Bittersweet Day For Braves Amid Doubleheader Split With Phillies

00:00:21
Speaker 1: Welcome one and all to the Hammer Territory Podcast. My name is Sean Coleman. Hope wherever you are and wherever you are listening, you are having an absolutely wonderful week in Hey. If you're a Braves fan, man, I hope that you're sitting down to have it, having a nice cold one and whatever you need to do to de stress. What a day it was, both for positives and the negatives when it comes to the Braves. But the one big takeaway, the one big takeaway is that we ended it on a positive note, a nine to two win in which the Braves back in chris Selle were able to beat Zach Wheeler in convincing fashion. We'll discuss that plus the first game obviously all the different things that went into a wild first game unfortunately some injuries to discuss as well, and also looking ahead to the series against Boston. But Steven, the main takeaway that I have from today, it was a bittersweet day. We'll obviously get to the details of that in a bit, but I don't think that you could have paid all the best writers in Hollywood to script in a day a better summary of what the Braves have gone through over the past couple of years than today. It literally had everything. I'm glad it ended on a positive note, but man, so many ups and downs in one day it gets to you. But again, at least we have something positive to build on to end.

00:01:40
Speaker 2: Yeah. Obviously, doubleheader today today had everything. I mean, it had wild managerial decisions, it had major injuries, It had ups and downs and games. It had one run losses, it had a blowout, it had Chris Sale being awesome, it had I mean, it had everything. You're right, It really was just a perfect summer of basically the last, you know, eighteen months as a Braves fan in one day. And I'm very happy it went in the order that it did, where we got to end on the good note, versus if it had gone the other way, where you know, they maybe they dominate game one and then all the nonsense that happened happened in game two. It obviously would have been a much different tone. But the fact that they ended by basically kicking the crap out of Zach Wheeler again with Chris Sale dominating, you know, that does kind of kind of put us on a little bit more of an upward trajectory, maybe heading back home into against Boston. Then it had it happen the other way around. So at the very least we got to end on the high note. The first game was a mess. We're going to talk about it all. The injury to AJ sucks, but we did end on the high note. The offense finally showed up. Chris Sale was unbelievable and the tone is a little happier because of it.

00:02:59
Speaker 1: Yeah, and we talked about it on the last podcast. We ended last We ended the podcast on Tuesday talking about the fact that we were to that point. Who was going to step up in the clubhouse, what have you? Who was really going to show that now is the time. It's not about you know, hey, we'll get them tomorrow. You gotta get them today. And that's what it felt like, and it felt like that the message was being delivered by the whole team. That lineup in the nightcap of the double hitter was absolutely focused. They you know, on Zach Wheeler got through the first three innings. It's just like the Braves collectively said enough is enough and they went out and did what we know they're all capable of doing. And it's great to see that they end on a positive note. And again, as I mentioned, the ceiling of this line, if the ceiling of this team steal at any point in time, can easily match anybody in baseball. They showed it tonight. Yes, it's a bit frustrating that they could do what they did tonight, but it's so rare to see that. But the big thing that stands out to me is Chris Sale being backed by our offense in a playoff type game. That really showed what this team is capable of. And once again, I know that they've gotten to Zach Wheeler here in the past recently, once again this team can perform well against good starting pitching. Again, there's multiple things to build off of which we all have been desperately wanting to see.

