Braves Bats Come Up Big in Comeback Victory

00:00:22
Speaker 1: Welcome one and all to the Hammer Territory Podcast. Wherever you are and wherever you are listening, hope you have had one hell of a week, because it was one hell of a.

00:00:32
Speaker 2: Friday night if you are the Braves.

00:00:33
Speaker 1: Span the Braves getting a big victory, a comeback victory at a clutch time, one that they desperately, desperately needed. Steven Tobert, it's good to talk with you again. And Stephen, we'll start off with this real quickly before we get into the breakdown of the game. It literally felt like a total one point eighty in terms of perception of the game in about a fifteen minute span. That eighth inning was probably the best executed dolphinsive inning we've seen from the Brave, just not only this season, but one of the best we've seen basically over the past few years. It could not have come into better time, the Braves getting into big victory over the Twins to start off the weekend series.

00:01:12
Speaker 3: Yeah what's up, buddy? Yeah? How about that mood change? I mean this, this was going to be a much different podcast going into that eighth inning. It just looked like another night where the Braves just had absolutely nothing on offense. It was. It was just a you know, kind of a futile effort. The first you know, eighty percent of that game there they were going up against a guy with a nine and a half era, didn't have a hit to like the fourth inning, I mean never really even threatened to score. Kelnick had a solo homer, but that was I mean, they basically didn't even have a rally. And it was just one of those nights where it just felt like it was gonna be another miserable podcast that we had to do after another miserable win. And then the eighth inning happened, and you know, all of the at bats for like eight straight at bats were awesome, Like even Riley's about to start the ending he struck out, but it was like a nine pitch at bat, and then you know, Ozuna walked and then Matt Olsen and then you know we're gonna get into all the details. But yeah, I mean, just an awesome win. You know, I think the Braves are two to zero and they're Friday night Reds. Those might need to be Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday Sunday Reds for a little while until we get a winning streak going. I'm not sure we can just wear those on Friday nights. But huge win. We'll get into it. It's what we're gonna talk about tonight. Basically just this game. So yeah, but great, great win and really change the entire tenor of this show.

00:02:42
Speaker 1: The thing that I'll say is, you know, if you want to look at a basically a two second clip that would perfectly summarize the Brave season up to the point of Michael Harris's bat, down four to two with the opportunity to tie the game. When Michael Harris first made contact on that ball, Steven, it went right to the second baseman, and you could see Michael Harrison the batter's box, delay himself and kind of poke his head to the side, and it just seemed like he went from are.

00:03:11
Speaker 2: You bleeping kidding me? Oh bleep Yeah?

00:03:14
Speaker 1: When that ball went into right field, you could just see the relief on his face. That to me perfectly summarizes this game. How it could not have come at a better time. But we're gonna get into some of the details. But another thing that stands out to me before we get into some of the specific players, is that overall, in general, Keleny hit the home run, yes, but we didn't rely on an outburst of home runs in.

00:03:36
Speaker 2: A rare of currents. We just relied on.

00:03:38
Speaker 1: Putting good at bats consistently together and look at the outcome. That to me is an extra ingredient that could really allow for this hopefully to be the turnaround we're looking for to put some wins together, especially back by this offense.

00:03:54
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean they can go. They went the whole They went, you know, eighty eighty five percent of the game and couldn't stack more than one at bat, one decent at bat, and then you get to the eighth inning and everybody it's I mean, listen, the Twins have had bullpen problems. You know, Griffin Jackson has had a rough year, but he throws hard. I mean, he's a you know, last year he was a monster. That was ninety eight. He's got you know, he's got good off speed stuff like that's not an easy gotta do it against, even though his numbers haven't been great this year, and everybody just put up great at bats. I mean, you know, I think it was like a nine pitch strikeout. It went a Zuna walk, Olsen single, Ozzie had a walk. I think no Ozzy had the infield the infield single, Murphy had the walk, and then Michael Harris had the single Drake Baldwin. We're gonna get into some of the details and some of the stuff that Snit did that we thought was pretty good as well. But yeah, just like stacking good at bats, which we have not seen basically at all this year. This was the first time they'd scored five runs in an inning since that Friday night game against the Miami like two weeks ago at home where they won ten nothing. They have this this is only the second time all year they've scored five runs in an inning, and that means that, you know, that's what that means. The only way you're gonna score five runs in the inning if you're stacking good at bats, and that's just we have not seen that enough this year. And it was so nice, especially down four to one at the time. God, it was so nice to see basically an entire turn through the lineup where everybody, you know, Murphy laid off some really tough pitches down in the count to get a big walk in that inning, Like everybody just had like a great at bat, and we just haven't seen a lot of that, and man, what unbelievable timing, you know, basically because after that inning, you know, you're dealing with Duran and you're probably not doing that against Duran in the ninth. So this was they you know, they were kind of down to their last real chance to get back in the game, and they pulled it off. And that's just that was awesome, awesome to watch.

