The Game
Two runs yesterday would have put the game into extra innings. The Braves waited until the first inning today to score them, though, on an Acuña homer, a Baldwin double, an Olson bloop and a Dubón groundout. They chose not to apply them to yesterday’s game, though, figuring they might need them later.
The Snakes tied it back up immediately, though, aided by the slightly curious decision of Austin Riley not to try and erase the first run at the plate, opting instead for a safe out. I say only slightly curious, because early in a game it’s probably the right play even with a substantial chance of getting the runner at home. Still, my eye showed that chance at considerably beyond substantial. And the D-Backs ended up scoring three anyway, so the infallible conditional hindsight dictum meant Riley should have tried. (I will point out that a Google search appears to reveal that you have just read the first Internet usage of the term “infallible conditional hindsight”. Put that in your trophy case and move on.)
After a minor threat in the bottom of the 2nd, Arizona put another three runs on the board in the top of the third. For the first time in several outings, Sherlocks was leaving pitches in highly smashable locations… and Arizona did some smashing. Once he realized how hard his strikes were being hit, he started to nibble: two walks predictably followed and he was replaced by Victor “Boy who Batted 1,000” Mederos in the 4th.
Other than a couple of Nolan Arenado homers, nothing much happened for a while. Offensive results got no better when Eduardo Rodriguez gave way in the 7th for Jonathan Loaisaga, but at least I got to see my first name on the TV screen. Danny Young, who I discovered is still with the team, pitched the mop-up 9th. Young hasn’t pitched in a week, and other than his mother, I doubt anyone has missed him. The three-run homer he yakked up means he has to go back to Gwinnett… or Rome, or the center of the sun, right?
The failure to score 8 runs in the 9th meant we lost. Rusty’s sojourn continues, so you’re stuck with me again tomorrow. Soroka returns to Atlanta to face Bryce Elder, who I confidently predict will not pitch a complete game. But neither will Soroka.
Announcer Note
The game was on Fox, who hired Brandon Gaudin for the night to work with Adam Wainwright. While it is vaguely possible that Brandon Gaudin and Adam Wainwright are old friends, Gaudin calling him “Waino” the entire game — once or twice an inning — got to be really annoying. Probably just me.
Weiss says that Holmes will make his next start and that AJSS is a candidate for the bullpen.
SMH
I was watching it on MLB.tv on a second screen and was deeply confused by Gaudin’s presence combined with that coverage. I thought the whole game, until just now, that it was the usual BravesVision telecast, just with some extremely unusual coverage decisions.
Danny Young DFA. Ray Kerr makes his return from TJS.
Until I read B14’s comments, I would give the Braves the benefit of the doubt that they threw three guys they knew would not be on the playoff team (or in the bullpen in the case of Holmes) and didn’t want to show AJSS to the Snakes. Ultimately, losing to the Dbacks and beating the Phillies will keep the Phillies out of the playoffs. Another potential strategy. One would have to assume the Braves are thinking that far ahead.
What we did learn is that the Braves are still vulnerable to LH SP and the Braves have lost season series to both Padres and Dbacks (and Yankees and White Sox).
I do not care how good the opposing pitcher is (e.g. Schlittler or Pfaadt or Rodriguez), the Braves need to score off of them. If all the Braves do is wallop lesser pitching then they will lose in the playoffs for sure.
To quantify Roger’s point, the Braves have scored 4.91 runs/game when the opposition starter is RH and 4.71 runs/game when the opposition starter is LH, though of course we don’t know how many of the relievers were LH or RH in those games. OPS is actually a tiny bit better in games started by LHs – .732 vs. .728 – but if you look at all PA against LHP and RHP, OPS is .738 against RHP and .714 against LHP.
And to quantify his two runs won’t do point, the team’s record scoring 0-2 runs is 1-23 (the 1 was Sale’s 1-0 win against the Mets July 29, so the team hasn’t won any games scoring exactly 2), scoring 3-5 it’s 15-11, and scoring 6+ it’s 27-1. I guess Sandy Koufax in 1966 was an outlier.
Separately, I was surprised to see that the team has both scored and allowed more runs at night than during the day – per-game averages of 4.9 runs scored & 3.94 runs allowed in night games and 4.67 & 3.78 in day games. The OPS splits are similar.
Thanks, jamesd, but you have to consider recency in the LH analysis. The point was made at some point on TV that the Braves had blasted LH early in the season but not lately so the overall numbers are good but if you consider since say the first of June or something, the Braves are really weak against LH. That was one of the points of the Lane Thomas acquisition. I have been hoping that Thomas with a Riley and Acuna recovery would solve the LH problem, but not last night. Both Acuna and Thomas have hit HRs but nothing in between.
Riley was not bad today…….
Like today, the Braves have relied a lot on Olson coming through when it counts.
Iglesias is completely up in his head.
Matt Olson is having one helluva year.
Just hang on, Raisel.
EDIT: Whew.
Recapped