Braves Search For Rock Bottom In Colorado

00:00:21
Speaker 1: Hello everyone, and welcome to episode sixty two of the Hammer Territory Podcast. I am your host, Brad Rowland, coming to you on a Sunday evening here in mid August, and Scott, I have a question for you. It's one that everyone's asking. Is this rock bottom or can't go any lower? Hey?

00:00:36
Speaker 2: Brad, you know it feels like over the last couple of weeks we have hit rock bottom multiple times. But dear God, after this loss on Sunday, I would be shocked if there is a lower bottom than this. But I guess I have been surprised before. And I mean this season is just one thing after another after another after another. It really does just feel like like, Brad, do you remember it was maybe ten fifteen years ago, it was real popular. I think it was on MTV, the TV show Punked where they would prank celebrities. Do you watching like the Braves the last maybe month or two or three? It feels like it's almost like a big episode of Punked to see how many things can go wrong and sideways before, like like I'm waiting for Ashton Kutcher to jump out with a camera coop and a surprise. We're actually just messing with you because man, like every three days it feels like something unbelievably wrong has happened to this team.

00:01:36
Speaker 1: Yeah, and if you're somehow joining us for the first time, God bless you for being here. We cover the Atlanta Braves on this podcast. We are called Hammer Torture. We are part of the Foul Territory network of podcasts. Check them all out, including this one. Please subscribe, rates, and review. But again, it's Sunday, August eleventh. The Brives just lost in historic fashions. We'll come back to later on this podcast. They now last seven in the last eight games. They are eight and fourteen since the All Star break, despite a stretch in there of six wins and seven games, so that's remarkable. They could be out of the playoffs again by the end of today. They were out of it for the first time in two years. On a Thursday, they were out. They were still out on Friday, and they got back in on Saturday. We'll see what happens there. You talk about how it does feel like the season is kind of a an episode of Punked. It's funny because I was listening to a show that I listen to regularly about baseball called effectively Wild over at Fangrafs a couple of days ago, and you know, they're not it's not a braistbodcast, it's a national baseball podcast, and they were pretty matter of fact, and I thought I was kind of maybe not refreshing is the wrong word, but more kind of a candid way about like, hey, it shouldn't be that surprising that the Braves aren't playing that well when you look at their injuries, and you know, we talked about that, and that's worth acknowledging, and it's one hundred percent true that teams that lose their best player, their best pitcher and other guys beyond that don't play well. And then you dig in to the way it's gone the last few weeks, and it goes from logical to illogical. And I'm sure we'll share a lot of numbers on this podcast about you know, I'm sure people can get mad at the use of the word luck that I'm about to throw out there, but some of the unfortunate or unlucky stuff that's happened to the Braves. And then of course you get into the the the ending on Sunday afternoon, in which the Braves, as we'll talk about again later in detail, allow six consecutive two out hits to help blow a six run lead in course Field against the bad Rockies team. I don't know, Scott. I mean, we're gonna be talking for however long we're talking on this podcast and throwing stuff about there. But I now, you know, I felt deeply for our co our co hosts and colleagues Steven Tolbert and Shawn Coleman this week because they they did two podcasts about pretty dire circumstances, and it was like, all right, maybe Scott and I will have two wins on Sunday afternoon to talk about, and then maybe not.

00:03:50
Speaker 2: At the end, it sure seemed like even thirty minutes ago we were recording this, just after the loss on Sunday, it felt like, maybe thirty minutes ago, that the Braves were going to come out of the series with two wins and hopefully building some momentum getting back on the right track, especially after the way they just got their asses beat down by the Milwaukee Brewers and then lost on Friday to a horrible Colorado Rockies team. I mean, other than the historically bad Chicago White Sox the Rockies have the worst run differential in baseball. They came into the series, I believe thirty three games below five hundred, and only our Braves Brad would find a way to lose two out of three to this very bad team. And I mean, again, it's just I think the point you made a minute ago is very valid from a kind of outside perspective that the fact that Braves are even remotely in the postseason picture right now is kind of a miracle considering ay, I mean, considering everything they've had to deal with, all of the injuries, all of the bad luck. But at the same time, man, I mean, I just wish this team once and for all would either fall down and be dead and maybe lose like ten out of twelve so I can lose my emotional attachment to this baseball team, or obviously much more preferably, they would figure it out, they would stop losing these baseball games in the worst way imaginable, and they would go on a run, especially knowing that they are going to be the healthiest they have been here in a couple of days, once Michael Harris and Ronaldo Lopez return. Despite all of the injuries, it is a pretty good roster and a team that could get hot for a couple of weeks if they can get into the playoffs. But just every day it's like a It's like a migrain that you can feel coming on, and maybe it won't be a bad headache, but it just kind of feels like, deep down, you know it's going to be a bad one with the way this team has lost game since the All Star break.