00:04:18
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean that Nightcaps. You know, it all starts with Chris Sale. I mean, he's just unreal. You know, he was getting babup to death in the first probably three weeks of the season. He was running like a four to twenty babu and so his numbers didn't look great, but his peripheral still looks strong. His stuff, maybe more importantly, looked great. And what we've seen is a you know, the that babeb stuff has regressed down to a mean and now his overall numbers are starting to reflect the level that he's actually pitching. Six shutout innings tonight against the Phillies, eight strikeouts. He had a couple of innings where he had to dance around a little bit of trouble, but nothing crazy. You know, I thought, I thought the coolest dat I saw. I don't know if you saw this. I think it was John Morose who saw this. Chris Sale is the fastest pitcher ever to twenty five hundred strikeouts in terms of innings pitched, the fastest ever to twenty five hundred strikeouts in MLB history. That's crazy. I mean, you think about some of the guys that have come through in the history of baseball, and Chris Sale is the fastest ever by innings pitch to twenty five hundred strikeouts. He's been the Braves as for two years now. I'm very curious to see, you know, if we really zoom out on Chris sale career wide Hall of Fame stuff, like, I'm really curious to see if he can build he can have kind of a really strong second half of his career with the Braves. Hopefully with the Braves, and only with the Braves. You know, the next three four, five years, you know, the hall of fame stuff. Because he missed so much time in the middle of his career, you know that's has kind of gotten pushed to the side. But if he finishes strong over the next few years, you know, hall of fame is very much in in reach for Chris. And man, he was awesome today, and good lord did the Braves need it. I mean, if Chris Sale had come out and gotten absolutely lit up tonight, the vibes would have been maybe at an all time low. I mean, maybe lower than when they started zero to seven, quite honestly, with what happened in that first game, so massive, massive game from Chris. We'll talk about the offense, but six shutout innings gave the offense a chance to get out. It was one of these easy games where like the offense scored early, Chris was awesome, the offense scored late. It was just a breezy win. And man, do we do we miss those? We don't have a lot of those this season, and we got one tonight. And it starts with a guy on the mound and he was unbelievable.

00:06:51
Speaker 1: Absolutely, and it was also a game. It was a bounce back game, it was a It was a game where you could hear a collective sigh of relief from a few members of the lineup. I'm talking about Austin Riley as well as Ozzie Alby's. Both of those players tonight hit the hope runs. Believe it or not. Todnight was the first time that Austin Riley has hobard since May fourth. It's the first time that Ozzie Albi's has hobared since May third. We're talking about more than twenty five days were both players since they've hit a home run. We've discussed that one big thing would glaried concern about this team. Yes, the trunders at scoring position from their best hitters, but also just the lack of overall power that's happened to May. It's good to see that they're ending the butt on a note, especially with a couple of guys who this team desperately has to get going in the right direction for the team as a hole to get going to the right direction.

00:07:44
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, and even in the second half of Game two, or I'm sorry of Game one, today, we saw the offense really for the first time in a while, come to life. I mean the Brest scored I think four runs in the last three innings of Game one today and Sean Murphy hit a homer. Uh there was back to back doubles from Acunya and Harris. You know, they just got some off they got Not only did they get offense, so they got extra base hits, they got power, and that's just what you know, you just said it, that's just what we haven't seen. And then obviously in Game two, you know, they scored nine runs, Austin homers, Ozzie homers, more extra base hits, you know, a bunch of walks, just stuff we haven't seen a ton of. And so that's like my big takeaway outside of Chris Sale. Chris Sale is number one, of course, but outside of that, the last like ten eleven innings of this series, the offense really woke up and they gave themselves a chance to win the first game. You know, the bullpen kind of let him down. We'll talk about that in a minute. But the last ten innings of these two games, you know, they scored thirteen runs and or I think it was eleven innings they scored thirteen runs. So that's huge. And it's only as good as it continues, right, I Mean, we've seen this before with this offense, where they get hot for a game or two and then they go through a week where they get they score three runs or less. So it's only as good as it continues. And so and that's what we need to see going into Boston. They just had a good series offensively against Boston. And Boston, now the Red Sox are coming to Atlanta, keep it up, keep it up where you're scoring runs, because let's be honest, this team is not going on any sort of run until this offense wakes up. I mean we saw it all last year. Going on any sort of significant run. When you're scoring two or three runs a game is almost impossible to get really back in it. They got to go. They gotta get hot as an offense, and this was a good start. In the last eleven innings of these two games, they score thirteen runs. So that's a good start.

00:09:49
Speaker 1: Absolutely, And again we talked about it in the last podcast, if it wound up being Wheeler versus Sale, getting that win, and not only that, but getting in the commencing fashion. That's the type of win that for a team is capable of what Atlanta is capable of, to the level of winning that they're capable of, that type of win can really help to propel them in the right direction. But as good of a day as it was, or as good of a note as it was to end on when it comes to the Braves, the first part of the day was pretty rocky, both in terms of the results that happened in Game one, but also some unfortunate injury news as well. We'll discuss that more after a word from our partners.