00:06:00
Speaker 1: Absolutely, And you know, we talk about, you know, I talk about the fact that Michael Harris, you know, when it came to his you know, getting the big hit to tie the game. Well, we'll talk about, you know, some of the moves that Snicker made in a minute. But I want to put tonight's FanDuel Sports Network Player spotlight on a player who I think may have been the most deserving of getting that big hit, and that was Drake Baldwin.

00:06:21
Speaker 2: Stephen.

00:06:21
Speaker 1: We talked about it all year long. Baldwin had put together good at bats, made great contact, and just has not gotten any work close to the expected results that he deserves for how good he's been. But he hits his first career home run in Toronto tonight, comes off the bench, puts together a big at bat and is able to get the job done. Even at times when he's not gotten the job done, he's still shown that his approach is highly effective. It was really awesome to see him delivering in a big moment and just speaks to how valuable a piece of to this team he can be with how good he is at putting together good at bats.

00:06:58
Speaker 3: Yeah, I was tweeting about this tonight, like there was a world when Murphy started playing a lot more because Murphy was so hot when he came off the il, Like there was a world where Baldwin's at bats begin kind of deteriorating because he's not playing as much. And at that point, like you're like, all right, maybe Liss time to get a traditional backup and let Drake go down and just play every day in Triple A. There's no shame in that. And honestly, the bats may have gotten even better since his playing time. Like the quality of at bats he's putting up with the sporadic playing time that he's getting and basically a pinch hit here or there and then a start here or there is really unreal for a rookie. I mean, he's putting up like the kind of a bat. You would expect a guy who's been in the league for ten years, who's used to not playing every day, used to staying ready. This is not what young players. It's very hard to have young players on your bench because it's a hard thing to do to stay ready even if you're not playing every day, and young players aren't used to doing it. And that has been incredible to watch with Drake, and it makes it it makes it so much easier to leave him in that role when he's doing it this well. Like I really was concerned when Murphy started playing more that, you know, it's just it's not natural for a young player to be able to stay ready like that. And he's just been stacking good at bats and he deserves I mean, he deserves like a ten game hitting streak for all the hard outs he made earlier in the year, the quality of bats he had with nothing to show for it. I just could not be more impressed. It is literally like watching somebody. He's twenty four years old. It's like somebody it's like watching somebody who's like eight years older than that, who's been around, who's seen every picture. You know, he's seeing a lot of these pictures for the first time ever. And it's just really, really quality at bats from a rookie. And you know, there was a point where you could have talked me into sending him back down to play every day and just getting a traditional backup for Murph. I'm past that. Like he's just a major leaguer now, Like there is no there's no going back to Gwinnett. He's just a major league player now. And we'll figure out the playing time, we'll figure out the abats, the innings catching, but he needs to be on the roster. He's one of the best hitters on the team. His ad bats are incredible, his approach is incredible. It's desperately what this team needs. And yeah, shout out to Drake Baldwin for the professionalism he's shown in a role that's not really built for rookies and he's done it incredibly well.

00:09:29
Speaker 1: Absolutely a bit more on that in just a second, but we put the Fandel spotlight on Drake Baldwin because of how.

00:09:34
Speaker 2: Well that he is playing.

00:09:36
Speaker 1: We've got some new names and some familiar names back in the Braves lineup as well. We'll discuss in just a moment, but the big key for you when it comes to Fandel is that you can catch all this if you used the code baseball thirty at fand Fanduelsportsnetwork dot Com slash packages that's Fandelsportsnetwork dot Com slash packages. Make sure that you check out that information so you could check out the braves.