00:05:55
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think long term listeners will know this, Like, I'm not always the most optimistic person in the world world. I kind of see the car crash coming at a time most of the time. And I gotta be honest with you, Scott, I didn't see today coming. I did not see it. Eight to two blown loss. We were operating as if the Braids were going to win today. Once that lead was built, I was making notes. You know. I didn't ever write down the Braves won the game. I tried not to ever do that, just for whatever reverse hing's purposes. But you know, in every way, I was thinking about titles for the podcast, all that kind of stuff, and it's like, oh, it was not even a slow motioning car crash. It happened so fast as well like oftentimes when you blow a lead like that it takes a while. It did not take a while. It happened in the blink of an eye. And we'll get into the details, the gory details when I skip some of them along the way for the weekend. But yeah, one in seven in the last eight. And you know, you mentioned, I think recently on a podcast that we did together, how it's felt like one step forward and point nine steps back at times. Flip that today, obviously they've taken more steps backward, and I do think that both things are objectively true to kind of put a bow on this little conversation that if you take three steps back and try to remove your fandom and the frustration and just look at a big picture, it is kind of a testament to how good this team maybe could have been or should have been. That they are still in the playoff mix despite all of this stuff, and at the same time watching it every day, it has been mad. Madden needs to say the least, the offense comes alive, rise, the pitching staff goes in the tank for the first time all season. You pulled this staff, but they've been incredibly unlucky. They had like a four hundred bab of the loud since the All Star break, and that's like one hundred points worse than the league average. Like it's it's every stat you could possibly imagine, it's gone against them. And we've talked about and I think it's still objectively the case for the full season, about how the offense has been the problem for this team, full stop, any other you know, thing is just kind of on the margins. And that's still the case now for the full season. But in the last few days it's been the pitching staff, and I guess they were kind of due for some regression because they've been so good for so long. But the irony is very thick that as soon as the bats came alive for what thirty six runs in five games, and you go one in four, Like, what are you supposed to do with that?

00:08:05
Speaker 2: Yeah?

00:08:05
Speaker 1: I know it's course field, but come on, what are we doing here?

00:08:08
Speaker 2: Yeah? It's it's just one thing after another, And I mean almost since the first couple of weeks of the season, it has felt like when the Braves are hitting, which has been few and far between, but when the Braves are hitting, the pitching has taken a step back. And when the pitching has been really good and overall the numbers are still good even with this complete disaster of a week that they just wrapped up against the Brewers and the Rockies. Now the pitching has led them down lately. The bullpen in particular has been terrible, and you kind of throw it all into a bucket and see what comes out, and then you add in a sprinkle of just some unbelievable bad luck in the second half of the season. You mentioned a four hundred batting average on balls and play against. The pitching staff based on quick math, week average this year is about two eighty five, so you can do the math there on how unlucky this team has been. We know about the injuries. It's just it feels like we're in a scientific lab and they're trying to come up with as many roadblocks and obstacles as humanly possible to see how much a team can overcome. And I don't know, maybe the team will rally around the loss today. I guess we can kind of go into the weekend game by game here, but it really I know we've been It's almost become like a joke of how many times can the team hit rock bottom in a season, but to me this feels like rock bottom, especially just how horrible that eighth inning was today.

00:09:44
Speaker 1: Let us proceed to the game by game at breakdown section of the podcast, will probably take some detours along the way and probably get to all of our notes because we have a lots in. It was kind of geared a degeractional point today. Friday's game was I'm not even sure if it was interesting. You know, the bullpen once again wasn't great. It didn't enter, was not good. A lot of the winning run the seventh thenning Grant Holds was just okay. Despite eight strikeouts, they hit three home runs and lost. You pulled this out about their approach on Friday. You know, it was kind of the most this is the game we'll talk about the least because number one, it was two days ago. Number two, it was kind of the most straight ahead game. But a six or five loss. It was like, on its own, not that big of a deal. You got you kind of got out slowed in course field despite three home runs, but the approach was maybe not ideal offensively, despite the fact that we just praised the offense.

00:10:32
Speaker 2: Yeah, I thought Friday's loss in particular, was frustrating. I mean, I guess compared to Sunday it was a hold my beer loss, but I mean no walks in course field on Friday night for the offense ten strikeouts. Did have a couple of home runs, but really, as it's been the case for most of the season, because the Braves have such a low team on base percentage, there's a lot of the solo home runs being hit, or maybe even two run homers, but those have been few and far between. It was just, especially after getting thumped by Milwaukee for three games earlier in the week, I think we were all maybe cautiously optimistic that this team would start to bounce back against a terrible Rockies team and the and behold, what do they do but lose a fifty to fifty game on Friday night again. Man, it's just it's so frustrating to think about all of the missed opportunities that this team has had, especially lately in the second half. I mean, it's been so bad. I mean, let's call it what it is, spread it has been so bad in the second half of the season.

00:11:37
Speaker 1: They're eight and fourteen. I know I said it once before, but they're eight and fourteenth. It's the break. It feels worse than that again, I think because they in the middle of that run went six and one. So in the other what fifteen games, they're two and thirteen since the break, including seven out of eight right now, which is like, you know, again, on Friday, that was our sixth right loss, which is off. Obviously, they hadn't lost six in a row for years, literally years, until this season. They've not done it. Twice in about a month in a vacuum. That game was very normal. It's just that it was the end of a losing streak and it was not a lot of fun.

00:12:13
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeaheah.

00:12:14
Speaker 1: So, I mean it's it is maddening. We don't have to repeat that over and over again, but it's just what else do you say about Friday's game? It was it was the end. I mean, mercifully they won the next day. If we want to always talk about the one positive results, even the positive result was a total rollercoaster on Saturday and eleven eight win, but absolute madness for the majority of it.

00:12:32
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, the Bats really did show up on Saturday and Sunday, which was good to see a bunch of home runs. You know, Matt Olsen had a handful of big hits. I mean, especially that grand slam to take the lead. I mean I tweeted it out from the Hammer Territory Twitter account that it felt like that grand slam from matt Olsen just kind of took a million pound weight off of everybody's shoulders. Matt is very stoic out on the field, rarely shows the motion. Even he looked back at the dugout and kind of shouted, and clearly the team was fired up. I mean, the good vibes lasted for a few minutes on Saturday because then there was a disastrous play defensively, and I mean, I guess the bright side is the Braves were able to outslug the Rockies and win the game on Saturday. But I mean even that, like within a span of ten minutes, Matt Olsen has maybe one of the swings of the season, hitting a huge three to two, two out grand slam, and then a few minutes later there's like a bad News Bears play defensively. In some ways, it felt the very on brand for this team.

00:13:43
Speaker 1: Yeah, so it to become a victory, but you know, two outs, two one in the bottom half of the third. They make this mess of a play between Maryfield, so Layer and Loreano. Just I did have to note that the three players involved, none of whom were on the team what a month and a half ago. The second basement and two outfitters that were not on the team a month and a half ago was kind of funny in itself, kind of a reflection of how this season has gone overall. But they combined to make this total mess. It's one play people probably saw. At this point in time. It is probably a good time to at least note a little bit of optimism because Michael Harris can return as early as Wednesday, and it feels like he's probably going to come back on Wednesday. And while Michael Harris was not hitting this season, Michael Harris will catch the baseball. He's very good at that in center field, and that very much helps the team. It needs that right now.

00:14:35
Speaker 2: Yeah, getting Michael Harris back in centerfield is going to be a god's end. You know. If you can get Harris back in center he can help out Hoorge Solaire in right field. Who I mean, Jorge has been hitting, but for a player where there were a ton of questions about his defense for a player who is basically a DH. For the last two years.

00:14:58
Speaker 1: It hasn't been great, Brad.

00:15:00
Speaker 2: I mean, I think if we had to pick one, we would take the very good hitter with very questionable defense over the opposite. But just in like ten games, there have been a handful of bad moments for Jorge and right field and Michael Harris should really help. And then you get to move Jared Kelnick to his more natural position and left it's.

00:15:20
Speaker 1: Going to help.

00:15:21
Speaker 2: And let's hope that after being away for two months, Michael Harris can slot into the middle of this lineup somewhere and provide some left handed thump. It'll help balance things out a little bit more. And hey, if Michael Harris can go on a heater for these last two months of the season, it would be huge, especially knowing that, as you just said, his glove is only going to help matters in the outfield for sure.

00:15:44
Speaker 1: And just slotting him in, maybe you could shave him a little bit towards Solaersade because Kelnick's a good corner outfielder. There's some help on the way there to be sure. You know, again, the bats are really good on Saturday on the way to what eleven runs, four home runs, putting two by Olsen. Olson has been eight recently. Of note, I think it was like a seventeen game stretch coming into today. He had a good game today as well, seven home runs, seventeen games up over one thousand, looking like Matt Olsen again. That's very much been helpful, and we sort of alluded to it earlier, but the offense has been pretty good since the back to back shutouts. They've kind of come alive in the last handful of games. And the Marcelos, who has been great all year, we kind of know that it's worth just saying again out loud. He's been really, really, really excellent in a way that nobody else has been, and that's been huge. What do you make of Max Freed? You know, Max was not his best very obviously on Saturday. He wasn't disastrous either, But a couple of people that I'm not sure if you saw these or not, but we're tagging us like, what's going on with Max? So you're worried about Max? And my answer is generally know, especially when the start happens in course field and he has the record that he has but have you seen anything that you're concerned with, because he's not been hitting his spots at the very least.