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00:11:29
Speaker 1: So Brad, so Brad, excuse me? That is a shout out to Brad Rowland Steven. Let's talk Game one and you know you mentioned it. I don't know if you are a fan of Saturday Night Live, but there is a character played by Bill Hayter named step On who was one of the many characters that have been on the weekly new secondment New segment, and I love his skits of you know when he's talking about when he's being the you know, the source of tourism, He's like, this has this place has everything again. Game one literally had everything and let's break it down. Now, let's get you know, kind of the summary of the game out of the way. Braves lost five to four, Phillies went up three to nothing. It looked like it was going to be a carbon copy of Tuesday's game. But then the Braves came back. They had Ronald mccuney Junior entered the game after Stuart Fairchild left. He looked on point. They got some big hits and then we get to the bottom of the eighth inning, tied four to four. It looks like the Braves could be in it to get the job done. Then that's where the questionable or the concerns started to happen. Of course, as we meant talked about in the last podcast, regression is fully here for Dazebel, for Hernandez and as a disastrous eighth inning. I believe that he walked two or three hit a batter, you know. Shout out to Deli Dodd who came in and kind of put the fire out real quickly. So good job for him. But Dasbel Hernandez is a concern right now, as is the back in the bullpen and then the in the top of the ninth and the Braves had a chance to come back, but a bit of a questionable decision, I think with how you handled Drake Baldwin you know, him pinch trainning for Marcello Zuna and of just allowing for him to hit like once again, shout out to the Braves. As you mentioned, they put themselves in a position to potentially win the game, but then the bullpen managerial decisions. Again we talked about aspects of the team not being on the same page. Just some unfortunate events that occurred that cost them a winnable game and that just can't happen, you know, many times more.

00:13:22
Speaker 2: Yeah, the days bill stuff is weird. I don't really know what to do with Day's bill. The walks have just gotten out of hand. I think he's got more walks than strikeouts. Now he hit a batter with the bases loaded to bring in the go ahead run after I think he gave up two walks in a single to load the bases. He's not striking anybody out, which is terrifying. It doesn't make any sense with somebody with his stuff, you know. You know, if you look at his strikeout numbers last year, they were fantastic, and this year they've just fallen off a mountain. So I don't know what's going on, and I don't know what you do listen. I've said it all year. I think the of the bullpen is a problem, not just from a you know, the lineup has been a problem, but not from a talent perspective, from a production perspective. The bullpen, I think is a problem from a talent perspective. And that's almost a more serious problem because I expect Austin Riley, Ronald Cuner Junior, Matt Olsen, Marcelzo and I expect their production to at some point match their talent. If you don't have the talent to begin with, which is where I fear the back of the bullpen is, it's a more serious problem. And we saw even tonight Russell Gleasis came in in the ninth inning and did not look good. Gave up a run, gave up some hard contact that probably should have been a home run. At the last pitch of the game, it was like a four hundred and three foot flyout. Did not look good at all. And so the back of the bullpen is a major concern even if you get this offense rolling. This is an area that I think Alex is going to have to address in the next six weeks. The you know what pissed me off about the top of the night. First of all, Ozzie running, so I understand the logic. You're trying to get in a scoring position. The problem is you have you're the tying run, you have Riley, Ozuna and Olsen coming up. You're not the fastest guy yet. Listen. If this was it's weird to say, but if this is like Eli White, I would maybe understand it more because he is legitimate, a legitimate, like e lead speed guy. Ozzy's not an elite speed guy. Ozzie's more of a you know, I think his sprint speed is somewhere in like the fifty fourth percentile or something like that. His speed has dropped the last couple of years. He's not that guy anymore. And you know, he gets on base and immediately gets thrown out and it just pours cold water. And the Braid's got a bunch of I think the Braid's got three a single and three walks in that inning it didn't score. I did not like using Drake Baldwin as a pitch runner. I mean, Smith's done this a couple of times. He did it with Rcia. Two were like he's using guys that are marginally faster than our Marsa. I don't even know if Drake Baldwin's fast with the Marcels, just like I don't think Orlando or See it was faster when he did it with him before he got cut. And it ended up coming up where like Eli White was batting with the bases loaded, and you couldn't use Drake Baldwin because he was standing on third base as a pinch runner, and that would have been a really good spot to pinch hit Drake Baldo. Now I know people said they were out of outfielders. I still think you could have put Marcelo's in the right field for half an inning if if need be. You know, Philadelphia's right field is so small. I I don't think it would have been that big a deal. But you didn't have the option because you used Drake Baldwin as a pinch runner. So that's stuff I'm not in love with. And I understand some of it was because of the fair Child injury, and some of us because they had already used Verdugo in a weird spot. They gave Luke Williams a weird start, so they already burned him. It was a weird game. It was just a weird game for snit and it did not help that the you know, we're gonna talk about aj here in the second but they lost their starter in the second inning. That didn't help at all, or the third inning. Excuse me, but now it was a weird That was a really weird eighth and ninth and some decisions I didn't love.

