I’m filling in for JonathanF tonight. My subbing for him is about like Jose Azocar subbing for the injured Ronald Acuña, Jr. I have neither his database, his skills at searching it, nor his mastery of statistics. Nevertheless, I guess he thought I was all right, all right in a sort of limited way for an off night. Who am I to blow against the wind?
But I know what I know, and I’ll say what I said. I said it earlier this week, in fact: there is a lot to like about this Braves team. Tonight they defeated the Red Sox 3-2 in 10 innings, to go to 31-14 for the season.
What was there to like about this game? Let’s start with the pitching. For the 9th game in a row, the Braves held their opponents to 3 runs or fewer. Tonight, Strider held them scoreless through the first five, making that 11 consecutive scoreless innings for Aragorn. Much like his last start in LA, he looked more like the 2022-23 version of himself than the 2025 model. His fastball, while not 98-99, is consistently in the mid to upper 90’s range. And his two breaking balls, the old familiar slider and the relatively new curveball, are outstanding. To be fair, Strider was not quite as dominant as his last start. He allowed 5 baserunners in the first 5 innings (2 hits, 3 walks) but he faced only one over the minimum, thanks to 2 caught stealings (Sandy Leon!), 1 pickoff at 1st, and a nice 3-6 DP.
Meanwhile, the Braves took a 2-0 lead on a 1st inning homer by Baldwin and a 4th inning dinger by Michael Harris. Baldwin’s shot was over the wall in straightway center. CF Raffaela leaped and got his glove on it but couldn’t hold on. That was Drake’s 12th of the year—and 7 have been in the first inning. I’d say let’s keep him near the top of the order. Harris’s homer was on an 0-2 pitch that was well above the strike zone. I still think Mike needs to be more selective, but he’s doing just fine without my advice.
In the 6th, Strider allowed a leadoff double. With one out and a runner on second, Weiss deployed a relatively quick hook (as has been his wont) and brought in Dylan Lee. That made sense; Lee has been pretty much unhittable this season. Of course as great as Dylan has been he’s not actually unhittable. Lee surrendered a two out rbi single, making it a 2-1 game. Tyler Kinley came on for the 7th. Kinley looked unhittable for the first month, but lately he’s been eminently hittable. After getting 2 outs, he surrendered a game-tying solo home run, followed by a double. Once again, Weiss was proactive, and brought in Suarez with the go ahead run on second. After 3 straight impressive change-ups, he struck out Narvaez on a 99 mph heater at the top of the zone. Suarez returned for the 8th and got them 1-2-3 on 3 groundouts to Ozzie. What a terrific pickup he’s been. Suarez’s ERA is 0.45. Iglesias did what he has done every time this season, and held them scoreless in the 9th. His ERA remains 0.00. Having those two at the backend is pretty phenomenal.
But when the Braves failed to score another run in regulation, Walt needed to turn to someone else for the 10th. He chose the still 20 year old Didier Fuentes. Didi gets better each time out, and Weiss’s confidence in him grows accordingly. That confidence was warranted. Didi accomplished the very difficult task of holding them scoreless, despite the presence of the Manfred Man on second. In the bottom of the 10th, with Kim on second, leadoff hitter Mike Yasztremski was called upon to sacrifice the runner to third. I’ll concede that this situation is one of the very few in which a sacrifice bunt is warranted, especially with Yaz facing a southpaw. But Yaz fouled off two bunts. With two strikes, he swung away and lined a double to the left center gap. Kim scored easily, and Yaz got the walk-off bubble gum hat. It’s great that Yaz has starting hitting as we knew he could.
The Braves go for yet another series win tomorrow night behind Bryce Elder, who is still sporting an ERA below 2.00. Wouldn’t It Be Nice if he can keep his ERA that low all year? Will he? God Only Knows. But we can hope. (The Beach Boys’ masterpiece album Pet Sounds was released 60 years ago today.)
I’m sure he will have his moments, but if they had a stat for wins Above Replacement Manager (WARM), I think Weiss would be leading baseball. It helps to have a great bullpen but his hook has been excellent. Kinley has been disappointing recently but even with him,Weiss didn’t allow a long leash
Typically excellent recap, tfloyd. Thank you.
It’s nice to be a Braves fan, isn’t it?
Nice ‘cap, professor. I concur that Yaz bunting was the right call. You’ve got a batter with a very low chance of getting a hit, who is a competent bunter, and very 3 good hitters follow him, so you can’t just walk them all.
That said, it didn’t work out, and we might not have won if it had. Better lucky than good once again.
We have scored 12 runs in 4 games and we are 3-1. Could easily be 1-3, but Weiss has earned his money in this stretch of 4 more than any in the season.