00:16:52
Speaker 2: Yeah, so far through two starts, the command just has not been there for Max. Now, he seemed to settle in as the game progressed on Saturday night, which was encouraging. In that start a week ago against Miami, it was pretty clear that Max had no idea where the baseball was going, and there were moments of that at Cours on Saturday as well, but it seemed like after maybe the third inning, Max had two pretty easy and breezy, no drama innings in his command returned. He did have pretty good command of the curveball, other than one that he hung to old friend Sam Hilliard, who was like unbelievable this weekend against his old team. But you know, overall, I think it's encouraging that Max has kind of made baby steps in his last two starts, and let's hope that whenever he hits the mound in San Francisco this week he does have more of the command that makes him so effective, because we know when Max Freed is right, I mean, he's just he's all over the zone and just not wasting pitches and not walking people the way that he's been walking people in his last couple of starts.

00:18:01
Speaker 1: Scott, are you ready to go to Sunday? I mean I'm not ready. I don't know about you. Now we should talk about it. We are, I almost a contraction require we're not, but we do pride ourselves in talking about the ugly stuff. So let's give the picture of Sunday's game if people happen to miss it. First of all, you were lucky to have missed it in real time. If you are a Braves fan nine to eight loss before the game starts, there's a topic to discuss, and it's something that our guys Steven and Sean talked about in depth this week, which I thought was really interesting. She'll listen to this podcast for share on this topic. But the Braves kind of backpedaled on something they were going to basically just skip specer Swallenbach in the rotation entirely for a full turn, and then Snicker basically said in not so many words like that they kind of couldn't do that anymore because of the way they had been pitching and the way the results had been going, et cetera. He still had a lot of rest and looked fine, of course, like pitch well on the game, But what did you make of the whole Will they or won't they? And I personally not as angry about this some people are, but people we are like, really really really mad about the way the workish was being handled a few days ago. And I think you were kind of leaning more in that direction than I was, So I wonder what you make up with all this.

00:19:06
Speaker 2: That's probably a fine line between being smart with your pictures and giving them extra rest and especially in Schwellenbach's case, doing whatever you can to protect him long term with his elbow and his shoulder. He's already had Tommy John once in his career, right after he was drafted. But at the same time, and you have to win baseball games and you don't necessarily know what the future is going to hold. And the Braves, despite all of their challenges and frustrations this year, are still very much in the playoff picture, and you know, they kind of saw both sides of the argument. I do agree that whatever you can do to give Schwalenbach and Sail and Freed and Morton and Ronaldo when he comes back, whatever you can do to give them extra rest. I'm all for it. But at the same time, you can't just keep rolling out your Gwinnett leftovers and hope to win games. And I know that there was a contingent of fans who are saying, well, this is kind of a lost season. Let's just protect everybody and go to twenty twenty five. And I mean, I disagree with that. That's silly to me. Okay, fine, let's just shut down everybody. Let's shut down Criers, Sale, let's shut down Max Free, let's shut down Schwellenbach. Obviously, you can't do that because you don't know what the next two months are going to bring. And I always like to bring up I know, I guess on the glass half full take here. You know, if you're looking for a line of optimism. Both the Diamondbacks and Rangers kind of fell ass backwards into the playoffs last year. Both were below five hundred and the second half of the season, especially the Diamondbacks, who were awful, and then they got hot for a month and they went to the World Series. And I'm not necessarily predicting that the Braves are going to do it, but this idea that you should just start punting on the season. I just don't agree with it. I still think this team maybe I'm maybe, I'm a full brad. I still think this team could get hot for a couple of weeks and figure it out and get to the postseason and make some noise with the way they are built. But you know, in terms of Schwellenbach, I guess, to answer your original question, he pitched on Sunday with nine days of rest, so they basically skipped his start midweek anyway, and that's fine, and he continues to be so good, and I guess I understand both sides of the argument of both protecting a long term asset, but you also need to win some games. And Schwellenbach did everything he could on Sunday to give this team a win.

00:21:43
Speaker 1: He did, And I am somewhere in the middle, unsurprisingly on the handling a pitchers argument, I don't feel like this is a lost season punt like I don't. I don't think that. I do think, especially for a glex Swallenbach, who is young, and there's this whole debate anyway about you know, Enning's caps and all that we don't have to get into now. But I personally just and this is it's I don't always just appeal to authority. I don't think that we can really know the whole picture of arm health on the outside, and you know, the guys that they've handled with kind of kid gloves this year kind of makes sense to me on the surface big picture, like Chris Sale, given how heard he has been for several years, Ronald A. Lopez obviously was a converted believer, and Schmallenbach. Those are the three guys who've been kind of handled this way, and they're the three guys who you would think they might have handled this way. So it's that's not surprising to me. I do think on the other side of it, I understand what you're saying, where like they're in this free fall. You don't want to overreact to that if you're the team, as much as we'd like them to overreact to it on the outside, you kind of have to do what you are going to do, but the results do matter, like you have to get into the playoffs. You and I I think still believed despite the incredibly ridiculous weekend we've just experienced that the Braves are still capable of making noise in the playoffs, but you have to get there. And I think that's kind of where the divide maybe was in the conversation, because you know, one more Bryce Elder start, one more Grant Holmes start whoever. Every time that happens, and the Braves lose, and we've shared the numbers over and over again, we won't do it again now about how bad they have been. Basically, when anyone other than their big four and Schwellenbach is on the mound, anyone from Elder to win In's to Smith shaub or to whoever, the results has been terrible and that's not terribly surprising. So any more of those causes, like the panic of the fans than they've been, they lose and it kind of compounds on itself all those things. But this is kind of an interesting tascit acknowledgement from Snicker, I thought. But at the same time, I'm I'm glad you pointed out that he did kind of get extra rest anyway, so maybe it's like the best middle ground they could find. And then he pitched well. I was glad he pitched well, I was just for obvious reasons. But then also if he had come back today and they hadn't planned on it, and he got rocked, which happen. He's pishing in Denver, I think for the first time in his career, and uh, I think it's blasted today. The reaction would have been interesting, but he didn't. So there you go.

00:24:09
Speaker 2: Yeah, man, I mean six innings, two runs, only two walks and seven strikeouts. I mean Schwellenbach. Man, if the Braves find their way into the playoffs at the end of this, and who knows, maybe they go on to run. If you're looking at maybe unsung heroes or players who really stepped up when this team needed it, Schwellenbach for me, is an easy number one on that list. And it really is such a shame that this team wasted another good start from him with the bullpen just complete and total meltdown. Not even bullpen. Well, I guess it was two people. It was Luke Jackson. Yeah, I mean Luke Jackson. I mean maybe maybe now we'll get this out of the way. Yeah, I mean you have to get you have to dfa Luke Jackson, right, I think I think so, you know, we like Luke, we always have. Uh.

00:24:59
Speaker 1: It was a in the dark when they traded for him. They were trading for Solaier. We all kind of acknowledged this. Solaire. They did Alex to talk about Luke having some good signs at the end of his Giants tenure, which was certainly there. I could see them two in the numbers, but he has not looked good to be sure. And look, it's not as simple as this, But I don't blame anyone for the reaction that was out there today about Dylan Lee pitching in one atte today, while Luke Jackson contributes significantly to a to a lost game that mattered in Atlanta. That confluence of events is not gonna sit well because, as you and I talked about many times, Dylan Lee's been awesome for three years now basically, and he's in the miners because he has options that Luke Jackson doesn't have options. He's in the majors. And it wasn't only Luke. It is worth noting they were up four runs, would look exit of the game, but he had nothing, didn't look good and that was the start of the downturn.

00:25:52
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I think you have to. I just I like Luke Jackson the person. I mean, he'll be on that he'll be a World Series champion in twenty to twenty one forever. But I mean for him to come into an eight to two game, and just I mean, in the moment I tweeted that it was bad alone, that Brian Snitker was going to have to go to Joejmenez and presumably Rice sell Iglesias in a game that was eight to two in the eighth was really bad. And you know, I mean Joejmanez, I mean he got ambushed. I think in a span of four batters, he threw six pitches and the game was tied, or maybe they were already trailing at that point. I mean, it was just I guess I give Jimenez a little bit of leeway here because he was surely just sitting comfortably in that bullpen and all of a sudden he had to warm up with haste. And at the end of the day, these are professional athletes and they should be able to go out there in any circumstance. But at the end of the day, Joe Hemenez was responsible for maybe not everything that Luke gave up, but I mean, obviously Jimenez did not do his job and stop the bleeding.