00:17:07
Speaker 1: Yeah, in case you're wondering, according to Baseball Savant, you know, of course they have that graphic that shows for each hit or where they are, you know, in the percent of MB players in a certain skill, Uh, Drake Baldwin is in the seventeenth percent of When it comes to sprint speed, Marcello Zuna is in the four So again a marginal increase that you know is not worth giving that the chance to use Baldwin's at that. But let's get to the unfortunate news of the day. And in case you have did not are just now you know, kind of looking at the details of the game.

00:17:38
Speaker 2: A J.

00:17:38
Speaker 1: Smith shober pitch, I believe two and one third two and two thirds innings, but in a sequence of events, basically he gave up a hit that got went off his leg it it it it is happening a lot when it comes to bravest hitters, what have you. And then a few pitches later, unfortunately he threw a pitch he was not feeling right. I know that some pointed out that Spencer Strider actually mentioned to the coaching staff that he did not look right, and when they went out and checked on him, you could see him, you know, mouth the words I felt to pop. The immediates news following that is that he was immediately put on the il Brian Snicker, who I will give Snicker credit. Snicker is pretty transparent when it comes to conversations with reporters. At times, he said it did not look good. Listen, we hope that the news is not as bad as it looks, but more than likely, it seems like this is ending going to end in some sort of season ending surgery. And Stephen, I'm gonna be honest with you, I feel like that the loss of a J Smith Shaver, Yes, it is significant for the Braves, but I think that they can like Bryce Elder and then later on maybe they go out and get a starter. I feel like that you can come up with similar production for his spot in the rotation. For this year. I just hate it for the kid. I hate it for the kid in that he was showing some real promise this year. He was starting to turn his potential into production and that was filling a hole for this Braves team. But yet, just likeast year, if you go back to twenty twenty four, he had that one good start, his one good start of the season against the Cubs, Hurts is obleak. I don't think he pitches again, you know, until the playoffs. Well, now he may miss a full year, depending on what type of surgery he potentially is going to have. You feel for the kid because it's just these injuries that are really preventing him from being able to take off, like the Brays really need him to do. You hope again the news is good, but it's more than likely he's probably done for the season.

00:19:26
Speaker 2: Yeah, that was a weird That was a brutal sale was a really weird sequence. So he gets hit in like the foot or the calf on a line drive and like two pitches later, he's shaking his arm and his elbow and you know, people were like speculating like did he hurt his foot? So he started trying to throw different and then hurt his elbow. I don't know, I don't know. It was like one of the odds that you hurt your elbow within a pitch or two of being hit with a comebacker. And Sneed said after the game the two had nothing to do each other, just a coincidence. But it's just such a I mean, what a what a wild coincidence. And I do want to stress we do not know for certain what this injury is or the extent of the recovery. But anytime you hear a picture say I felt a pop, and Smith said it after the game, it's like, you know, I would expect this to be bad news. So I think we all can kind of read the tea leaves there where this is probably heading the good news for a J's He's twenty two years old, and even if he misses a year, he's still going to be perfectly in a normal, you know, age range for a prospect. This is not like a twenty six year old. What sucks is it had really started to click, like it had really started to click about how to be a major league picture. He had threw, you know, he was still throwing. He had really learned how to command his fastball and still hit some velocity, threw like a ninety nine millar fact a day against Trey Turner. The splitter had been really good. It's just such a bummer. And listen, for the Braves, I agree with you. I think my numeral one takeaway is I feel sorry for him because he had really started to put together. But for the Braves, this is just another hit to their depth. And like, yes, Bryce Elder is almost certainly gonna come up and take that spot in the rotation. And Bryce Elder pisched really well before he got sent down, and maybe that continues. But if it doesn't, who who do you turn to? I mean, this is just kind of like they've already lost Ronaldo. Now they're probably gonna lose Smish over again. We don't know that for certain, but maybe by the time you're listening to this, you'll know. It's just you know, they already you know, we talked about it a lot. They didn't go out and get any starters in the offseason, so like they just don't have any more depth. Like you're gonna have Chris Saale, you're gonna have Strider, You're gonna have Schwellenbach, You're gonna have Grant Holmes and you're gonna have Bryce Elder and those are going to be your five. And after those five, I don't know. I don't know who the next guy up is. Hirston Waldrup has looked a little better in Triple A, but my guess is they're going to try to go get something somebody at the at the trade deadline, assuming the Breads are still in contention, which quite honestly is not a is not a sure thing at this point. But yeah, it just sucks for the kid. I mean, just brutal, brutal for the kid.

