My wife and I had a mostly delightful evening at Truist Park last night. The weather was perfect for these outdoor events.  For the first time in a couple of months, the temperature was just right, the humidity was low, there was a nice little breeze, and no chance of rain.  We began our time with a drinks and snacks on the patio at C Ellets in the Battery, which was great as always. 

A few hours later, the Avett Brothers put on a terrific concert.  They played many fan favorites (I and Love and You, Ain’t No Man, No Hard Feelings, Head Full of Doubt/Road Full of Promise) and the crowd sang along joyfully.  The set got off to a fun start with a terrific cover of John Fogerty’s “Centerfield,” and they also included covers of Roger Miller’s “King of the Road” and Earl Scruggs “Foggy Mountain Breakdown,” all of which highlighted the band’s remarkable musicianship and versatility.  The sound quality wasn’t great, and the sight lines forced me to watch the big screen more than the stage, but that’s to be expected in a venue like this.  All in all, a delightful time.

The interlude between C Ellets and Avett Brothers was not so memorable.  In fact, my advice is to forget much of what happened in the Braves’ 7-1 loss to the Rays. 

Our guys offered yet more proof of Roger’s theorem that scoring two runs or fewer leads to more losses than wins.  Even scoring the proverbial five would not have done the trick last night. Here’s another theorem: our team does better when we hit more home runs than the other team.  Last night Tampa knocked four out of the park; the Braves hit at least four to the warning track, but none of them left the yard. 

What else did we learn last night?

–AJ Smith-Shawver has great stuff, but his post-surgery command of that stuff isn’t yet what it needs to be for him to be an effective big league pitcher.  I still have high hopes for AJ, but not this season.  After another off-season and spring training, he may become top-tier.  But let’s don’t count on him the rest of the way this season.

–By the way, don’t count on Bryce Elder the rest of this season either.  His knee surgery yesterday ends his regular season and I wouldn’t expect him in the playoffs either.

–But we can definitely count on Brent “Bruce” Suter.  When AJSS left after 3 and 1/3, Suter turned in 3 and 2/3, surrendering just one unearned run, giving the Braves a chance to come back from the 4-1 hole that AJ put them in.  Suter was an excellent under-the-radar deadline pickup.

–The offense didn’t get the job done, and never made a game of it. Unlike Monday’s game against Luzardo, they weren’t overmatched by a great pitcher.  Indeed, it looked like they had Rays’ starter Freddy Peralta on the ropes in the first.  Singles by RAJ, Olson, and Balwin plated one run, and the bases were loaded for Riley.  But he got punched out by the ABS machine, on a strike call that could not have claimed more than a millimeter of the strike zone.  The rest of the way the Braves had fewer hits (two) than they had in the first. 

–But the offense was better than the box score would indicate.  In addition to the several balls flagged down on the warning track, the Braves had 16 hard hit balls (95 mph or higher), but only four of those were hits.  Most were hit right at Tampa fielders, and a few were the victim of highlight reel plays on defense.

The highlight of the game, for me, was following the Phillies on my MLB app.  After falling behind by five runs, the Phightins came roaring back, and in bottom of the 9th they scored a run to cut it to 6-5, with the tying run on second with no outs.  But they left him stranded, thus preserving the Braves’ division lead of four games.

I still like this Braves’ team.  It’s frustrating to watch the occasional offensive futility, but they are fully capable of beating anyone.  My advice to the team is to hit more balls over the fence.  They can and should start doing that tonight.  They haven’t announced a starting pitcher, but everyone expects that Reynaldo Lopez will be activated and take the hill.  Do Reylo a solid and score a bunch of runs.