I Am Not snowshine

Like a Braves Journal Martin Perez, I was told shortly before game time that snowshine was not going to be able to make his scheduled start. So those of you who expect the excellent farm reports that we all rely on will be bereft. I have attended three minor league baseball games in my life: two games at the now-defunct Bridgeport Bluefish (I loved their cheer: Go Fish!) and one game at Joe Wolfe Field to see the North Adams Steeplecats, who, as a collegiate summer league, I’m not sure even counts as a minor league team. The SteepleCats season ended about a month ago with a 7-4 win over their archrivals, the Keene Swamp Bats. They had one .300 hitter: Nelphie Lopez of the Stetson Hatters, who has transferred to Missouri Western for his senior year. I don’t expect him to be on the Braves, or in the major leagues, any time soon.

Ha-Seong Kim

Weiss sat Acuña tonight, putting Dubón in right field and giving Kim a start at shortstop. The fact that this was either wholly or partly a response to Kim’s heroics last night is ridiculous. I’m going to repeat myself: I don‘t know whether or not Kim is a valuable shortstop or not. But we will never know if he isn’t given an opportunity to play. Something Weiss said in the post-game interview last night led me to believe that the Braves were actually thinking about just sort of banking him this year, anticipating tht no one else would sign him for next year if he never played. (Admittedly, that might have just been an inference I drew rather than something Weiss actually said.) If true, that seems monumentally stupid. Kim is potentially a useful player this year.

The issue, I suppose, is that Dubón has to play in the playoffs and shortstop is the only position really open. But to repeat myself again: playing Kim at shortstop, assuming he is even at replacement level for the remainder of the regular season, gives you the chance to give Albies, Acuña and Riley days off down the stretch, days off that I suspect will help each of them, even as they deny it. That’s the flexibility Dubón gives you, and you ought to use it.

And just to be a clear: if I am either a major league GM or a major league manager, I am being grossly underpaid. I know Weiss and Anthopolous have a theory that they’re not articulating, and they have no obligation to articulate it. But it sure looks odd.

Sean Murphy

Unlike Kim, his production yesterday (three hits in three at-bats, including a homer) earned him the reward of a day off. The Braves have essentially announced that, in order to keep Drake Baldwin fresh, Sean Murphy will play catcher for the rest of the season irrespective of his results. If he turns his hitting around, he will also be the #1 catcher in the playoffs. If he doesn’t, he will catch one or two games a series. That makes perfect sense, and a day off at the end of August is irrelevant to that plan.

The Game

In his own version of Operation Vengeance, Drake Baldwin turned around the first pitch from Isoroku Yoshinobu Yamamoto to give the Braves a 1-0 lead. Presumably, the Braves had broken the Dodgers codes. In ten innings against the Braves before tonight, Yamamoto had not given up a run. Unlike Operation Vengeance, though, Yamamoto continued to pitch, giving up only two singles after Baldwin’s homer. They must have changed their codes or something.

I’m pretty much out of Chris Sale superlatives. Stop reading my recaps on days he pitches — watch him instead. As you probably know by now, he threw a complete game shutout. A near-Maddux, 109 pitches. We are blessed to be able to watch him.

Both teams were 0-3 with runners in scoring position. The 0 is important, but so is the 3. If you don’t give the other team a lot of chances to knock in runs with singles, then singles can’t hurt you.

Baseball History

There have been 5128 1-0 games in MLB history. Of those, 941 had that run score on a homer. Of those, 85 were first inning homers. Of those, 30 were the leadoff hitter in that inning. Now we don’t have complete data on pitch counts, but from the records we know, only two previous times has that homer come on the first pitch. (In 14 of the 30, we don’t know the pitch count.)

Carlos Garcia hit the first pitch for a homer in a 1-0 Pittsburgh win in Miami on September 14, 1993.

Gerardo Parra hit the first pitch for a homer in a 1-0 Diamondback win in Miami on May 18, 2013.

So Drake Baldwin was the first player ever to (a) hit the first pitch for a homer in 1-0 game as a home team player; and (b) the first time to beat someone other than the Marlins in such a play.

Sweep Completed, Rockies On Deck

These last seven games have been special. The Rockies are terrible… no letup.