00:27:05
Speaker 1: No, and I mean, all told, we don't have to go through every single pitch, but you're right on all accounts. How fast I said it before, How fast that happened. It was just crazy to me. In the end, Luke leaves with two but two guys on base and in a four one lead, Jimenez allows four straight hits and it goes from eight to two to nine to eight in the blink of an eye. The Rockies, I mean, this is just crazy to say out loud. They got six consecutive two out hits, Like the game is, you're one out away from the game not being over, but being functionally probably over, and you just could not get an out. I'll look at the stackcast page like he was. He was hit hard ish Jimenez, but nothing crazy, Like only one of the only one of the bat of balls was like absolutely smoked. There were a couple like fifty to fifty balls and the expected batting average kind of thing that just did not go the right way. And you know the bad bit bluck we talked about earlier that kind of applied here. But it happened so fast. You don't just blow six differently every day. I think I don't want to say this wrong, so my apologies, but I think on the broadcast c J. Bakowski said this, and I try to find it and I haven't been able to since then, but I believe he said the last time the Braves allowed eight hits in an inning, which happened in the eighth today, was twenty sixteen. That's a long time ago. We had started the podcast, but barely. It's sorry, our old podcast over at Talking Chop Slash Battery Power. But I mean that's that's literally eight years ago. They had not allowed that many hits in an inning for eight years. That's crazy, just in.

00:28:33
Speaker 2: Itself, and just I mean some of the hits were within like half a foot of a glove. Yes, I mean, you know, the ball gets hit one foot lower and Orlando Urcdia jumps up and makes it catch. The ball is hit one foot to the right or to the left and went Marorfield catches the ball. I mean again, it's just, man, you just cannot catch a whiff of fortune and good block. It's just I mean, in real time, it was almost shocking. I mean it was like I was sitting on my couch watching the game. I was in a great mood. We were texting. We're like, all right, I mean literally, Brett, I think you texted me, hey, let's let's roll. A few minutes after the game wraps up, and at this point it was eight to two, and in like a span of what six minutes, the game went completely upside down.

00:29:24
Speaker 1: Jim, Actually, I have a stat for you. I just found that you don't know about stupid. Look, no, no one loves these things. I'm not saying this is gospel, but I was just curious and I forgot to look this up. Louke Jackson struck out the first batter in the eighth inning. Remember that a long time ago. Now, yes, one out in the eighth eight to two lead. I'm gonna ask you, Scott, what do you think the stack cast win probability was for the Braves? Ninety eight point five percent very close, ninety nine point five percent.

00:29:57
Speaker 2: Wow, yep.

00:29:59
Speaker 1: Now, Grant again, I'm not say that's gospel, but it does kind of directionally tell you how crazy it is to go from up eight to two in a in with one out in the a f inning and lose. And yes, I'm not I'm sure that takes an account corpse on some level. I do think that just the course field of it all should at least be acknowledged. It's not an excuse. You don't ever want to blow six run lead. Course is the place you would probably be most likely to do that. Does that? Is that fair to say? It's fair to say.

00:30:28
Speaker 2: But here was another just shocking stat. So the Rockies have been around since I think nineteen ninety seven, I want to say so a long time twenty however, many years do the math. That was the only time in franchise history that the Rockies have trailed by six or more runs in the eighth inning and come back to win the game. Since July sixth, twenty ten.

00:30:56
Speaker 1: They've done it twice in thirty years, and this is the first time in four years. Essentially, Yeah, that's only.

00:31:04
Speaker 2: The twenty twenty four Atlanta Braves would find a way to be part of something like that. I mean they were also just part of like all time records for what the Milwaukee Brewers just did offensively, Like no team in the history of the modern era had x number of runs, y number of homers, and z number of steals in like one hundred and thirty years in a three game series and it's just pick your embarrassing stat of choice. And I mean it's just been I mean, what a what a week, Brad? I mean it's what a week?

00:31:38
Speaker 1: What a week?

00:31:38
Speaker 2: Indeed, I would say it's yeah, maybe that's maybe that's the title of the podcast. I don't know, and hey, it might be anybody. I was gonna say, if anyone is still listening, we appreciate the hell out of you because you're the real ones for supporting the show. Win or lose these I promise you with every fiber in my body that we prefer to not do these podcasts after the team has a historic loss in some ways and man alive. I mean, what is the breaking point of like enough is enough?