00:22:26
Speaker 1: And to build off of that, you know, it was not only.

00:22:30
Speaker 2: Uh A. G.

00:22:32
Speaker 1: Smith Schaufer who suffered an injury throughout the day. There are multiple injuries that occurred unfortunately, as Stuart Fairchild, I believe sliding into a base I can't remember the exact sequence that led to the injury, but he hurt his pinky. Now I think he actually broke his pinky. But he was actually available to pins run in game two. But it's likely that he's going to be out for think he.

00:22:51
Speaker 2: Dis I think the official was dislocated.

00:22:53
Speaker 1: Dislocated, Okay, there we go, So to be interesting to see whether he goes the I or what have you. Listen, Stuart Fairchild, just to be completely transparent, the injury to him is certainly, you know, not fun to hear it again, hurts the Braves depth. Nick Allen also got hit by Zach Wheeler pitch. Now it has come out while we were doing this podcast that the X rays were negative, So hopefully there's positive news there. In all honesty, though, when it comes to Stuart Fairchild, Nick Allen, if they're out for a few days, okay, their production can be made up for, so you know, hopefully there there won't be too much you know, bad injury news from that. But I think what it does show is this, though, is that you know, we talk about what the Braves could potentially do at the trade deadline. Well, I also think that it shows while the offense is doing pretty well, Steven, there are some parts of this team with Ronald Acuna junior back, Stuart Fairchild, Nick Allen, I think you keep Nick Allen obviously his depth, but Stuart Fairchild, for instance, you know how much longer is he with the team. I think that we could potentially see some more roster shuffling going on. Besides, potentially who replaced is a j Smith Shouber. It's just gonna be interesting to see, especially if the team can build off this win. It'll be interesting to see how maybe the bench, the back end of the pictures in the bullpen, how that kind of develops over the next few weeks.

00:24:12
Speaker 2: Yeah, and af Fairchild's I don't know what they're gonna do if they put them on the IL. I'm assuming Jared Keelnick just comes up. I haven't heard that or seen that, but that's just my assumption that he's the next probably the outfielder up. Luke Williams can probably play short stuff for a couple of days. I don't know if they would have let Luke Williams play shortstop for anything more than that. They might have to go get somebody. I did see that Nicky Lopez sign with the Diamondbacks today, so that's one option that is off the table. And Orlando Arcia signed. I don't know if you saw this. Orlando Sea signed with the Rockies and was dhing in his first game, which is you know, if you want to know where the Colorado Rockies are at as a franchise, they have Orlando Arcia dhing for them, so.

00:24:57
Speaker 1: Tank Commander Orlando Arcia, Yeah.

00:24:59
Speaker 2: So, you know, helps keep things in perspective when the Braves have a rough stretch. At least we're not or land our c a dhing level. But yeah, so if Nick Allen's it looks like he's he avoided any serious injury, But if it was anything significant, I'm guessing they would try to go get somebody. The Braves have zero shortstop depth in their organization, as everyone famously knows at this point, I would love for them to go find somebody who can play defense and hit a little bit. That seems like something that Braves have a hard time doing at shortstop. It's it's literally either somebody who can field incredibly but hit like a a high schooler, or you know nothing, And I would love for them to go get somebody that can do a little of both. But it looks like Nick Allen avoided serious injuries, So I'm assuming Kelnick is gonna come up.

