I feel rather like the diagnostic physician trying to determine the nature and source of seemingly world ending diarrhea. Recapping this game is possibly a more negative experience than watching it nearly live. I say nearly live because of the strange things that happen when video is digitized and streamed. Early in season the sound on Braves Vision was probably one second ahead of the picture. You could hear the ball either hit the mitt or hit the bat, and even the announcer’s reaction to that, before you saw it on screen. Nevertheless, Braves Vision at its 99.99 price has provided some pleasure for me. It has also facilitated a reconstituted exercise program. The “streaming screen” is in the playroom which has a treadmill and hand weights. So, it is a “two fer.”
Last night, Sidney Connor Thomas was kind of like that diagnostic physician examining the detritus of diarrhea. He had an awful job. Walt Weiss decided to do a Lido and “let it roll” because of the 18 straight days without an off day. Although I don’t know Connor, the odds are I know a lot of people he knows. Kid “took one for the team” about like Ted Turner did back in the day.
Martin Perez played the part of Martin Perez. He got 5 innings in and gave up 3 runs. If he does that every 5 to 6 days (until a reinforcement comes back, maybe), you can’t get on Martin. And, he left with the game tied.
Last night also represented the return of Ronald Acuna, Jr. who scored the first run and went 1 for 4.
Thomas gave up 2 in the sixth and looked shaky doing it. Weiss made the right decision for the team to let it continue. But after that it continued to get more icky. Icky to the point that I doubt we will see Mr. Thomas again this year.
Shout out to Rob Cope. Do you know where the Goldberg quote comes from?
We have 6 days to possibly add some outside magic to this group. I continue to believe the Philles are not for real. Despite their surge, they have never gotten to a positive run differential. By pythag this morning Braves are up 12 games and the race is over. That doesn’t affect the “games in the book”, but it is a much better indicator of what is likely to happen going forward than the current record.
High chance of rain again today and also tomorrow. Get these games in and get on with it.
Thanks cliff.
The Braves have used 29 different pitchers this season, plus Jorge Mateo. I don’t know what AA’s expectations are for our 29th best pitcher, but I know what mine are. It seems like there must be a better way.
Martin is doing what he’s capable of, but 5 innings from starters can’t be satisfactory.
And Mateo’s ERA is better than most of those 29!
If your 5th starter is giving you a 3-run, 5-inning outing, that’s him doing his job. The problem is we have at least three 5th starters.
Am I reading this correctly that Mateo had to pick up Thomas? It’s one thing for an infielder to pitch the 8th inning in a blow out. It’s another for a real major league pitcher to need an infielder to relieve him because he can’t get out of the 8th. Demoralizing.
Thanks, Cliff. I’m with you—I like our chances much better than the Phillies. Still, I’ll feel much better next Monday night if AA has added a couple of decent pitchers.
Going back to #1 overall draft picks, do we think Casey Mike will be available? I’m rooting against the Tigers the next week. They are now 7 games under .500, (but only 4 games out of the wild card). Another overall #1 pick who might be a Brave in the next few days is Mickey Moniak. I’ve always thought of him as a bust, but he’s put up pretty good numbers the last couple of years.
EDIT—I’d forgotten Moniak hits lefty. We don’t need another hitter from the left side.
Bowman relays from Weiss: He expected Suarez to be back by this point, but Suarez is still not throwing bullpens.
The Suarez news is really unfortunate. I’m also not sure what they can do about it, because they aren’t going to give up prospects for bullpen help with such desperate starting pitching needs.
The Phillies aren’t great, but the top third of their roster is still very good, and they could still make noise in a short playoff series. It’s one of the many reasons I hate the expanded playoff format.
Tonight’s game has been banged due to weather. A day-night doubleheader tomorrow.
Good, we won’t waste a start by Sale.
All this Phillies talk – – for me: I want nothing to do with the Phillies in the post-season. They still have our soul after that “attaboy Bryce” series.
The billion dollar question: who heats up in September. Hoping to see a 2021 redo (when we hopefully get a new piece or two).
FWIW, we’re 5-1 vs. Philly this year.
Of course, we play them 7 times in 10 days the first 2 weekends of September. So, they’ll get their chance even before the post-season.
Seems we beat them in the regular season both years that we lost to them in the postseason
This Philly team is 11th in the NL in runs; they’re 10th in team ERA.
They may have a lot of the same names on the roster — Sanchez & Wheeler in a short series would be formidable — but top-to-bottom, those ’22-’23 teams were scarier than this bunch.
And they just lost again in Miami, 1-0. For the moment, the lead creeps up to 6 games.
Yeah, count me as one of those who don’t think the 2026 Phils are anywhere near as good as the ’22 and ’23 versions. They have really forfeited games due to their fifth (and fourth given Nola’s struggles) starters ineptitude this year. Of course, the same could be said about the Braves, but at least we should get some some bodies back before the end of the season. I’m really hoping they can go on a tear and overtake the Brewers for the 2nd seed, but that seems unlikely.
The Phillies have a negative run differential and their Pythagorean is 53-55, so they’ve been lucky.
I still don’t want anything to do with them in October.
Right, a 3 game series facing Sanchez, Wheeler, and Luzardo would not be good.
This rainout is probably a good thing for our team who definitely could use the off day. The bullpen now has had 2 days off and should be reset.
That’s unfortunate about Suarez and probably really does put us in need of another high leverage relief arm since we can’t count on him returning.