The Braves only had three hits in tonight’s game against the Mets. Fortunately, those three hits included a solo shot by Ozzie and a two run blast from Olson. Matty is now tied for the ML lead in homers with 35, and Ozzie has 20 for the fifth time in his career, putting him in the top ten all time among second basemen with 20 homer seasons.
In addition to the three runs from those two homers, the Braves managed another run without the benefit of a hit. Those four runs were three more than absolutely necessary, as Martin Perez and the three horsemen at the back end of the pen shut out the Mets.
Perez has been one of the great stories of this season ab initio. Signed to a minor league deal, he made the opening day roster thanks to the cascade of injuries to the starting rotation in the spring. But after three appearances (in which he pitched pretty well), he was designated for assignment on April 12. After clearing waivers he re-signed with the Braves two days later on another minor league deal. Nunc pro tunc. Since then, he’s been solid as a rock. Res ipsa loquitor. He’s certainly been paid far less than quantum meruit. Glad no one else picked him up in April. (OK, I’ll stop the silly lawyer Latin. Blame Cliff—he started it.)
After six scoreless innings tonight, Perez is now sporting an 18 inning scoreless streak. Just a little over 40 to go to top Hershiser. Perez reminds me a lot of Tom Glavine, relying mainly on a four seam fastball with below average velocity and an excellent changeup. Most importantly, he has terrific command; he consistently hits the corners and never throws it in the middle of the plate. He gets a lot of ground balls and induces a lot of double plays. He’s having the second best season of his 15 year career, and if he keeps this up for the last six weeks, it may turn out to be his best ever. As an old guy at the end of my own career, Perez is an inspiration! I just watched Perez in the post-game presser, and he reminded us all again what a class act he is. He’s already surpassed Pascual, Williams, Odalis, and Marty on my all time favorite Braves Perez list, and he’s at least tied with Eddie.
And the bullpen continues to be a real strength. Didi, Lee, and Iggy got them nine up and nine down in the 7th, 8th, and 9th, on just 33 pitches.
What more can I say—this team is a joy to watch. (And by the way, it’s almost as much fun to watch the Phillies. Trailing 1-0, they loaded the bases with no outs in the top of the 8th, and then somehow failed to score. The Cards promptly scored in the bottom of the 8th to go up 2-0, and held on in the 9th. Braves back up by 8.5).
Tomorrow night, Tyler Mahle seeks to continue his own scoreless innings streak as the Braves go for a series win.
Oyez, oyez, as Mets fans used to chant for Jose Reyes. As long as we don’t face the Yankees and Flip Wilson’s version of res judicata: “Here comes the Judge.”
Man, I am still pissed about that grand slam off of Bryce Elder on Monday. In MLB‘s infinite wisdom, did no one understand the impossibility that you can’t simultaneously challenge a blown ball strike call while throwing out a runner? Or why whether or not a player challenge the call is reviewable? The catcher could not challenge the call, and the pitcher did. And hats off to Bryce for having the presence of mind to tap his hat. A lot of hats doing stuff in that sentence.
JonthanF, I was concerned with a 1-0 lead and one hit. After Olson hit his two-run dinger, I was no longer concerned but fell asleep.
Maybe the answer to our SP is Perez and a lights-out bullpen. If Perez keeps pitching like this and AJSS comes back, our playoff SP could be Sale, AJSS, Perez, Mahle. With a lights-out bullpen (aka Suarez comes back and Holmes is the long man), our pitching might be set even if we didn’t get a #2 at the deadline.
Perez and Sale and pray for hail.
And maybe add JRR and Murphy to the pen for September/October – Schwelly, too. Strider has been cleared to start throwing. Still unlikely for him to return on time apparently, same as Waldrep.
Timo, I like our bullpen with Iglesias, Suarez, Lee, Fuentes, Dodd and maybe Holmes or Lopez or Suter or even Kinley. I’m not sure Schwelly or Strider would make it better. And the SP with AJSS (like I said above) is also strong. That even leaves Elder out (I think he’s too volatile) even though he’s been a workhorse for two years now.
Hey everybody. Let’s get a win tonight and take a series from this pretend major league team.
I believe is Riley is fully back. Do y’all agree?
I don’t think he needs to bat 8th anymore. He looked good tonight, though. I need at least another week of this before I’m convinced.
He has a .896 OPS since the ASB. That’s about as back as he’s gong to be.
Pull Raisel now. He is in the tank.
Whew. He knows he can’t create his own save situation, right?
Nice game for the new guys. Mahle especially has been surprisingly impressive. And I always enjoy watching pitchers who can hit their spots.
Bowman reports via Weiss that Schwellenbach’s elbow still isn’t quite right. Not sure what that means, but it obviously isn’t good news for a guy who hasn’t pitched in 15 months. He is feeling like a guy who is going to be another epic injury flameout.
Yeah, it’s a bummer about Spencer and Spencer.
Guess everybody’s taking the day off. It is a long season, after all.
I tried to tune in to the Field of Dreams game on Netflix (ugh). Saw that they were interviewing a player on the field during the game, and turned it right back off. I’m gonna make a great old man.
It takes practice and perseverance, Big D.
You know you’re really in trouble when you find the “people acting like their parents” in the Progressive Insurance ads completely normal.
I don’t watch much TV these days, but my version of that used to be, “You know you’re really in trouble when you find the moms in sitcoms more attractive (and think they’re young) than their allegedly hot teenaged daughters.”
Yes to all of these statements lol.
you guys all crack me up….. 🙂
Curious if anybody has a perspective on Patrick Clohisy. He is certainly performing much better at AAA than anywhere else in his career, but each year shows (with higher levels) increase in BA, OBP, and ISO. Obviusly he is a speedster with potential to be a plus ML centerfielder (great baserunner).
Some scouting types said he could be a potential 4th outfielder in the future.
Yeah, he really seems to have an Eli White/Forrest Wall ceiling. I kinda love that we always have one of these guys in our system, and when there’s a roster crunch or they get expensive, we can ship them off for a reliever like we did with White. Wall was just bad enough to not be able to do much with him. People discount these guys, but White was worth 1 WAR for $900K this year. Can’t beat that.
Agree, Rob. I can’t believe you didn’t mention the Platonic ideal of such players, Mallex Smith.
Or Jordan Schafer
It’s pretty crazy that Mallex Smith had a 3.5 WAR season as a 25-year old, but was then out of MLB by age 27. Could not hit a lick in AAA at age 28. How could skills have eroded that quickly at an age where skills ought to be increasing?
Back from a week in Atlantic City.
At our magazine’s convention, I moderated a discussion panel of stadium/arena sports DJs. We had guys from the Mets, Islanders, Knicks, Rangers & Phillies.
On the panel, the 2 Phillies guys took great pride in admitting to turning up the volume to preposterous levels when visiting clubs at Citizens Bank had mound visits… to disorient, annoy, make the moment difficult, etc.
My response: “Well done, guys — you’re keeping in character, but I gotta tell ya… now, that eight-and-a-half game lead never felt so good.”
Bravo.
I don’t begrudge sports owners the crap that makes the games fun for people who don’t really care about the game. I’m sure that’s really lucrative, so much so that the Savannah Bananas and Harlem Globetrotters have shown that you might not need the sporting event at all.
So if you want to blare music between innings and run mascot races and have concerts after games and have dedicated playspaces for children, or even have some idiot yelling Make Some Noise on tape fifteen times a game, knock yourselves out. But please spare me any notion that you’re actually affecting the game.
Recapped