00:25:45
Speaker 1: For fair show. Absolutely, it'll be interesting to see as we go through the next few days. But here's the big thing. We are officially, we talked about it the last couple of podcasts. We are at that point in the season where the Braves typically turn it on after they struggle through April or May. They typically turn it on right after Memorial Day going into June. You've got your significant win to be able to build off of. We'll discuss how the Braves can do that and another important series of the weekend against the Red Sox and coming up next week against the Diamondbacks and so on. We'll discuss a bit more about that in just a moment. After another word from our partners.

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00:27:24
Speaker 1: Before we'll get into the weekend series against the Boston Red Sox, I feel that one thing that we do need to talk about when we're talking about positives is Ronald Ocounyu Junior. We've now seen him about a week's worth of at bats, and I've looked over at Baseball Savall and as as we were listening to a word from our partners, just to kind of see what the the metrics we're showing so far. Again, I know it's only been seven days, but Steve are basically seven games, but Steven, so far, he's in the ninety fifth or better percentile on XWOBA hind hard hit percentage excuse me, in bat speed, he is in the one hundred percent how in expected slugging average exit velocity barrel percentage and hard hit percentage. We talked about the fact that once we got Ronald d'acunha Junior back, what was he going to look like at the plate, the fielding, the base running, they'll come along in time. Can we get back a difference maker at the plate? We are absolutely seeing that so far. Couldn't have asked for a better start to things with the home run that he hit and then the first patch that he saw coming back. But he looks like he hasn't missed a step. He right now at the plate is looking like twenty twenty three MVP Ronald Acuna Junior.

00:28:33
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think he's played six games. He's got elevens, a bunch of really hard hit ball. Even his outs are hard hit. He had a couple of line drives to center field in the second game today.

00:28:47
Speaker 1: One o three exit velocity average so far this year.

00:28:49
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's crazy, that's that's us. That's stupid. How crazy that is. And he came in in the first game and air Child got hurt, and he came in and immediately hit an RBI single and then hit a double that eventually scored. So yeah, he's just been awesome. And man, he's been if you told me that Ronald was gonna have an eleven hundred ohps in the first six games, you know, I would have told you the Braves probably would have done better then two and three or i'm sorry, two and four in those six games, but they lost the series of the Padres and they lost the serious of the Phillies. So it just kind of shows you how poorly everybody else has been doing that. Ronald did this well and the Brads only went two and four in the six games he's played. But if you're looking at process, and we try to stick with process on the show, if Ronald keeps doing that at the top of the lineup, everybody else at some point will follow suit and we will see an improved version of this offense. I still believe that. I know it's crazy, but I still believe that. I still believe in the talent of this team. We saw it a little bit today. We just have to see it consistently for any period of time, and that's what they've been missing. They'll do it for a game, they'll do it for a couple of games, they'll do it for a series, but then it just goes away, and it goes when it goes away, it goes away hard. I mean they lose it quick. And having Ronnie back obviously means everything. Having Riley hit a homer today is first in like a month, Having Ozzie homer today, Ozuna Olsen, you know, Murphy hit a home run today. There are signs. We're gonna say that hesitantly, but there are signs of life. We'll just see if they can keep it going.

