The Braves performed a baseball sport on Monday evening, which they misplaced 9-0, to as soon as once more drop them out of a playoff spot (in the interim?). The stream of the sport itself is, at this level, largely irrelevant. I’ll be trustworthy, I watched the Mets stroll off the Nationals in lieu of really watching this sport for giant chunks of it (till the Mets sport ended and I used to be compelled to observe this one). So, slightly than truly describe the occasions as they occurred, let’s simply speak about some stuff.
Objectively, this sport was hilarious. The Braves had 4 barrels, the Dodgers had none. But, the Dodgers hit the one homer; the Braves scored zero runs to the Dodgers’ 9. Sure, Braves pitching had a nasty 9/7 Ok/BB ratio, however the Dodgers managed only a 5/3 Ok/BB ratio on the identical time. To place it a special approach, the Braves had a 9.00 ERA, a 5.28 FIP, and a 4.85 xFIP, none of that are good. However the Dodgers had a 0.00 ERA, a 3.39 FIP, and a 5.07 xFIP. Positive, stuff occurs within the span of a single sport the place outcomes are completely dissociated from efficiency, however 9 runs of dissociation? Mamma mia, that’s a number of dissociation.
Listed below are the methods wherein the Braves didn’t rating runs on this sport:
Within the first, after a leadoff stroll and a throwing error on a steal try put Michael Harris II on third with one out, Marcell Ozuna hit a tough grounder… proper on the third baseman, after which Ramon Laureano later additionally hit a grounder to the third baseman for the third out.
Within the second, Sean Murphy destroyed a Yoshinobu Yamamoto pitch to heart for a double (108 mph, 400 ft, however not a homer). He superior to 3rd on a groundout, however a strikeout and a groundout adopted.
Within the third, Harris blooped a single, after which it was Jorge Soler’s flip to crush a ball to heart (112 mph, 388 ft)… just for Harris to get thrown out on the plate. Two extra grounders ended that body.
However wait, none of these are even the funniest one!
Within the fourth, Laureano hit a leadoff triple (one other barrel, smacking exhausting off the right-field wall). The Braves then went strikeout, curler to quick with the infield in, and wounded duck sub-80 mph liner that in fact went proper at a fielder. By the way in which, this sequence meant that the Braves despatched Harris with none out and Ozuna/Matt Olson due up. However then they didn’t ship Laureano house on a contact play with one out and Gio Urshela due up. That’s a stunning stage of mistrust of Ozuna/Olson slash a stunning stage of perception in Urshela.
In the meantime, right here’s how the Dodgers scored runs:
A stroll, a bouncer to first that ended up transferring the runner to second as a result of Olson dropped the ball and couldn’t nab the runner along with his throw to second, a steal of third, and a wild pitch.
A floor rule double, after which a 70 mph bloop single that occurred whereas the batter, Miguel Rojas, fell down on account of the swing. Simply to be clear: hitting balls extremely exhausting to heart = no runs; hitting balls 70 mph whereas falling down = some runs.
A grounder from Shohei Ohtani that was hit in such a approach the place neither Orlando Arcia at quick nor Whit Merrifield had been able to show a double play.
Then, later, after Max Fried departed, Daysbel Hernandez got here in and walked three batters. This was then made instantly funnier by Aaron Bummer being summoned in medium (not less than it wasn’t low!) leverage, and getting a weak grounder from Ohtani to Whit Merrifield at second… which Merrifield fielded awkwardly and threw awkwardly house for some purpose, leading to a no-outs-recorded fielder’s selection and one other run. A seeing-eye grounder plated a fifth run, after which the coup de grace: Freddie Freeman hitting a routine fly ball that occurred to loft its approach down into the left-field nook and simply over the fence. It was the Eleventh-hardest hit ball of the sport and travelled much less far than 5 balls the Braves put in play, but was the one homer. If that doesn’t summarize 2024 for you, I don’t know what is going to.
Max Fried was fairly good, although his time on the mound jogged my memory of that article I examine ten years in the past about how Nolan Ryan was actually good on the pitching stuff however actually unhealthy at the whole lot else, so over his profession, the runs charged to him persistently went up and over his precise pitching efficiency. Not that I’m saying this was the case with Fried tonight, indirectly — simply that that is now two begins in a row the place Fried pitched greater than high-quality, however mainly bought killed by stuff that normally doesn’t kill anybody.
In the meantime, the Mets gained their sport partially as a result of the Nationals determined to bunt in further innings because the visiting crew, after which hit two straight grounders to quick. So, the Braves will now head to Cincinnati and hope that possibly 2024 begins being a bit totally different from right here on out, although with about two weeks to play, everyone knows it gained’t. Keep tuned for the ultimate wOBA-xwOBA tallies for this sport, that are most likely going to be even funnier than the stuff we are able to surmise from the Baseball Savant gamefeed.