00:10:00
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00:10:29
Speaker 1: So Steven, let's jump right back into that Drake Baldwin at back, because the other thing that stood out about that inning is that it was one of the best sequences of managerial success that I can remember, Brian Snicker having, Hi, I'm gonna let you break it down, but he used his bench so effectively in that moment, they needed some bigot bats, they needed some advantages on the base pass, and that's exactly what they did. Yes, we've talked about at times this year Snicker has fallen back into where he's not made the best of decisions when it comes to the bullpen and what have you. But tonight he managed to win. And not only that, he effectively added to the Brave's ability to win with multiple decisions. It was a great sequence to see from the Brave Skipper.

00:11:15
Speaker 3: Yeah, so to set it up if you didn't watch, obviously, the Braves are down four to one going into the bottom of the eighth. They have the middle of the older duellop Riley, Ozuna and Olsen. Riley strikes out really good at bat, like a nine pitch at bat. It was a three two count strikes out, Azuna walks, Olsen singles, and then Ozzie hits a little infield single and so they've got a run on the board, and they've got two guys on and they're down too, and then Murphy walks. Murphy has a really good play appearance. He walks, and this is kind of Snid's first move is he takes out Murphy for Eli White because obviously that's the go ahead run. So and this is a really good use of your you know, of your fast guy, even though it's not a stole and base opportunity. If somebody gaps a double, you got to be able to score the go ahead run there, and if it's Murphy running, he probably doesn't and Eli White absolutely would. So yeah, tremendous use of Eli White. And then you know, obviously they bring Michael. You know, they make a pitching change. It was notable to me that they did not go to a lefty. I thought they were going to go to a lefty. I don't know Minnesota's bullpen as well, so I don't know. Maybe they didn't have one, but they went to another righty against Mike, which I thought was an advantage for the Braves. I was sure they were going for a lefty there, but they didn't. They went for a righty. Mike Rips the first pitch of the at bat, Like you said, it looked like it was going to be a lineout. And by the way, if the second basement had caught that, he could have had his choice of where to go to double up because everybody was running like there was. If the second base second basement caught that ball, it was a just a inning ending double play, and he could have picked any base to throw to, but obviously he did. The ball gets through, and then it's a tie game, and there's a runner on first and third, and then Mike Steeles and then of course the next bat is it was supposed to be. I think it was supposed to be Nick Allen and Snit pitch its for Nick Allen with Drake Baldwin. And this is important because obviously that's the one good thing about having Orlando Arcia still on the bench. You're never gonna pinch it Orlando, but he can come in and play short. And I think Snith should do this more. Actually, you know, he's very hesitant to use his backup catcher, but in situations like this, where you have either Nick Allen or Land Arcia at the plate in a big spot, you need to pitch hit Drake Baldwin and just let the other guy come in and finish the game. I know that's risk because you're down to one catcher, but you know, the amount of times catchers get hurt in games is not is not a lot. It doesn't happen nearly as much as manager's spirit happening. And so I thought it was a really good move bringing Drake Baldwin in. I thought they might walk him, but you know, he's a rookie, so obviously the guy decided to challenge him and he rips the ball back up the middle. But it was a really good It was a really well managed in ing from stint. I thought, he, you know, the Braves bench isn't great right now, obviously because they're you know, they're missing some guys. Having Ozuna back helps a lot tonight obviously, But yeah, I thought Snip put all the right buttons there, and especially especially pinch hitting Drake Baldwin for Nick Allen there and just having Orlando finish the game. I think he needs to pull I love that he did it tonight. I think he needs to pull the trigger on that same idea a little more aggressively in other games as well.

00:14:39
Speaker 1: Yeah, and the other thing that I'll say about this is is that I don't, in any way, shape or form like I think the Braves had the deepest offensive bench in baseball, or that they have the most talented bitch or anything like that.

00:14:49
Speaker 2: But it does.

00:14:49
Speaker 1: Feel like that there's a pretty versatile bench here, right, because you have the ability to present you know, sources of quality at bats depending on whether you're facing a right of or lefty.

00:14:59
Speaker 2: You got some speed that you can put in place.

00:15:01
Speaker 1: You've got the ability to be able to if you take like Alan out, you can put rc in, if you take Murphy out, you could put Baldwin in somewhere in the lineup. You've got trustworthy pieces on this bench, and we've not always had that when it comes to the Braves. Plus also, obviously you know some good fielding options as well, So I think the versatility of this Braive's bench could allow for them to find success in these spots where they need to make a rally laden innings. Having universal bench gives Brian Snicker options and if he has confidence in those options, hopefully we'll see this more often than not where he makes good decisions.

