I promise this will be my last reference to Yamamoto until the offseason. But c’mon…
Just as Midway was the decisive battle in the War in the Pacific Theater, tonight’s game will leave whomever loses not only on the defensive, but forced to use fancy words like “whomever.” I’m not saying we have stolen the Dodgers PitchComm codes, but I’m not saying we haven’t either.
And while I can’t guarantee Sale might not find some work in the apocryphal game 5 that won’t happen after the triumphs of Sale and Mahle, I can pretty much guarantee that this is the one game he will start in this series.
Sale and Yamamoto are pretty clearly the second- and third-best NL pitchers over the whole season. Third game matchups in a best of five tied 1-1 do not get any better than this. There’s Mussina versus Zito in 2001, featuring the Derek Jeter Flip Play, Randy Johnson over Jack McDowell in 1995, Cole Hamels against Jaime Garcia in 2011, and, more recently, Michael King against Walker Buehler in 2024.
I’m ready for a classic.
I’m not sure it’s completely clear that Sale and Yamamoto are both in the NL top three, as Cris Sanchez almost certainly had a better year than Yamamoto.
(And we already beat him this fall.)
Sanchez vs. Yamamoto is… close. Sanchez made 5 more starts and had a lot more strikeouts, but Yamamoto had a much lower ERA and WHIP.
Ballpark is filling up just slowly. 6pm is not ideal for game time, it seems. Shame if people are still stuck in traffic.
It’s Atlanta, man… everyone’s stuck in traffic, especially in that area.
Go Braves.
Kim with the error. What exactly do you contribute here, Mr. Kim?
Paging John C McGinley in Office Space
it’ll look bad in the box score, but three Ks and two soft groundballs in the first seems promising to me.
Nice to have a guy on your team that can make HoF hitters like Ohtani, Freddie & Harper look helpless.
EDIT: RAJ, what are you thinking?
Ozzie decided to hit RH vs Yamamoto.
That makes some sense, because of the splitter and the fact that Ymamoto has reverse splits. But then Ozzie had to face breaking balls going away from him–something he almost never sees.
This is a strange lineup WW came up with today. Is this being discussed on tv?
Kim deserves every boo he’s getting. And some of those boos are for AA, I would hope.
Maybe Kim at SS and Dubón in LF is the right call after all.
Still want Dubon as next year’s SS, but no matter what – pay the man!
The Dubón legend grows…
They are making Sale throw way too many pitches. He may not make it through 5 at this rate.
We look helpless against Yamamoto.
Placing an order for some quick innings from Sale.
Their approach vs. Sale is on-point. They learned from when he went the full nine on them. The Braves look totally lost. And the ball keeps finding its way to the worst player on the team.
Ballgame.
Ballgame
Lol beaten
Can we fire hyers as soon as this is done?
Sale hasn’t looked right all game, but still props to him on a great season
Do you quit so easily in life, too?
It’s the 4th inning, for goodness sakes.
Double ballgame
Carl and ONIO are nothing if not predictable.
Some would call it consistent or reliable, tfloyd.
There’s a lot to be said for consistency and reliability!
Sale’s pitch count is up—way up.
I think Sale may be out of gas.
Dooomed!!
And Freddie is going to the Hall of Fame. So is Sale.
Lot of innings left.
Can we get Joey Votto’s opinion on the Braves offense?
Oh for crying out loud. Another one? I think our only chance now is to hold them at 3, drive up Yamamoto’s pitch count, and do our thing against the bullpen. But all that is looking pretty unlikely.
This is nothing 10 runs won’t fix.
Come on guys, Plan A!
The team that outhomers the other one almost always wins. To be safe, I recommend at least five dingers. How to do that against the admiral I’m not sure, but they had better get to work.
Got to get Ronnie going.
Olson would’ve (should’ve) challenged that if Acuna hadn’t wasted one earlier
You will almost never win with one run (Sale CG notwithstanding). 3 runs allowed is not bad but you have to score five to be most assured of a win. I do not care who is pitching. You have to score runs.
top 3 of the lineup…1 for 13
Acuna leaving 2nd and 3rd on…again
Kim…ugh, just a killer move. If ya ain’t gonna hit, at least impress us at short.
Smoltz in the booth…double ugh.
No tears for Freddie this time. All about being on a mission. Hate it, even if I love the guy.
I think we’re coming up on the end of the Acuña era. Two club options that easily get picked up in 2027 and 2028, but 2023 was three years ago, he’s played in 250 games since, and has 1 RBI in the playoffs since 2020. This isn’t a guy who you’re going to write a huge check for anymore.
Definitely agree SDP. It may be no coincidence, despite his ginormous skill set, that 2021 WS was won without him.
Now watch him go out and TOTALLY redeem himself in game 4. lol
Bummer. Great atmosphere, sat in the middle of a bunch of long time season ticket holders. Super nice group. Our bullpen was great again. After the third inning and all the hard hits, we were debating to take Sale out. Well hindsight and all. But yeah, gotta score more runs. Ronnie was frustrating. That lost challenge in the first really hurt the team. Well, we’ll get them tomorrow and then the bullpen will wing game 5. Go Braves!
Bad pitch call on kike’s HR (changeup) and bad location on Freeman’s HR (down and in).
We were fortunate to be only down by three at that time.
Friggin’ Freddie had like 1100+ of fly balls in three AB’s.
Our guys keep pounding worms on the infield; the offense has been on life support since June; even Olson cooled off terribly in September.
I think MLB killed our offense when they messed with the baseballs after 2003. So many warning track outs the next season, and it led to the firing of the hitting coach.
Now this jerk is teaching small ball, when sequencing three singles for a run is harder to do than a HR.
Stupid dodgers, all their runs have been on HR’s….im ready for a long lockout; Maybe Byron Buxton, I mean Acuña can get well physically and mentally
Dodgers are #1 in MLB payroll…Braves are #6. But doesn’t it feel like 1 vs 60?
Here’s to hoping the Braves can take the next 2 games. I guess it’s not impossible; but it kinda is if our big bats stay silent.
That takes the crap outta the shoot.
Dodgers scored 5, 2, 3 and Braves scored 3, 3, 1. We need offense.
I’ve been saying this for months…..
Recapped