes would go to the bullpen and be the long man but Jose did OK last night. I don’t really care if Hamilton signs back or not. I think Payamps just needs some time to get straightened out but I’d like to see Karinchak. Can’t just put Lopez back to the bullpen since his issue was right out of the gate. I think I’d be good for a stretch with Sale/Strider/Elder/Fuentes/Perez and Holmes as the long man. Some combination of Waldrip/Schwellenbach/Ritchie has to be ready to replace Perez at some point. Not sure what to do with Lopez…..
Interesting sequence that led to that HR by Lile. After a bunch of heaters in a row, it sure seemed like Didi could have gotten a whiff on a slider. But he and Baldwin must not have confidence he could land it. Unlike in AAA, most MLB hitters can ultimately square up a 98 mph fastball.
heim is catching.
He shouldn’t be starting yet. As was the case last July, it’s a poor organizational choice with far more potential harm than benefit.
I don’t buy it, if what you mean is that this could harm Fuentes’ development long-term. I remember when the Braves called up Steve Avery as a 20 year old. He got roughed up for a couple of months, but the next year as a 21 year old he was terrific. Greg Maddux was called up as a 20 year old and had an ERA over 5. The next season he was no better. As a 22 year old he became Greg Maddux. Tom Glavine made 9 starts as a 21 year old and was lousy.
To be fair, those Braves and Cub teams were not in contention, and they could afford some ineffective starts. A team in contention cannot afford a young guy with a plus 5 ERA for a month or two. I suppose if Fuentes struggles enough that he doesn’t come back up for a while, that could mess with his confidence. But I assume the Braves have a pretty good handle on his psyche.
In any event, the Braves now have the lead. If Didi can hold the lead, that’s a confidence booster.
tfloyd, even in those couple of months of getting roughed up, Avery had a K/9 ratio that would’ve put him 9th in the NL if he had pitched enough innings, so there were signs that he might be better than his record. I think I remember Bill James including 1990 Avery in a group of pitchers with high K/win ratios (75Ks in 99 innings but only 3 wins) when he was arguing that a high K/W ratio was a good indicator that a pitcher was likely to improve the next year and a low K/W ratio was a good indicator that he was likely to decline. (He acknowledged that sometimes pitchers who have results that poor don’t get the chance to improve the next year, and that some improvement, say from 3-11 to 5-7, might not be all that useful.)
Has anyone heard why Heim is starting instead of Smith? Hope Dom is ok
EDIT–I suppose they may have wanted Heim to catch Fuentes.
Does Washington want to win this game? Littell came into the game with an era over 7 and over 9 against Atlanta. Surprisingly he didn’t give up a run in the 5th, but running him out there in the 4th after already giving up 5 runs and only being behind by 1 is puzzling. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad they did it, but him getting bombed like that was incredibly predictable.
Jonah Heim isn’t very good at this challenge thing. He came into tonight at 64 percent. And these days, that’s going to become a far more important skill than framing.
Man, Lee and Kinley are amazing
Weiss just announced in the post game that JR Ritchie has been called up and will start tomorrow.
Recapped: