The French, as we all know, take off the month of August. Rusty Staub was known as Le Grande Orange. So our regular Sunday correspondent, Rusty S., has decided to take the next two weeks off. I will give highly abbreviated recaps in his absence.
The three game series in the Bronx concluded with another pitcher’s duel. When one half of that duel is Cam Schlittler, nobody is surprised. But Sherlocks matched him inning for inning, and it was 0-0 going to the seventh. A Matt Olson homer off Schlittler in the 7th made it 1-0 and a Trent Grisham homer in the 8th off Didier Fuentes made it 1-1. Iggy returned from Friday’s antics and worked a very quick 10-pitch 9th.
At this point, in regular-season Manfred-Man extra innings, things turn random. Ha-Seong Kim was brought in to pinch-run for Olson. Why not? (Because you learn nothing about Ha-Seong Kim from that, to ride my current hobby-horse.) He scored on a Michael Harris II single that would’ve scored me, much less Olson.
Would Walt give an Iggy a second inning? Of course not. At this point, Iggy’s psyche is more important than an enhanced probability of a win. Tyler Kinley was handed the save opportunity. No one is concerned about his psyche. The Manfred Man, Jazz Chisholm Jr., never left second base.
Three one-run games between two good teams, all decided by the bullpens. Note to Roger: you can win with two runs.
The New York extravaganza resumes tomorrow with the Braves at home against the Senior Circuit’s NY representative. Christian Scott against Bryce Elder.
JonthanF, I know it’s possible but not desirable. 8 runs in three games is not gonna win a playoff series. And we would’ve lost a best of three. 2 one-run losses and 1 one-run win is also less than perfect. I’m glad we salvaged the last game but we could’ve done better (especially in the first game with on Ozzie run in the first or an Iggy save in the 9th).
We are great against lesser teams (except the Mets) but it wasn’t the pitching that left something to be desired in the Yankees series.
Just to be clear, I tease out of respect. And I don’t expect insect overlords to comment on Iggy’s performance today either.
To pile on the teasing, 2 runs can be enough: when the Dodgers scored exactly 2 runs in his starts in 1966, Sandy Koufax was 3-1 with two no-decisions that the team split in extras. He gave up 1, 1, 4, 1 (in 11), 2, and 1 in those games. Two must have been the magic number, though, because he was only 2-4 when they scored exactly 1 run.
He got off to a nice start that year – on June 10, exactly 1/3 of the way through the season, he was 11-1 with a 1.40 ERA and had pitched 8 straight complete games and 11 in his last 12 starts. He faded to 27-9, 1.73 for the year and retired because of his elbow. Too bad Dr. Jobe didn’t get started a decade earlier.
JonathanF, I understand. I really want 162-0 but it never seems to happen.
Let’s hear it for our starting pitching. Our current five man rotation has given up just 5 runs in their last 43 innings pitched. And Chris Sale has surrendered a majority of those!
Sale—2 starts, 12 IP, 3 runs
Elder—2 starts, 13 IP, 2 runs
Homes—2 starts, 12 IP, 0 runs
Perez—2 starts, 10 IP, 0 runs
Mahle—1 start, 6 IP, 0 runs
43 IP, 5 runs
Wow!
I know, right? It’s jaw-dropping. This would have been a great run by Maddux-Glavine-Smoltz-Whoever in the Nineties.
tru dat – our pitching was great
In an early Baseball Abstract, in the review of a middle-of-the-road San Francisco Giants season, Bill James observes how in the first part of the season, starts were pushed all around, while in the second part, where the Giants did better, four or five pitchers (can’t remember which was the standard at the time) took their turns on a regular basis. James imagines a phone call between Earl Weaver and his coaching protege, Frank Robinson, mid-season, in which Weaver says, “Jeez, Frank, I always thought you fix a rotation and stick with it,” and Robinson takes him up on the advice, to good effect. Yeah, I know we are a long way from 1980, and I know why Sale is being stretched, but I do think that there is something to be said for the rotation guys knowing who they are and when they are going to pitch. The trade deadline (just before, at, after) might have been the catharsis, akin to the imaginary Weaver-Robinson phone call.
Oof, this was the jinx
Am I the only one who has some issues with the pitch calling for Fuentes? I should note up front that I love this kid and foresee great things from him, so I am heavily biased here, but it seems to me that the overreliance on his fastball is getting a bit absurd. It looks like a great pitch! But not Rivera-great. The HR that Grisham hit today is a sample size of one, but I recall seeing other hits after he has thrown 12 or 15 or 20 consecutive fastballs.