00:15:33
Speaker 3: And I'll say this, there was an inning earlier in the game, it might have been the inning before, I can't remember, but they had brought in a lefty and Kellnick was up, so they pinch hit and the first guy of the bench was Stuart Fairchild. And then you realize that like the three right handers the Braves have on the bench are Fairchild, Eli White and whoever's not playing shortstop that day today it was Orlando, And so like the Braves need another right handed bench, Like they need a guy who when somebody brings in a lefty to go against Kellennick or Verdugo, Like they need a legitimate right handed outfielder who can be a threat. And I, you know, I'm not gonna bash Stuart Fairchild, but like he was defaed by the Reds who are not good and he's not good, and Brian day La Cruz was a minor league signing. He's like, the Braves need that, like legitimate right handed outfielder off the bench, And I don't know they have it right now, but that's gonna be a weakness because teams are gonna bring in lefties to face Kellen Nick or Verdugo and you want to be able to counter that. And today the Braves had to counter it with Stuart Fairchild. It you know, predictably did not go well. So you know, in terms of the bench, I think that's one place Alex needs to improve a little bit. Is we need another right handed out you know, it's gonna have to be like a Loreano situation last year, where somebody gets cut, you bring him in and they find success. Obviously, that's what they were hoping to do with Fairchild. Hasn't worked, didn't work with Brian da la Cruz. You might have to rotate a few guys in before one sticks. But that is one area I see the team could really use little more help. Is that kind of primary right handed bat off the bench?

00:17:17
Speaker 1: You know, I did not have it on my Bengo card tonight, Steven Tober, But seeing you endorse the Braves resigning Alex Duval to become a part of the organization again as an option, I didn't expect.

00:17:27
Speaker 3: For you to go that.

00:17:27
Speaker 1: Who is Alex Daval Adam Adam Davall. I was talking about Alex and then going to Adam. Okay, sorry sorry, and the delivery was not there. We'll we'll do better. Shout out Tom Adam and Alex Dabal whoever Alex.

00:17:42
Speaker 3: Dabal is his brother, it's lesser known brother.

00:17:44
Speaker 1: But the other thing I will say is they do have an Alex in there.

00:17:48
Speaker 2: You'd like this segue.

00:17:49
Speaker 1: They do have an Alex in their system, and of course that's the one that got called up today. Alex Verdugo, the Braves surprise late end of spring training signing, one that we've kind of all scratched our heads about. Then it wound up being quite a valuable signing when we found out what occurred with Profar. He became a part of the Braves organization today in terms of the major leagues and put right into the leadoff spot for Atlanta tonight. Overall, zero for five, but some quality at bats put some really good hard hit balls into play. Also, let's not forget the fact that Marcelo Zuna, he got kind of the stuff going in the eighth inn with that walk. The thing I'm getting at Steven is that it's good to just have major league talent in the lineup. I'm not necessarily saying that Alex Berdugo all of a sudden is going to become a Ramon Lariano esque addition to this club. You hope that he certainly will. But the point is is that seeing him at the top of that order, you get a little bit more comfortable. I feel, you get someone that you know has kind of been around for a while and can put together some quality of bats. More consistently than the other Braves' options. Good to see Verdugo finally get a chance. It'll be interesting to see what he can contribute to this lineup as we go forward.

