Snit
Congratulations to Brian Gerald Snitker on joining the Braves Hall of Fame. I don’t have anything to add to the Legend of Snit, except to say that anyone who works in any organization honorably for 50 years ought to be in that organization’s Hall of Fame irrespective of the external accomplishments of that person. 50-year stadium ushers and vendors should be in the Hall of Fame too. Unless they used beer-tossing enhancing pharmaceuticals, and even then only if we can prove it.
Zack Wheeler
As befits someone who has spent his entire career in the National League East, Zack Wheeler has faced the Atlanta Braves a lot: tonight was his 36th start against the Braves, counting his two playoff starts. I was a little surprised to find that that still doesn’t put him in the alltime top 10, and nowhere near the leader, Don Sutton, who faced the Braves 66 times. Indeed, the leaders come from a time before interleague play when you played teams a lot more than you do today. Rounding out the top 10 are Steve Carlton (55), Tom Seaver (54), Joe Niekro (51), Bob Knepper (44), Jerry Reuss (43), Orel Hershiser (41), Aaron Nola (40), Fernando Valenzuela (40), with Livàn Hernandez and Rick Reuschel tied for 10th at 38.
In any case, Wheeler has had good success, but not great success, against the Braves, with an overall record of 13-10. This is his first game back from thoracic outlet surgery. He pitched well, but as always, the way to win when he starts is to outlast him and make it a bullpen game.
The Game
And that’s what they did. The game was delayed by rain and Bryce Elder matched him. The Braves would have won this game in regulation had not Eli White (playing center field while Michael Harris II rests his delicate quad) taken an eccentric path to a line drive, slipped, and allowed a leadoff triple to Kyle Schwarber in the 8th.
We then got to extra innings and José Suarez was put in the game after Tyler Kinley, who had negotiated the 9th, walked the first man he faced. Surely there was some rationale for this involving using a pitcher every once in a while if you’re going to pay him to pitch. The good news coming out of this game is that i strongly suspect he will not be employed by the Braves to pitch after tonight. His 10th inning went walk, 2-run single, wild pitch, strikeout, single, single, strikeout, strikout to yield 4 runs. That is not good pitching and his ERA now sits at 5.87. Every other guy the Braves pitched in this game has an ERA under 2.00. There really is very little reason to ever use José Suarez in a situation with any leverage at all. And I’m pretty sure that’s the last time they will.
So of course the Braves rallied in the bottom of the 10th, scoring one and having two chances with the tying run at the plate. Fire José Suarez into the sun.
Rubber game tomorrow. Let’s not lose our first series of the year to the Phillies.
Sorry… I garbled the location of this post and three fine posters’ input were mislaid. Herewith:
td: From last thread “credit our first blown save of the season to Eli White …”
Totally disagree. The field was wet. I don’t blame White given those conditions.
Big D: Ah, didn’t consider that. I was watching Vanderbilt surprisingly shut out Texas, and just saw the clip on the MLB app.
oldtimer?: He didn’t read the ball right, then the turf definitely gave way a bit under him.
I wondered about that but I was only using Gameday so it wasn’t clear that Eli misplayed it although that seemed to be the case even on Gameday. That still doesn’t excuse the walks or letting Turner/Schwarber/Harper beat us. After Lee gave up the tying run it made sense not to use Robert. But Jose sure didn’t help the situation at all.
As I said before, I think J.Suarez is safe as long as Dodd has an option. Maybe he will go out instead of Payamps but I think J. Suarez has a better chance of being picked up off waivers than Payamps. The Braves are option-crazy.
Suarez is our Tomlin. Long relief cannon fodder.
I am perfectly willing to have a Mike Tomlin of the team… no problem at all. I am unwilling to put him in a game in the top of the 10th inning unless three or four runs have already scored.
There’s pre-2020 Mike Tomlin who was a useful long-man like Cristhian Martinez and then there’s post-2020 Mike Tomlin who was about as effective as Jose Suarez and equally deserving of a major league roster spot.
Hey BravesVision, I don’t really care about anything Jason Aldean has to say while watching a game.
This team needs another good late right handed relief option.
Rumors are that Reynaldo might be going to the bullpen. Maybe he can be that guy reaching back for some extra in short bursts.
After the 2023 season, I proposed signing Aaron Nola. I thought he projected well over the next 6 years and it had the added bonus of hurting our chief rival. AA was reading the blog and all comment threads at the time and paying particular attention to the opinions of some rando implausibly named stampton. He took my advice to heart and made Nola his only serious long-term offer ($162MM/6) to a starting pitcher, and reportedly, he took less in terms of AAV to stay with Philly ($172MM/7). In the first season of that deal, it looked like we lost out. A month into the third season, it looks like we dodged a serious bullet. Better lucky than good applies even more to off-field stuff in baseball.
I hope this doesn’t mean that AA will stop taking your advice. I do suspect the Nola contract and subsequent events will confirm his aversion to long term contracts for starting pitchers in their thirties.
EDIT—do we know if AA ever offered Fried a long term deal and if so for how much?
Strider 5 IP with 7 Ks in his AAA start today. It’s safe to say his next start will be next weekend for the big club.
Was listening to the Phils’ radio announcers in the first couple innings & mid-way thru the top of the 1st inning one of them said: “Um, it looks like Sale has command of all his pitches so far — could be a long day, as long as he’s in there.”
Having a healthy & dominant Sale pitch a rubber game vs. a division rival is such an advantage.
Let’s hope he’ll have the same opportunity in a playoff opener or clincher this fall.
That’s 20-9 now and it’s 5 out of 6 vs. the Phils. We don’t see them again for another 4+ months… and that’s just fine with me.
Mets just lost to Rockies. So 29 games into the season, the Braves have a 10 game lead on NY and 10.5 on Philly. How many had that on their bingo card?
Recapped.