Braves Win in Ten, 3-2 over Bosox

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 9^th 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 1^st, and a nice 3-6 DP. 

Meanwhile, the Braves took a 2-0 lead on a 1^st inning homer by Baldwin and a 4^th 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 12^th 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 6^th, 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 7^th.  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 8^th 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 9^th.  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 10^th.  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 10^th, 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.)