00:19:00
Speaker 3: Well, what I noticed about Radugo tonight is one he had two one hundred mine hour lineouts in his first two at bats, and I was just thinking to myself, I mean, maybe it's just anybody that puts on a Brave's uniform at this point, it really felt like, you know, welcome to the team. You know, this is kind of a rite of passage on this team is you gotta have some some bullets right at people. So that was, you know, he had quality at bats tonight. The other thing I noticed is he did take a lot of bad pitches, and that sounds like something that's you know, kind of taken for granted. But honestly, with the braves other leadoff options right now, none of them know how to take bad pitches. They all swing at bad pitches. So just having a guy like his second at bat it ended up being like one hundred and four mile lineout, but he got to like a three to one count, and honestly, I can count, like on one hand the number of times, like Michael Harris has been in a three to one count, So honestly, just being able to take pitches and work counts. You know, I'm not expecting Alex Radugo to be anything crazy, but the gas outfield has been so bad this year that, like, even if he puts up like a ninety WRC plus, which is kind of what he's done the last couple of years, that is a stark improvement over what they've gotten so far. Now, obviously everybody expects Michael to bounce back at some point. He obviously had the big hit tonight. He had a single in the bat before the big hit tonight as well, so he had two hits tonight. My guy, Mike has got to learn how to take a walk. He's got to learn how to stop swinging at so many crappy pitches. He's swinging at more crappy pitches this year than he ever has before. We got to fix that. But he's got so much talent. I mean, we saw the running catch at the wall tonight off Byron Buxton's bat, Like, he's got so much talent. But yeah, Bridigo, you know again, you gotta temper expectations but I like him better than Brian day La Cruz or Jared Kelnick. I know Kellen at Homer tonight, but like, at least he can take a walk and he's not going to strike out thirty percent of the time, and I couldn't say that about any of the other guys. So we'll see how, you know, we'll see what they put him. Leadoff was aggressive, you know, but I understood why Snit did it. It's gonna be to see what happens when there's a lefty on the mound. If like Stuart Fairchild is gonna get starts, are they gonna put a left here? They're gonna put Dugal or a Celnik in versus a lefty? I don't know. We'll see what they do again. Is another reason I think the Braves need another right handed outfielder. But yeah, notable first game. I thought he had some good at bats. We'll see how it goes.

00:21:32
Speaker 1: Absolutely and got off to a pretty good start tonight, So you certainly hope that that continues when it comes to this Braves organization. But from the offense, having another good night to the pitching staff, which you know, hey kind of got belt out a bit we'll discuss that in just a moment before but before that, a word from our partners.

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00:22:57
Speaker 8: A band watch me some things and not be guys. I'm just gonna they have my local thought through they win in the shads gas streamer.

00:23:24
Speaker 2: So Stephen.

00:23:24
Speaker 1: Another thing that certainly stood out tonight that you know, was was the theme for much of the game before that big eighth inning to get the win was of course Bryce Elder on the mound for the Braves, and it was quite interesting because earlier this week, in a bit of a surprise move, the Braves had optioned a J. Smith Schauber down to the Miners. You know, the thought was, okay, this was just a move that they're making in order to potentially kind of position their pitching staff, you know, obviously with the return of Spencer Strider earlier this week. But the reason wound up giving Bryce Elder a start, and once again he proved to be ineffective. I feel like that was a bit of a waestionable move right now. You need as many you need as high quality and arms as possible, pitching as many hintings for the Brave as you can get a J. Smith Schaufer just seems to be a better option for Bryce Elder. It just seems like that right now, you can't really trust Brice Elder to make any more starts.

00:24:17
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't get it, you know, I said it at the time last week when it happened. I don't understand they had the choice to option either Elder or or smith Schover. I don't understand why they picked smith Schover on top of the fact that Elder has got like an eight eer A and an eight FIP right now, and Elders are both in like the fours AJ just has more upside, And you know, I understand that that AJ is a bit of a mystery, but Elder is not a mystery in the worst way possible. It's like that old like consistency is not necessarily a compliment. Have you heard that? Like that Elder is extremely consistent in the worst way, Like you just know exactly what you're gonna get, and listen, I'm not only the impression that a J. Smith Schover is gonna like come in and save the rotation, Like he's twenty two and he's gonna have to learn on the job and his command's not great. But Bryce Elder is just a I just don't think Bryce Elder is a major league pitcher. Like there was a time where Bryce Elder was at least like a serviceable fists charter. I don't even think we're there anymore. I mean, his last like thirty starts, he's got an er like in the seventh. That's a that's a massive sample size. And then you watch him pitch, You're like, yeah, I get it, Like he throws ninety miles an hour, and he doesn't have great command, Like I don't know how he gets anyone out. Quite honestly, he hangs his slider like three or four times in any he hangs that slider just in the right at the bottom of the zone, and guys just tee off on it. It's like, I don't want to be too give because the Braves won, But I don't understand why Bryce Elder gets the leash that he gets, especially when you could have optioned either one for the same money. Like it was not It's not like that there's no real reason to option. You didn't gain anything by pitching pitching Elder in this game versus Michelle, But it was just a choice, and I I just just I disagreed with it. I disagreed with it at the time it happened. I disagreed with it before the game started tonight, and I disagreed with it tonight when it when Bryce Elder showed us once again he's not a major league pitcher. He just needs to be in Gwinnette. He's just he's he's an organizational arm and we just need to treat him like that. And I don't understand why he gets the leash that he gets when there's clearly more talented guys that, yes, will be inconsistent, but will least give you higher upside.

