Frayed Knot

=Fman99 post_id=122302 time=1681487220 user_id=86] I was worried that the new balanced schedule would mean more late games ...

Edgy MD wrote: There you go. He's a professional hitter. Kotsay should know, after all, cuz he was a professional hitter.

Braves SS Orlando Arcia to the IL with a "microfracture" of his left wrist. The 28 y/o semi-journeyman (two 500+ AB seasons - in '17 & '19) was tapped to replace Dansby Swanson who left as a FA. So naturally the career .245 hitter is hitting .333 with twice as many XBHs to date compared to Swanson. Vaughn Grissom, the now 21 y/o who came up mid-year in 2022 despite almost no high-minors experience and put up a 120 OPS+ over 150 ABs (after flirting with .400 for a time) is expected to be the replacement.

Answer: 1B, IF 1B (after replay overturn), BB, Sac Fly (1-0), 2 RBI 2B (3-0), RBI 2B (4-0), GO, RBI 2B (5-0), 2R HR (7-0), HR (8-0), HR (9-0), BB, WP, FO Bottom 1: Yanx go out 1-2-3 on 8 pitches

1) Turns on Yanx game just to see what's happening 2) Holy shit it's 9-0 with the Twins still batting in top 1st!!!! (just flied out to end it) 3) now I gotta go find out what happened

The first west coast trip of the year, in this case 10 games in 10 days with a day off before and after. This one features three with the (currently) 3 - 11 A's, three vs the 7-6 Dodgers, then four vs the 5-7 Giants It's not too bad from a TV standpoint for those of us back east as half the games wind up as day time or 7 PM starts and never more than two late ones in a row. Fri 14th - 9:40 Sat 15th - 4:10 Sun 16th - 4:10 ------------------- Mon 17th - 10:10 Tue 18th - 10:10 Wed 19th - 3:10 (a rare day game in LA) ------------------- Thu 20th - 9:45 Fri 21st - 10:10 Sat 22nd - 4:05 Sun 23rd - 7:10 (ESPN)

We took two of three there last September but the one 'L' was (IMO) the single biggest disappointing loss of the year (regular season version anyway). NYM bats, who rarely give deGrom anything, handed him a three run lead before he even took the mound against one of the worst hitting teams in O.B. (Organized Baseball as they put it in BALL FOUR) and he not only gave it all back he gave it back before getting out of the 1st inning. The result was his worst start of the year (maybe in several years!!) and what looked like the closest thing you can get to a sure thing in baseball turned into a debacle in a month where the reversal of just one single loss would have changed the entire playoff route for the team. Bassitt (who I don't think is making this particular road trip) and Scherzer won the other two games in romps [9-2 and 12-4] but the Braves were in the midst of a sweep so we actually lost a game on our lead that weekend [from +2.5 to +1.5]

TBR's streak hits 12 Braves win again, sweep Cincy, this time on an Eddie Rosario 8th inning tie-breaking HR

Jim Gentile was one of the rare two Grand Slam guys, so I'm betting he tacked on another one at some point in that game.

I wonder what the shortest/quickest game will be this season Probably nothing that will challenge the 51 minute record for shortest ever, but I bet we see an increase in sub-2:00 games. One other thing I've noticed so far from watching games via tape delay as I've done several times now as mid-week day games and rescheduled tilts pile up early in the year: the between innings time limits are absolutely being adhered to much more closely. Prior to this year we've been hearing for years if not decades that they're going to pay closer attention to the supposed standards [2:00 between halves for commercials then another five seconds for the announcers to re-set the scene in front of the first pitch. But, despite the promises, the return to "action" meant that we were more likely to see the pitcher still taking his warmups, the batter not yet out of the on deck circle because his walk-up music hadn't started, and the HP ump hadn't yet finished his cigarette. OK, I made up that last part but it was still often a good 20 seconds after the ads ended that we finally saw the inning's first pitch. Now if you go even slightly over the proscribed two minutes with your fast-forwarding through the commercials, you're likely to have missed a pitch or two. Now I believe the Yanquis are still granted 14 minutes between the top and bottom of the 7th during home games, but one step at a time folks.

So for all our worrying so far (not all of it unjustified) they've won three series out of four played so far this season so things can't be considered a total disaster. OK so that one series loss was a disaster (two of the three games anyway) and they've already burned more than half of their games vs the Marlins for the year. But, still, any series win is a nice thing to have so let's take it and move on.

Part of that is from starting the season with WAS, DET, OAK (and now BOS) but, still, it's tough to argue with an 83/20 RS/RA ratio. Among other quirks, they have more HRs (29) then total runs allowed (20).

That HR suxx but you also get the feeling they weren't scoring a second run unless this game went at least 16 innings.

You can say we're lacking the big hit here, except that we pretty much haven't had any hits tonight.

Awwww Petey ... whatcha doin' man?!?

Well that sukked.

vs the LHP Bob Melvin and SD go with two guys combining for about a half billion $$ up top followed by one who'll prolly want a half bil all by himself.

Ryan Weathers has the same round face as his dad David, a 19 yr ML vet including a 2002-3 stint in Queens. The kid at least had the good baseball sense to be born left-handed.

Lefty Specialist wrote: When they first started doing these, it was Gary reading the odds. I'm willing to bet at one point he said, "I refuse to do this" and the task was handed to Gelbs, who'll do anything and everything to get air time. I suspect that that's exactly how it went down. Gary never sounded as unenthusiastic in his whole career as he did when tasked to read those ads himself. It's unbelievably stupid, but MLB has bowed down to the gambling gods. And the worst part is that they're not merely trying to appeal to the guy with a few bucks on the game. By placing those ads mid- or even late-game with the to-the-minute updated odds they're catering to the hard core dudes who are looking to either double up on a bet they're already winning or are desperate for a way to 'get even' for pre-game bet(s) which are already shot.

Reds plated their ghost runner in the top of the 10th but couldn't add a second run. And that lead, their first of the game, lasted all the way until catcher Sean Murphy hit a first-pitch walk-off 2R HR

Baby Diaz holds the Braves scoreless in bottom 9 so they're going to the clown car rules in Cobb County, GA (y'know, those rules that were put in strictly for Covid never to be used again)

Great bullpenning tonight + two clutch dubbles!

Kevin Pillar, is case you didn't know, is currently on the Braves and seeing some decent PT as Marcel Ozuna DH's often. Tonight Pillar ran what seemed like a half mile towards the corner and, while he didn't make the catch, he did save a game-tying HR while deflecting the ball off the top of the wall with his usual full-speed collision thrown in. It wound up an RBI triple but the Reds tied up the Braves anyway on the subsequent AB. Heading to Bottom 9 tied at 3 after the blown save by AJ Minter.

Looks more like Domingo Tapioca ... amirite folks?

Frayed Knot wrote: Old baseball adage: a good groundkeeper can win you three or four games a year. Told ya! As Nido's power knocks Yu out of the game.