By ububba
If that’s the best we can do, I’ll take it. The Braves capped off a wet three days in Flushing by winning the second game of a day/night doubleheader, 1-0, over the Mets at Citi Field.
Strangely, by salvaging just one win over the Metropolitans this series, the Braves didn’t exactly limp out of town. They probably left skipping, mainly because they still picked up one game on the Phillies, who got swept this afternoon in Miami. They totally coughed up 2 games to the Marlins and dropped a 1-0 contest to boot. The NL East lead now stands at 6.5 games. Who’d have thunk it at the All-Star break?
From my point of view, it couldn’t have been a better scenario tonight. We flew in and out of Flushing on the 7 train for a game that ran a very quick 2.5 hours, and it was easily the tiniest crowd I’ve ever seen at Citi Field. Pretty sure that tonight’s attendance wouldn’t have filled up the Fox Theater on Peachtree Street. And lots and lots of Braves fans on hand.
And tonight’s promotion at Citi Field? Christmas in July! Walking into Citi Field, they handed us a Mr. Met doll wearing a Santa Claus hat and once you got up the escalators everyone was greeted by Christmas carolers. WITAF? So, my friend DJ Razor played seasonal music (for December) & Citi Field employees were all dressed up accordingly & exuding Yuletide cheer. I was thoroughly confused & never did find the eggnog.
The Game: Not a lot to say about this one. Basically, Chris Sale was no-nonsense & super-dominant. He struck out the side in his first inning. He struck out the side in his last inning. He totally earned the win, going 6 IP w/ 2 H, 9K, 0 BB on 94 pitches. As long as he was on the mound, I wasn’t worried in the slightest.
However… Mets starter Christian Scott matched him for 5 innings, at one point retiring 12 consecutive Bravos. He was challenging everyone & beating them with straight gas. But in the 6th, Braves SS Jim Jarvis lined a double down the RF line. After Drake reached on an infield hit to deep SS, Atlanta was in business – runners on the corners with nobody out. After Scott blew away RAJ on four pitches, Olson sneaked a single up the middle, just under Francisco Lindor’s glove, to plate Jarvis. 1-0 ATL.
Sale followed up by striking out the side in the bottom of the inning, and he was done. The Atlanta bullpen – Didier Fuentes, who struck out the side in the 7th, plus Dylan Lee & Raisel Iglesias – quickly retired 9 of the last 10 Mets hitters. Ballgame. Nothing really to sweat. Can’t tell you how much I enjoyed this one.
Oh… and you owe me a beer, JonF.
Tomorrow night the Braves entertain the hard-hitting Washington Nationals. Grant Holmes (6-4, 3.79 ERA) vs. righty Jake Irvin (2-4, 5.23). Go Braves.
And I’ll pay up on August 7th for whatever pittance Yankee Stadium charges for said brewski. I’m guessing that’ll be $2 beer night.
At the stadium’s team store, I think $2 might get you a Yankee pencil.
Good game, suburban. Well done.
Remember that time we scored 3 runs total in a double header and gained half a game in the standings?
Strider was shut down for a month around June 15th, but there’s been no update since. He was supposed to have imaging after a month and then resume a throwing program, pending those results.
Waldrep was yanked with arm pain over a week ago and there’s been no update since.
No updates on Schwellenbach.
It’s really wild that you can have 9-10 guys that can get big league hitters out, you really just want 3, mayyyybe 4 for the playoffs, and you just can’t get it.
Well, I’m guessing he wasn’t cleared for the throwing program since he is still shut down.
At least we have Strider’s vinyl record night to look forward to.
Yes, Rob, this is why people say you should change your draft strategy. Betting on young pitchers to stay healthy produces exactly these results most of the time. You could get crazy lucky but usually not.
Problem is, Stampton, it’s not like it’s totally working to do the opposite. If you cut Ohtani’s salary in half, then the Dodgers are paying close to $97M for Ohtani, Glasnow, and Snell. How many starts will they get out of them this year? Not many. So it’s kinda “pick your poison”. Do you want to throw $97M and maybe get very little or buy a bunch of cheap lottery tickets?
I’m still confident we’ll get something out of either Strider or Schwellenbach. Keep them shut down; they’re surviving without them. If they’re both not throwing a month from now, of course…
Regardless, I’m uniquely excited about this stretch run. I would have thought this was the Dodgers’ year, and it certainly is, but it’s not such a foregone conclusion. I’m excited to see if the Braves are successfully timing at least a decent chunk of their pitching to be healthy at the right time, something they have not done a good job of in years past.
I don’t think the Dodgers’ strategy is the only alternative.
The only team with more SP fWAR than the Dodgers is Milwaukee. And even they will likely only have 3 SPs over 2 WAR (Miz, Harrison, and Henderson). We will have 3 likely clear 2 WAR (Sale, Holmes, Perez if he sticks). With that said, I would agree that Milwaukee is killing it. Miz, Harrison, Henderson, Drohan, and whatever ends up happening with Sproat and Woodruff is about as good as it’s going to get for any team right now in MLB. But even they have had 10 SPs make starts. As bad as it’s been for us, we’ve only had 11 make starts if you don’t count Danny Young acting as opener. It’s just been a weird list of names that we wouldn’t have predicted at the beginning of the year.
Rob, this conversation is exasperating for me because you keep saying something like “well our draft strategy must be good because look at how good our starting pitching is” and then I point out that we didn’t draft any of those pitchers except Elder (and in Sale’s case we traded a drafted bat for him) and that fact doesn’t impact you at all, and you make the same exact argument as before. I’ll just leave it there.
Yup, war of attrition… The modern philosophies of max-effort, chasing velocity & nasty spin rates, etc., tend to get guys hurt. Unfortunately, you kinda gotta plan for it these days. Maybe we pick up a suitable arm by Monday?
And we’re definitely not alone… look at the Dodgers spending a fortune on pitchers on the IL (Snell & Glasnow, in particular). Ohtani has been relieved of his mound duties for the moment, as well.
Not that it’s breaking my heart, of course.
Peanut floats trading Strider (https://www.mlb.com/news/braves-injuries-might-complicate-trade-deadline-plans) to get off of some of the $66M owed to him. I find that interesting, because he usually writes things for a purpose.
So what about Fuenleesias for our deadly bullpen trio? No sure why we decided to pitch Fuentes in both games, but he was absolutely dominant in game 2. As far as a draft strategy for pitching goes, I think we need to put more research, money and time into keeping pitchers healthy.
Just watching ESPN trader-bation. They speculate Braves interest in Clay Holmes, Kevin Gausman and Hunter Greene.
Ignoring the fact that i would love to get Hunter Greene for the future, not necessarily 2026, I raise a question: has there ever been an AA deadline move that was anticipated? Ever?
Jorge Soler should always be anticipated and we are definitely getting him for cash
Austin Riley gets the night off — Dubón at 3B.
He had an especially tough doubleheader yesterday — 0 for 7 w/ 6 Ks with 1 HBP.
The Nats know how to hit. The Braves do not. That is all.
Yaz to the rescue.
Yup, Nats are #1 in MLB in runs scored.
But also… the Nationals have the worst bullpen in the NL… the Braves have the best.
Maybe we pull this one out.
I am still hoping for a Ray/Ramos trade with the Giants. With the news that the Giants might cover some of Ray’s salary, there has to be an opportunity there. I think AA only has one good trade in him……
That would solve a lot of problems. If we had Sale, Ray, and one of AJSS/Strider/Schwellenbach, we’d have a playoff ready rotation. If we get Suarez back (i know, iffy) and Ramos is our RHH savior, we might really have the best team in the league. And Ramos is controllable.
If Acuna gets hurt again, I’d sure rather have Ramos in RF than White.
I’m not sure I’ve ever seen MHII dive and miss before.
One wonders if Michael would have played Garcia’s line drive more conservatively had this not been a moment for the “B” bullpen. (Until Lee entered.) Understandable that he would have tried to make the big play there.
What comes after the Night Shift? the Skeleton Crew?
Seven games up now.
Recapped