00:32:10
Speaker 1: I do think that many independent podcasts who are not doing this because it's our full time job would have just not done an episode to But we don't do that here on the Territory Tour podcast. Yeah, we have other stats. I'll pass I'll pass on them. The office has been good recently, that's the one up shot. That's good. Hora Hilaire is bombing metalson looks good. Len Orcia is alive. That's good to see after he had been brutal for months. He's been really good. It's the All Star break. We talked about how unlucky the bullpen has been. It's still been awesome for the year. It's just that they just don't It's been a rough time at a bad time for the bullpen. My last stat on the podcast today, Scott is going to be this, The Braves just allowed sixty four runs in a seven game sample. That is more than nine runs per game. That is really really bad, even with cores involved. But to our earlier point, to bring things full circle about how it's actually kind of amazing the Braves are where they are this year in a good way, given all the things that have happened. Again, sixty four runs in seven games, they are still fourth in all of baseball and runs allowed this season fourth.

00:33:18
Speaker 2: The Braves are, yep, and are doing it without the cy Young front run without without striker, and uh, you know it's it's it's absolutely wild to me that they're able to do that.

00:33:31
Speaker 1: And so yes, it is both simultaneously fair to say the run prevention has been a disaster for a week. That is obvious to anyone who's been watching. It's also fair to say that it's been really really good for the full season. So that's where we are on Sunday, August eleventh. A little bit of quick news bullets before we look ahead briefly to the week to come. Eddie Rosario was DFA, which we already knew a few days ago. He actually elected free agency. So farewell again to Eddie Rosario, who came back and was very good. Well, I always remember you, Eddie. And then Oscar Renoa had a setback. He's actual shoulder tightness. I was not relying on him at any point this year. I've been skeptical about him the entire way. Unfortunately, we're all obviously for him to get healthy, but yeah, he's not going to be pitching this year.

00:34:15
Speaker 2: I don't think for the Braves now. No, it's a bummer for wast Car. I mean, shoulders are just such scary injuries for the pitchers, and we all know the dangers of elbow injuries as well, and really the wast Car just has not been healthy for what three seasons now, I think maybe three calendar years at this point. It's just it's a bummer. I guess he at least has youth on his side a little bit well, maybe he can come back and make an impact at some point next year. But I don't know, Brad, do we I mean, I guess, I guess a little bit of optimism is Ian Anderson has been pitching better in Gwinnett. Seems like his velocity has slowly but surely come back.

00:34:58
Speaker 1: A J.

00:34:58
Speaker 2: Smith Shauver is also there waiting and available. We know this team likes to call up Bryce Elder on random occasion, but yeah, man, let's talk about this Giant series and get on out of here.

00:35:14
Speaker 1: Yes, And speaking of the Giant Series, the Braves have currently listed their starters for the upcoming series and they have Grant Holmes listed on Wednesday, So if they were going to go to a Anderson Smith Shover Elder type, that would be the spot, and they are not currently doing that. Worth knowing that it is a four game series in San Francisco, a batch late nights Scott Coleman specials. The Giants are right behind the Braves in the standings, despite the fact that they kind of sold of course, they traded Horius Hilaire at the deadline. But they're not great, nor were they bad. They are a decent baseball team. The Braves are more talented than they are. But what does that mean? There are two though exceptional pitching matchups on display, and they are Monday and Thursday. Anything else to look at besides those? Because it's Sale versus Monday three versus Logan Web on Thursday. Those are awesome games. Unfortunately that means they're tough ones to win because Logan Web is really good, as is Blake Snell. But anything else that you want to note about the series?

00:36:12
Speaker 2: Now, let's hope that they can try to flush this loss against the Rockies and win a couple of games in San Francisco. You Now, the Giants have kind of quietly been pretty good lately. I think coming into Sunday they had one eight out of ten and thanks to I mean, Blake Snell has been out of his mind. For the last month and a half. He was terrible and then lately he's been probably the best pitcher in baseball since July. Logan Web is.

00:36:41
Speaker 1: Very, very good.

00:36:41
Speaker 2: It feels like every time these teams meet up, the Braves somehow run into Logan Web. Robbie Ray, who has been returning from elbow surgery, is pitching on Wednesday. He's been good and we'll see Kyle Harrison on Tuesday, which is kind of the one kind of soft spot in the Giants rotation. It's going to be against Charlie Morton, and we know that Charlie has been very check and hyde for the better part of the season. So let's hope the Braves can find a way to bounce back. I mean, I feel like it's it's almost like a like a toxic relationship at this point where you feel like you should probably in your heart of hearts, move on, but you just keep coming back to this baseball team. And let's hope that the I mean, even a split given the very good pitching the Braves you're about to run into for four games, even a split out in San Francisco would be fine. And then you know, then you go to Anaheim to play a bad Angels team. Hopefully you can pick up some wins there.

00:37:38
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm not gonna derail the podcast talking about Charlie Morton. I'm not going to do it, Scott. I'm not gonna do it here on the show. When you try to retire Charlie this week, it hurt my soul. I have to say, it hurt my soul. But we'll say that for off the podcast. I'm kidding kind of.