00:30:39
Speaker 1: And they're gonna have the opportunity to keep it going this week in the Red Sox coming to town. Some pretty fun pitching matchups, Grant Holmes versus Lucas Giolito. Tomorrow that you've got Spencer Swellingboch versus Walker Bueler. And then Sunday, whoa, we've already seen Sell versus Crochet this year, Spencer Strider versus Garrett Crochet in the finale of the series on Sunday. To be the Braves need to get the first two games to really feel good about this series, and I think that they can. But Steven, that's what stands out to me. The two big keys of this series in my opinion, the Braves being able to build off the how they performed offensively today going against the Red Sox. They had a good offensive series against the Red Sox in Boston. We've seen this before from the Braves, a couple of games where it looks like they're signs of lives, the offense is really getting going, and then they'll drop off, like we've seen so many times this season so far. Put together a week or so of good offense. And the second thing is the Braves need to make some decisions. They need to make some changes, and they need to make some decisions quickly about the bullpen hierarchy. In my opinion, you want to keep Price soll Igalasias in the closer spot. That's fine. Here's Johnson or Dylan Lee need to be your eighth inning guys depending on matchups right now. Dazebel, Hernandez again, the stuff is certainly there, but the production just is not. You cannot trust Dazebel in that eighth inning right now. So I do feel like we talk about Snicker and the coaching staff, how they're slow to change at times. This is a time where when we talk about building off this tonight's win, it's also about you making changes where they're obvious, putting together a sensible bullpen hierarchy for the weekend I really think could help the Braves, especially if they can get surly leaved.

00:32:17
Speaker 2: Yeah, coming out of a double header, the bullpen is actually in good shape in terms of usage. Everybody only got used once today. I don't even know if Dylan Lee pitched today. I have to go back and look. I know he didn't pitch in the second game. It was a blowout in the second game, and that helps. And then the Braves are off on Monday, and so you have the rain out on Wednesday, you have the off day next Monday. So like in terms of usage and rest and stuff like that, the bullpen's in good shape now. In terms of how they're currently all pitching, the bullpen's a little bit of a mess right now. And the bullpen did not have a good good day to day. I think they gave up three runs in game two. I think they gave up two or three runs in Game one.

00:32:59
Speaker 1: Scott Blue, Scott Blewett himself looked human, and that lets you know that there's really some concerns about the bullpenper.

00:33:06
Speaker 2: Yeah, when Scott blew it is is not mowing people down, you know you're in trouble. And so yeah, the bullpen is definitely a concerned Listen. Boston is another team that's kind of in crisis mode. They're going through it kind of like the Braves are going through it. They just lost Alex Bregman for a significant period of time. They actually just called up Marcella Meyer to play third base because Bregman is going to be out for so long. They still have Devers, who is a monster and destroys the Braves every time they play him. Devers seems to hit four home runs in a series. So you know, there's actually been a lot I've actually been reading a lot today. There's a lot of speculation that Roman Anthony might come up tomorrow to debut. If you don't know who Roman Anthony is, the number one prospect in baseball. He's an outfitter for Boston. But that's how badly they're going right now. Is no one really understands why Roman Anthony is still in the minor leagues. He is destroying Triple A and there's not really any logical reason why he's still down there. So there's a lot of speculation that he might come up and debut in this series. We'll see, But the fact they don't have Bregman is a big deal. And obviously the Braves do get Crochet in the series. He pitches Sunday against Strider. It'd be a good series. You know, Boston is a talented Boston's a lot like the Braves. They're a talented team. They've spent some money, they made some big moves. Crochet and Bregman were two, you know, all in kind of moves this offseason, plus Bueller so and they've underperformed and so it's, you know, kind of a tale of two teams at the moment who are going through some similar stuff. The difference is that the Red Sox just lost Bregman and the Braves just got back a Kuna so and the Braves will be at home. This is a series. You need to win two out of three, is the expectation. And if you win the first two, to steal that one against Crochet and get a sweep. But when you're at home, when you're playing a team that's not playing great, you need to win two out of three of these games. And that's my expectation. And they need to keep it rolling, keep scoring runs, you know, Schwellenbach, Grant Holmes, Strider. That's fine, you can win with that. The bullpen is not in great shape. But the bullpen hasn't really been in great shape all year anyways. So score some runs, make life easier on everybody, and make sure you get at least two out of three in this next series.

00:35:31
Speaker 1: Another big key, actually two more keys. Don't throw middle middle fastballs or middle middle pitches to Rafield Devers.

00:35:37
Speaker 2: Don't maybe don't throw any pitches to Raffia.