Since we played the Phillies, they are a nifty 13-4. We are a darn good 11-5 since then, but we’ve played 4 playoff teams. We knew the Phillies had a run in them, and they did, but they’ve gained minimal ground in spite of it. They’ve played mostly soft opponents in this stretch and their schedule is getting tough now. Time to create some more distance.
If we can … Phillies comeback victory last night (down 6-0 at one point) over a pretty good Pittsburgh team is illustrative of what they have been up to lately. Schwarber and Harper are hotter than firecrackers; Marsh has yet to come back to earth; and Bohm and Stott are back to their levels. Did I leave out Turner? Starting pitchers are formidable. On the optimistic side, they are a terrible fielding team — balls in play to Bohm, Harper and Marsh give the opposition a chance.
Good morning from Williamsburg,VA, home of the College of William and Mary. It is the alma mater of Vic Raschi and Curtis Pride, and, as of yesterday, my granddaughter.
Thank you, tfloyd, for stepping in, and to the Braves for stepping up. You have the thanks of William, Mary and me.
Congrats.
My niece went there. I once asked her who the most famous W&M grad was & she replied: “Either Thomas Jefferson or Patton Oswalt.”
Re: The Mets
You know this season isn’t going your way when your best pitcher gets his leg broken on a comebacker to the mound.
It will be interesting to see what relievers are available tonight if we get into a high leverage situation. We’ve used the bullpen the last few nights pretty heavily.
Hopefully Elder can go 7 strong innings tonight and the offense can put a lot of runs on the board.
https://x.com/cjnitkowski/status/2055649162637574642?s=46&t=WSNPrB2JyUoeKSn2PZsXZg
I know Paul Byrd didn’t mean it that way, but I listened to it live and immediately texted my brother that it sounded a little underhanded. Yaz’s eyes also said that he didn’t completely love it. I know he didn’t mean it that way, but it was just a little touchy.
I heard it live too, and thought it would be a fine thing to say in the booth/studio but awkward to say it in front of the player. Even though Yaz is obviously not an MVP-caliber player. But I knew what he meant, and it seems like a non-issue.
Right. It’s one thing for us to say that Yaz is a glue guy that probably won’t win a MVP, but it’s another thing to say to Yaz, “You know what you’ll never win? Any award ever.”
Poor Paul. I know he didn’t mean it like that, but just not the moment.
Anyway, I’m glad Yaz has gotten some big hits because he really gives me the Markakis vibes that every team needs. And he’s the kinda guy you add to a roster to give you the right kind of flexibility a deep roster needs.
Ozzie has gone into a slump after the hot start.
We got the 7 strong innings from Elder, but only 2 runs of support. Either Elder will face the order a 4th time, a tired Lee/Suarez will pitch, or Bummer/Reylo will have to pitch in high leverage if we don’t get anything in the bottom of the 7th. Buckle up.
It seems pretty clear that Elder is the real deal. Adding the four seamer and the cutter has made a big difference.
Just as I typed that he gives up a leadoff double in the 7th. And just as he did in the first, he got out of it. 89 pitches through 7, 1 run.
Looks like Elder is going to start the 8th and the top of the order for the 4th time. Weiss picking his poison.
And Walt hit the whammy. Well, that’s two now, along with leaving Ritchie in too long at Seattle. But you can’t use Lee/Suarez/Iglesias/Fuentes every day.
Given the bullpen options, I understand Weiss leaving Elder in, but of course he paid the price. As B14 said, he had to pick his poison; the problem with poisin is that it’s deadly.
Among other things, it shows how little confidence they have in ReyLo.
Looks like Ritchie will start Monday now instead of Perez.
Jonathan, if you’re looking for ideas, at some point can you see how Baldwin’s season compares to those of the (I assume few) other good-hitting catchers who have hit leadoff? I remember Jason Kendall doing it for Oakland a couple of decades ago, but he wasn’t the hitter Baldwin is. I’m sure there have been others. Maybe Roger Bresnahan or somebody of that generation. I suppose Baldwin will move down in the order anyway once RAJ is back.
There’s also the issue that a fair number of games he’s nominally the DH, although he sometimes catches late. But he’s already better than Johnny Oates, the last Braves catcher to lead off.
Kim did the absolute best he could’ve there, just didn’t work out.
I don’t like headfirst slides into first, because I think they slow the runner and sometimes give the fielder an easier throw. Looked like the ball would’ve beaten him anyway (great recovery by Chapman).
Still waiting for Kim to do something at the plate. Anything. At least Mateo could get on base from time to time. Kim walking into the batter’s box was an excuse to beat the other fans up the aisle.
Really? That ball he hit off Chapman’s foot was 103.9 mph. Couldn’t ask for much mor than that.
Tough luck loss. Guess we were due for one. Wilson Contreras’ homer wasn’t on a bad pitch, and Chapman made a nice play off of Kim’s liner.
Close but no cigar. Recapped.