00:37:52
Speaker 2: It might be time, it might be time.

00:37:55
Speaker 1: I disagree, It's okay, No, Obviously he's getting close to the end, so we're I'm somewhat tongue in cheek. I'll try to Oh yeah, here, here's a stat for you on Blake Snell, because you talked about how he's been the best picture in the world in recent days. Blake Snell last six starts, including a no hitter, he has a one point and opponents have an ops of three twenty nine against him. So yeah, yeah, maybe the offensive. Well we'll carry over to Monday.

00:38:23
Speaker 2: Yeah, see yeah, and you know, one one small note to hear to hit on here. You know, Chris Sale against Blake Snell is a very good pitching matchup, especially the way Snell has been throwing. Now, the last two starts for Sale have not been bad, but they have also been probably two of his three or four worst starts of the year, and that's saying something considering how good and how consistent he's been. So let's hope that Chris kind of gets back on track to being the super elite arm that he has been. Obviously, he's getting up there and innings and starts this year, and we've talked for were on this show about how important he is to the Braves' success. So hopefully Chris can get back out there and be his usual dominant a oneself after a couple of maybe good but not great starts, Scot.

00:39:12
Speaker 1: I'm gonna throw a curve ball at you before we get out of here.

00:39:15
Speaker 2: Uh.

00:39:16
Speaker 1: I just looked Fangrafts as the Braves with a fifty eight point two percent chance to make the playoffs. How's that sound? You know?

00:39:26
Speaker 2: I thought you were going to ask me what percent they still had of making the playoffs. Should I should have asked you that way, and we'll say the number that came to my mind was like sixty five percent, So I'll see.

00:39:36
Speaker 1: Your higher than Fangrafts. Congratulations to you on the optimism. At the end of the podcast, maybe yeah, maybe I'm a fool. No, I think you're probably right. And we're recording this during Mets Mariners. If the Mets win, the Braves will officially be out of the out of the playoffs if the season and of today, if the Mets lose, the braz would still be in the playoffs by a half game. But yeah, that's where things stand. I tend to go on your side. Maybe we're insane, maybe we have PTSD. However you want to say it, how did they get in? But the chances I'm getting in the are a lot lower right now than they were a few weeks ago. And we'll leave it there, Scott, anything else you want to share on this grueling episode of the Territory podcast before we sign off?

00:40:19
Speaker 2: Nothing else, Brad, That's it, Thanks to everybody, sincerely, thank you to everybody for tuning in. Let's hope that in the coming days these are far more upbeat podcasts. Maybe this is a rallying point for this team. I would love to be a fly on the wall on the team flight tonight and just see how the vibes are.

00:40:39
Speaker 1: But very frustrating.

00:40:41
Speaker 2: I guess if we are looking for silver lining. The offense has been very good lately, and maybe that can continue, and if the pitching can figure it out and maybe just stop being so unlucky, which is obviously something they don't have a ton of control over. You know, who knows. Maybe we'll look back on this and again, maybe I'm the optimistic fool here but maybe we'll look back on this as a turning point and something they can rally around. And I don't know, I have no read on this team on a nightly basis anymore. And I you, yeah, I mean, it's just been such a weird year. But you know, we're in middle August now, we have about I think seven weeks left in the regular season, maybe eight. You know, we are very quickly approaching the home stretch and if this team wants to make the playoffs, they have to find a way to start winning baseball games or they're gonna get left behind because Arizona and San Diego are playing really well right now as the wild card one and two, and the Mets, to their credit, despite some injuries of their own, have not gone away either.

00:41:42
Speaker 1: Yep, we are on the same page there. I know I mentioned it once before, but in case you were wondering, the Braves do play every day this week, four in San Francisco and then three in Los Angeles. Five on the next six days feature Braves games that begin after nine thirty pm Eastern time, So perhaps they will find their sea legs when no one is watching outside of the sickos like me and people that live out West like Scott. Perhaps that's all we need to jumpstart things, but please subscribe to this podcast anywhere you get your podcasts Apple, Spotify, Overcast. Also, YouTube is audio only, but we definitely are encouraging folks even just to support us. Just one click, go ahead subscribe on YouTube to help us boost our numbers over there. We are part of Falid Territory. Check out the entire subset of podcasts at Valid Territory, both the national show, The Flagship as well as the Other Team podcast. Follow Scott on social media, follow me there as well. Follow the show on social at Hammer Territory anywhere you want to check it out, whether it be Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, et cetera. We'll have more Colock Tech come up this week, even with some late nights, so stay tuned and we'll see you all next time