00:35:40
Speaker 1: I have someone else speach you now. To Jalen Duran's credit, he was a minister at the top of the order as well. He had a really good series getting on base. So if you can limit the overall production of the top of their order, you should be fine. But yes, make somebody else speach you besides Rafael Devers. To end the podcast, though we talked about it last time, who's going to step up in the clubhouse, who's going to really deliver? I want to get back to this team responding in a way that was needed, the tall team being able to really put together a convincing victory. Now again you have to build off of it. This is a series where you are the more talented team, and this is also a series where you're finally able to put together a top of the order that is so menacing, like even against right handers. When Snicker right now is going to Coonia, Baldwin, Ozuna, Olsen, then Riley that stacks up against nearly anybody else's top five in baseball. You've got proof that you could do it. It's time to start acting like it. To your point, we need to win this series. But to my the thing to I add to that, Steven, we need to do it in convincing fashion. You were able to get to Gilido early. We got three earn runs, had the chance for more, and the last time we faced him in the first inning, jump on him early. Get the job done early. If we're wanting to talk about the next step for this offense, do some damage early. That's when you really know. The Brace offense is clicking a golden opportunity to get some momentum going So many times this year we've seen him not take advantage of it. But now with the Counya back, you potentially can see it. Hopefully they'll be able.

00:37:16
Speaker 4: To do it.

00:37:18
Speaker 2: Yeah, No, I mean they need to score score runs. You know. Even you talk about the top five with Acunya, Baldwin Ozuna, Riley Olsen. But even Ozzy is having his hottest stretch of the year right now. I think he's on like a thirteen game hitting streak or something like that. Homer today, So right now the lineup is as deep as it's been all season, with Acunya back and Ozzie hitting well. Michael Harris is still in a funk, but you know, beggars can't be choosers at this point. At least we got a handful of guys going decently well. Seeing Riley homer today was unbelievably satisfying. I really hope that, you know, Riley can get bananas level hot and usually happen sometime right around now, like a righter at the start of Junie. So good Lord, would I love to see that. And obviously having a Cunya back means everything, So yeah, go score runs. Listen. The pitching is banged up, The starting pitching is banged up. Obviously they just lost Smith Shauber. The bullpen is not great right now. I don't know if we're gonna see corect kimberl. There's a lot of talk online that maybe this is the time to bring Kimberle up. He's been nasty at Triple A lately. He's got like a one something era in his last fifteen outings or something like that. Stuff is still not listen, He's still not gonna be like Ace level prime closer level Kimbrel. But the bullpen is in such a shape that I certainly wouldn't object to seeing him at least see what he can do. But yeah, go score runs and just make life easier like they did today. They didn't need a they didn't need a great bullpen because they scored nine runs today. Well, you know what, Let's do that. Let's go do that. Let's go score seven, eight, nine runs in a few games in a row. And it doesn't matter how the bullpen pitches because you got such a margin. That's the way to get on a roll. And that's what I hope to see this weekend.

00:38:58
Speaker 1: And you know what, now, Indo, you know two people who deserve to have a fun podcast, a podcast right after a convincing win like we did, Brad Rowland and Scott Cole.

00:39:08
Speaker 2: Yeah, listen, they have they have gotten a brutal drawl lately.

00:39:11
Speaker 1: Absolutely a last couple of Wednesdays you're talking about rain outs. I know they've done a couple of mailbag shows. You know you've also got you know, the past couple of Sundays some you know, disappointing losses. Just bring it home from Brad, sweep it for Scott. Put those hashtags out there, tag them on social media as many times as you want. With those by the way, tell them. Sean Coleman said, Hello, but all joking aside, let's win it for those two guys. But putting that aside, it's a golden opportunity again for the Braves to get the job done. I don't mean to be repetitive by saying that, it's just important that they realize that now they need to be they need to get immediate dividends. Going off of the way that today ended, we'll have more. Obviously, really we'll see the fallout from all these injuries as the weekend series goes along. Right back to it at Truest part tomorrow. Make sure you check out all the great act wherever you enjoy your Braves, and make sure you check out the podcast you Know You Got Me at Shawn comanats s ac. Across all forms of social media, you've got Steven Tobert at b Underscore, Outliers across you know on Twitter, slash x, Hammer Territory, across all sources of social media foul Territory. We're all a part of the foul Territory family of podcasts, and make sure you check this out on YouTube, Spotify, Apple, wherever you listen and watch podcasts for next time. Hopefully we'll have plenty of wins to talk about over the weekend, but until then, go braves. We'll talk to you again soon here on the Hammer Territory Podcast.