00:26:49
Speaker 2: Agreed.

00:26:50
Speaker 1: And the other thing I can really come to is durability, Like you can at least expect for him to take the ball every fifth day.

00:26:55
Speaker 2: But just because you can expect you got to take the ball.

00:26:57
Speaker 1: Every fifth day doesn't mean that that's the best decision every fifth day. The other thing that I will say, though, that was good to see, and I feel like that I'm starting to it feels like a theme that we're starting to see here. I feel this Brave's bullpen overall has been a bit better to expected than the numbers suggests I don't have the expected numbers in front of me, but it seems like that this Braves bullpen is continuing to kind of find its way.

00:27:18
Speaker 2: In terms of being successful.

00:27:19
Speaker 1: Four scorelessenings tonight again played a big role. Even though the offense rightfully so deserves a lot of the credit tonight, this bullpen deserves credit as well. It really seems like some guys are falling into place in terms of the roles that they're expected to do. And also a clean, you know, pretty dominant ninth inning from Rice ll Iglesias was nice to see an overall great performance from this bullpen in a needed time.

00:27:42
Speaker 6: Yeah.

00:27:42
Speaker 3: I mean, obviously you're down four to one. You can't afford to go down any more than that. You know, if the bullpen had come in given up three runs, then that you know game's over. So yeah, huge four innings of shut out ball. I think they only got one strikeout in those four innings, which is funny. But a lot of weak contact, like Aaron Bummer came in, got a bunch of weak ground balls, they got some pop ups they did have. I think, uh that one that Buston hit to the wall obviously was pretty fortunate to get an out from that, but yeah, really strong. And I'm still not convinced about this bullpen. I still think the Braves need another high leverage arm, just like I thought they needed another high leverage arm for the last six months and I was sure that they were gonna go get one in the offseason. I still think we're in need for another one. But yeah, every game they go score I mean, you can't argue with scoreless baseball. You can't argue with four scoreless innings to hold the lead right there and give the offense a chance to catch up. So I think the Braves need more more depth there. You know, Kimber's gonna come up at some point. He's looked pretty good in the minors so far. Obviously it's the miners, so you expect him to look good. But he'll be up relatively soon and we'll see where they are. But they're gonna need They're gonna need more Knights like this. It's been an inconsistent start for Listen. It's been an inconsistent start for literally every group on this team. Offense, starter's, bullpen, no one has been good. That's why the team is six and thirteen. But more nights like this will help. And obviously four scoreless innings allowed the offense to come back big night, big night for the bullpen.

00:29:19
Speaker 1: Absolutely, and so where that kind of sets us the stage is once again allowing for the Braves to be able to turn this into an opportunity to kind of get some momentum going. And Steven, I think there's three big reasons as to why tomorrow is such an important game. One, obviously, is the Braves just building off a victory, this offense being able to put to put together two consistent good performances. They have an opportunity to do it against a pitcher that they should have some success against and Simeon Woods Richardson. But the ability for them to be able to put two good offensive performances together and get another series win, that's the first reason why I think it's an opportunity. The second reason why I think it's an opportunity, Stephen, is because if you look at the Brave schedule, now is the time for them to make their move. I'm not saying that the season, you know, they're one or two losses away from the season being o firm, but over the next month basically through May fifteenth. The end of May is pretty hard. But basically, through May fifteenth, this team is playing against a bunch of teams that they should be favored against. You've got the Dodgers and you've got the Diamondbacks sprinkled in there. Yeah, they're probably on the same level or higher than the Braves right now. But this is an opportunity where the Brads are going to be playing a bunch of series over the next month against teams they should beat. They're also at the end of this month going to knock out another West Coast road trip, so they're in a part of this schedule where not only are they facing teams they should beat, but they're getting another hard road trip out of the way as well. They need to find success now. But the biggest opportunity of all, Steven is who is on the mound tomorrow night. Chris Sail an opportunity at redemption. Certainly hasn't been the start of the season that he or the Braves wanted for him. Chance for him to put together a very good start against a team that he's pretty familiar with, and the chance for getting them to get the series win a lot riding on tomorrow I'm gonna call it a must win, but another opportunity for a big win for the Braves.

