Frayed Knot

Braves to call up Ronald Acuna, their top prospect and one of the top prospects in all of baseball. He's expected to be in uniform, in the lineup, and in LF for tonight's game in Cincinnati. Wasn't exactly tearing it up in AAA, but on the other hand he's been in AAA and won't turn 21 until December.

I wonder if there's an anti-Matheny "Faction" on that Cards board like there was years ago for LaRussa?

Matheny and the umps should be tased for this stunt.

[fimg=300:3jw0sk4d]https://www.middletownnj.org/images/CivicAlerts/16/no%20garbage%20collection.png[/fimg:3jw0sk4d]

That was one of those top-spin grounders that seemingly pick up speed as they go ... even though they don't really.

Gselling the Drama - and so we Live to see another inning.

Reds wound up winning that game on Scooter Gennet's walk-off HR in the 12th. Reds pitchers held the Braves hitless for the first six innings but then gave up 3 runs in the 7th and 4 more in the 9th. - Walk-off HR for Granderson against the BoSox - Nats down 3-0 early in San Fran

If all relievers worked at Seawald's pace I'd quit bitching about pace of play. And the stupid thing is that there's no reason why they can't.

21 RBIs on the season for Ces on 17 hits

And that's why you can't bench him.

- After beating Atlanta Monday night and then leading today 5-0 early and 7-3 in the 9th, the Reds cough up 4 runs in the 9th (3 with 2 outs) and they're headed to extras in Cincy. - and Minnesota is visiting the Bronx so naturally they're in their second night in a row of putting on a totally non-competitive showing. btw, that Braves/Reds game is seemingly being played in front of a few hundred fans in Cincy. And last night might have been worse.

Centerfield wrote: Such a Wheeler start. Walks. Deep counts. Tons of base runners. Falls behind then eventually is out after 5. All of that applies to Weaver on the other side too, except that we're not scoring off those situations. And not that it's ALL his fault, but Cespedes is killing us.

Centerfield wrote: Wheeler walking people and giving up some loud outs. That's not quite true, sometimes he's hitting people too.

Centerfield wrote: One thing that hasn't been mentioned so far is strength of schedule. On that note, the Cardinals are in 1st place in the NLC at 13-8 ... [fimg=50]http://www.rumercosmetics.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/brazilian-butt-lift.jpg[/fimg], more than half their wins and seven of their more recent nine games played have come at the expense of the god-awful (4-18) Cincy Reds (who smushed the Braves last night, but I digress) out-scoring them 44-17 while going 7-0 Aside from that, they're 1-2 vs us, also 1-2 vs ARZ, 1-1 vs CHC (plus 17 rainouts), and 3-3 vs MIL Oh, and Wainwright was just DL'd

Making just his 2nd ML start (he won his debut) LAA pitcher Jamie Garcia lasted only 2+ innings today vs the Giants. A large reason for the early hook was that it took him 49 pitches to get through the 1st despite not giving up any runs in that frame, and the main reason it took him 49 pitches was the 21 pitches it took him to retire SFG's #2 hitter Brandon Belt in a 12-1/2 minute long AB. Belt fouled off 16 straight full count pitches before flying out to RF. It is believed to be the most pitches ever in a single at-bat. Belt was later to HR on merely the 8th pitch of his 5th inning AB although Garcia was long gone by that point.

So what's less likely, Bartolo hitting a HR or out-racing Dee Gordon to 1st base? [youtube:336nvt8c]v1Jv0QPA0uE[/youtube:336nvt8c] And his momentum only took him about 3/4 of the way to the foul pole before he finally could stop.

Blevins appeared in more games over the last two years as compared to any other season: 73 & 75 vs previous highs of 63, 67, 64 in 2012-14 but at the same time was well below his high in innings pitched, 42 & 49, and also batters faced, 178 & 217, compared to 65, 60, 57 and 261, 245, 240 (also 2012-14) The bottom line is that he's sucked so far this season, but it's also a sample size of just 20 batters faced and I'd say it's questionable at best as to whether we can even treat the idea of "overwork" as a factor.

Rain expected all day in Atlanta.

Oakland lefthander Sean Manaea just completed a no-hitter ... against the BoSox of all teams who I believe came into tonight averaging 17 runs scored per game this season. He walked two - or seven fewer than the NYM pen did tonight.

Another thing that the muff/overturn at 2nd did was prevent Conforto from hitting into his second straight GiDP Between that and Cespedes's 24 straight strikeouts (or something like that) it's a wonder we're not in the basement of this division. Well, there are still the Marlins, so maybe 4th

WOW!!! If I were a Braves fan I'd be hopping mad over BOTH those overturns. Correct? ... maybe. But enough evidence to overturn? ... I was iffy in both cases despite having a clear bias going in.

Frayed Knot wrote: Gotta figure that's the end of deGrom's night and that we'll see Nimmo leading off top 8. Ahh, I wasn't counting on Teheran's night being done also -- so it's Wilmer vs the LHR

Gotta figure that's the end of deGrom's night and that we'll see Nimmo leading off top 8 The overturn bailed our asses out ... it's also bullshit.

Edgy MD wrote: Wait, the Mets site and MILB.com both say Bautista went to Vegas, but the booth is saying he went to Bingo. Which is it? They compromised and sent him to Lincoln, Nebraska.

My winning streak is up to one in a row, a feat which I believe ties my best stretch in the history of IGT'ism although we all know that the key to having a good win streak is to time it so as to coincide with the best pitchers. No cute designs in tonight's lineup. No slumping regulars benched either. CONFORTO - CF CESPEDES - LF CABRERA - 2B BRUCE - RF FRAZIER - 3B GONZALEZ - 1B LOBATON - C deGROM - P REYES - SS INCIARTE - CF ALBIES - 2B FREEMAN - 1B MARKAKIS - RF TUCKER - LF SWANSON - SS CAMARGO - 3B PEREZ - C TEHERAN - P Johan Camargo, in for Ryan Flaherty, had 256 PA for the Braves last season [.299/.331/.452] but was DL'd until a few days ago so this will be the first start of the year for the 24 y/o Panamanian Perez is 27 y/o Venezuelan Carlos Perez who was a part-timer for Anaheim from 2015-17 and is getting backup duty behind Kurt Suzuki while co-starter Tyler Flowers is DL'd. Is 2 for 14 on the season. Julio Teheran, the ace in residence over several years now for Atlanta, had a rough start to the season in games against PHI & WAS [9 runs in 8 combined IP] but was much better in his next two which isn't surprising seeing as how they came against WAS & PHI [12 IP, 3 R on 10 Hits combined] In 19 career starts vs the Mets (plus 1 relief app) he's 8-5 with a 2.58 ERA and a 1.08 WHIP