I concede he seems to have command problems with his slider- it looks like the movement is good but location is unreliable- and the splitter at presents seems more like a change of pace, although occasionally it looks fantastic. So I am not militating for him to be a true three-pitch reliever at this time. But even as good as his fastball is, there is essentially no reason for the hitter not to just sit fastball because he is almost certainly going to get one, especially first pitch.
So- am I wrong in my recollection? Or is this fastball-dominant approach deliberate always, or maybe contingent on how he looks when warming up? Is it coming from the bench or does Baldwin just not trust his other stuff (this trend seemed less prevalent to me when Bart was catching him although I am old and my memory is not to be trusted)? Is this the right way to go (not like he hasn’t been plenty effective) or should he mix in the other pitches a bit more just from a game theory perspective?
Would really appreciate someone in the know setting me straight here. Thanks!
Unfortunately, at the moment the fastball is his only MLB-quality pitch. It is double plus and if has anything else going is a devastating weapon that he currently utilizes just under 80% of the time.
For his development, he would have been best served to spend 3-4 more months in AAA throwing nothing but the slider and the split (or the changeup he used to throw) but the team desperately needed him and this is the result. Tampa seems to teach their relievers on their MLB roster cutters and sweepers on the fly so maybe that is the plan.
Merci, JonathanF.
I think the horse has left the stable. Fuentes is an excellent reliever and I think the Braves should keep it that way.
He’s wayyyyy too young to make that determination.
Not going to rag on the offense too much about yesterday. Cam Schlittler is really good.
As it stands, Schlittler would probably finish 1st or 2nd in AL Cy Young voting.
I’d vote him 1st over Cease b/c he doesn’t walk people.
You know, I guess I see the fans point of view that we can’t win the World Series without another high impact starting pitcher. In 2021 not including Max Fried, who I would consider a slight downgrade from Chris Sale, our starting pitchers whose starts resulted in wins were Charlie Morton, Ian Anderson, and Dylan Lee (actually Kyle Wright, who pitched 4.2 innings to Lee’s .1). If only we could find high impact pitchers like Ian Anderson and Kyle Wright!
Improbable things happen all the time, but you don’t want to bet on it.
Depends on the odds I get on the improbable thing!
(I’m concerned the metaphor has broken down)
Look, I’ll never be mistaken for the most positive-thinking person in any group, but I’m definitely looking at the Yankees seres as glass half-full. The Braves were competitive in every game against a top team, including arguably the best three starting pitchers in the game. If just a couple of things had gone differently, they could have swept the series.
And who knows if this is the offense that will show up in October? If they get hot, like they were against some pretty stiff competition in April and May, then Katy bar the door . . .
You’re correct. What’s more, there is not a single thing that would have been different about your conclusions had the Braves been swept. Where understanding comes is in the realization that had the Braves swept the Yankees, the exact same tentative conclusions could be reached. Wins and losses, even in important series (heck even in the playoffs themselves) are such a crude measure of relative competence — competitiveness is all you can ever ask for. Competitiveness means you can win. It never means you will. And that’s what makes baseball great.
JR Ritchie added 1.6 average MPH to his fastball, so looks like we can schedule an appointment for him with Dr. Keith Meister very soon.
BRYCE ELDER
Ooof, just a rough inning. Bryce is a pumpkin tonight.
As Skip would say, go ahead and walk your dog as long as you patronize the sponsors.
WE JINXED THE ROTATION
Or maybe Bryce is just satisfying the run quota and there will be four more scoreless starts.
The Drake is not the best at challenging; missed a pretty obvious strike challenge that would have avoided the grand slam.
Meanwhile, the Mets do it correctly against Riley
Edit: wait, is it Murphy who’s catching? Anyway, terrible at challenging
When Murphy came back from the IL the first time and burned off both challenges in the first inning, he needed to have that responsibility removed for a while. Can’t AA’s Folly do anything right?
This is batting practice. You need to have someone always ready to go four innings when Bryce starts, because you can’t afford to mess around when it’s Chef Bryce Meatball Night at the park.
I’m disappointed you guys are killing Bryce Elder. He should’ve been out of the first with one run scored. After getting screwed with Sale on Saturday, we get screwed with that challenge. You only get three seconds to challenge a ball-strike call. But the average catcher pop time in MLB is two seconds. So how is a catcher supposed to throw a runner out at second while simultaneously challenging a ball strike call? And then you can clearly see that Bryce Elder was wanting to challenge it. He would’ve been out of that inning right there.
The play/call in Boston/Toronto game was also very interesting.
I think the Hammer Territory guys pinned Elder down pretty good — he’s a 4.5 FIP pitcher but he rides a roller coaster to get there. He can pitch like Maddux for a stretch, and other times he’ll pitch like Jo-Jo Reyes. Back and forth.
recapped.