00:31:15
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, this team still hasn't won two games in a row. Like, let's start there. Let's just win two games in a row. You know, it's impossible to have a winning streak until you can win two games in a row. A lot of it will be about Chris Sale. He's been bad. I mean he he is literally the first person to admit that he is called his start embarrassing. He says he's not sleeping at night. He just stares at the ceiling. Same Honestly, that's kind of how I sleep these days with the Braves. But he's one good start away from you know, a different narrative to the season. The Twins have a lot of guys banged up on their offense. This is not a healthy Twins team. They're missing you know, three or four of their big bats. They're missing Lopez, their they're big starter. So yeah, I mean tomorrow they're starting Tomorrow is a guy that Braves should should should hit. They should score six or seven runs tomorrow. Now, I never expect this offense to score six or seven runs anymore because They've just so many times come into games like this where they should do well and gotten dominated. So it is a big start because on Sunday, obviously you have Joe Ryan, and Joe Ryan's a monster, So like that's not you know, I think it's Joe Ryan versus Grant Holmes. Grant Holmes has been good, but like, that's not a game. That's probably not a game you're expecting to win just because the pitching max. I mean, Joe Ryan is legitimately one of the best pitchers in baseball. So we'll see. It's a big game tomorrow, though, get some momentum, get a get two games in a row the first time all year. You know, if you win tomorrow, you have your chance, first chance at a sweep, and then that's how you really get momentum, and that's how you really start cutting into some of this deficit that you've built for yourself is sweeping teams when you have the chance to. The Twins are not healthy, they've not played well, you know to start the year. They've had a really slow start. This is a team you need to beat up on when you're at home, and like you said, there's got They've got some series coming up where they could beat on some bad teams. You know, they got Colorado coming up, They've got Pittsburgh coming up, They've got a couple of series with Washington. Like yeah, like you said, the Dodgers and the Diamondbacks are sprinkled in there. But the next month, the Braves can really make them, hey, completely erase this deficit and start, you know, the summer months with kind of a fresh start. By then Acuna will be back and see what happens. But like you said, you got to take advantage of this this stretch, and it starts tomorrow against a a not a great pitcher, a not a great lineup, and the guy that won the saw Young last year on the mound. For your chance to win a second game in a row for the first time all year, Let's do it. Let's do that. We need we need to games in a row and then we'll see what happens. But you got it. You can't have anything until you get two games in a row. So Chris Sale, I need you, buddy, I need I need twenty twenty four, Chrisale, I need my guy to go out and throw like five six scoreless innings. Get the mojo back. I need the offense to show up. I need six or seven runs to make it a nice, easy win. No one's got to worry about it. That's what I need. Okay, that's what we need right now. Is we need a seven nothing win tomorrow. That's what I'm calling right now, seven nothing win. Chris Sale dominates, offense dominates, easy win. Let's do it. I'm in, I'm in, if you're in.

00:34:36
Speaker 1: I was ready for the church organ music to start playing a hall of Oh. Stephen Talbert absolutely and hey, that is the perfect way to end this edition of the Hammer Territory Prodcast. I know we've had a couple of hashtags here, bring it home for Brad and all this different stuff. Just win, damn it hashtag, just win, damn it.

00:34:53
Speaker 3: Let's win.

00:34:54
Speaker 1: Yeah, and that's that's what we've got. For Steven Tolbert. You could find him at be Underscore Outliers one slash x one of the best when it comes to covering the braves. My name is Sean Coleman. You can find me at Stat's sec on Twitter, slash x. Hammer Territory across all forms of social media. Fout part of the Foul Territory Family of podcast. Make sure you check out all the great content from Family to from Foul Territory. Until next time, go braves. And how about this, the next time you hear from Hammer Territory.

00:35:22
Speaker 2: Let's talk about a serious week. Go braves.

00:35:24
Speaker 1: We'll talk to you again soon here on a Hammer Territory pod