Last Stop

I need to apologize for this extended trip to Europe, which must be partly responsible for the record since I left the country on June 11th. Since then, the Braves are 3-8. I wi ll be back on Sunday, but I write this at 4:30 am here in Oxford. (The one in England, not Mississippi.) This recap, and tomorrow’s will be short.

Mendoza Line

Carlos is gone at Citi Field. Deck chairs, meet Titanic.

Elbow Room

One out, one in. Robert Suarez to the IL with “tightness” (though apparently no structural damage) and Hurston Waldrep returns from surgery in February. Your guess is probably considerably better than mine re Suarez. Driggy will have to be replaced with some other cutesy acronymic portmanteau coinage soon. Waldrep returns earlier than expected by about a month.

The Game

Reynaldo Lopez returned as a starting pitcher in San Francisco, but this was really a bullpen game. He pitched 3 and looked pretty good, though his four hits included three doubles, but only one run. After Dylan Dodd worked a perfect 4th inning, Hurston Waldrep made his 2026 debut, minus the loose bodies yielded by his elbow…. apparently you don’t want a loose body, or at least not a bunch of them. Waldrep struck out the first hitter, but a single and two walks formed his first pickle of 2026. A strikeout of rookie phenom Bryce Eldridge (note to self: just how many Bryces are there in baseball nowadays — where did that name come from?) and a groundout ended the threat.

Waldrep ended up working two, but some (understandable) wildness and an infield hit got him in trouble again, and Dylan Lee had to come in and create another scoreless inning in the 7th. But he did so on 5 pitches. Walt Weiss has been a little unwilling this season to use a quick reliever outing to give them a second inning, but the absence of Suarez may have changed his mind. Lee came back to pitch the 8th, and would have completed but-for a rare dropped ball from Harris on what would have been the third out. Enter Fuentes, who struck out Matt Chapman on three pitches.

On the other side, the Braves scored 3 runs against Trevor McDonald in the first 5 1/3. Ozzie knocked in two with a single and a sac fly and Dominic Smith provided the other on a single. After that, nobody did nothing of note.

5:50 am here in Merrie Olde England. Back on track.