Travis d'Arnaud Caps Second Straight 'Perfect' Night for Braves

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Speaker 1: Hello everyone, and welcome to episode eighty nine of a Hammer Territory podcast. I am your host, spread rolland coming to you deep in the night here on a Saturday evening into Sunday in a not typical time slot from this podcast that I'm usually joined on the show by my friend Scott Coleman, my longtime co host dating back to a previous iteration of this podcast, but for the first time in the video era of this pod, I am doing this podcast by myself on a Saturday nights. Forgive me for that. We wanted to make sure we've got you some content after the game on Saturday, after a big day for the Braves and heading into Sunday. We are part by the way of the Foul Territory network of podcasts. We cover the Braves all year long here at Hammer Territory and comprehensive fashion day to day we never stop. Please subscribe, rate and review the podcast, as well as telling your friends, loved ones, people that you don't like. Honestly tell anybody you know about this podcast and help us to spread the word about Hammer Territory. I should also plug at the top of the show that we did a podcast on Friday evening from my colleagues Sean Coleman and Steven Tolbert, which they broke down what amounted to a perfect night for the Braves on Friday last night as I record this podcast on Saturday Friday night, First and foremost, the Braves beat the Royals that was number one on the agenda. Then the Mets and Diamondbacks also lost, and the Royals managed to clinch a playoff spot even while losing, which was the least important result of the four games, but it also ensured that Kansas City has nothing left to play for as they play against the Braves this weekend. So I say all that that was covered in death by my guys last night. We fast forward to Saturday's game and Saturday's slate of games, and it was yet another perfect night for the Braves. All three results that mattered to Atlanta from a playoff perspective all went the good way for the Braves on this Saturday, and that's why we're talking about everything right now. I will leave with this and the Wildcards situation as of Saturday evening into Sunday. For one thing, the Braves beat the Royals tonight by a two to one margin on a Travis Darnau walk off home run in the ninth. I was touching that game more in detail later on in the podcast, but speaks for itself. Obviously a positive result for the Braves to win a game on this Saturday evening, and now Atlanta has now won five games in a row and seven of the last eight games. That sends the Braves to a season best seventeen games over five hundred. That's huge stuff for the Braves at a really, really good time. They're playing great baseball. Then the New York Mets lost both Friday and Saturday courtesy of the wonderful Milwaukee Brewers. The Mets trailed to to one, sorry to nothing most of the game on Saturday, and they gave up four runs at the bottom of the eighth, lost six nothing. And look, I might not be calling Mowaw wonderful in a few days if the Braves are facing them in a playoff series, but for now the point stands. Shouts to the Brewers for taking care of business, and the Braves now lead the Mets by a full game in the standings. Then you have the Diamondbacks, who have lost four of the last five coming into Saturday, and that became five out of six. On Saturday, it was it was zero zero for eight innings against the Padres for the Diamondbacks, and then the potteryce hit three home runs in the ninth inning, Yes, three home runs in the ninth inning to put the Diamondbacks away. So all that said, here's where we stand as of Saturday night into Sunday. The Braves are eighty eight and seventy one, the Mattress eighty seven and seventy two, and the Diamondbacks are eighty eight and seventy three. So the Reds have a full game lead on both of the Mets and the Diamondbacks. And here is the kicker. If the Braves win on Sunday or the Diamondbacks lose on Sunday, that's an or one of the two magic number of one through the Braves and the Diamondbacks. If that happens, the Braves clinch a post season birth. Part of why that's the case is that the Braves have every tiebreaker edge they possibly can have here against the Mets and Diamondbacks. And even if the Braves were to lose tomorrow, have a seventy second loss of this season and Arizona loss would have them have seventy four losses, and that means even if the Braves had to play two games on Monday lose them both, they would still be in the playoff field. So there are lots of questions, and I assure you that no one has the final answers. As I'm recording this podcast, I've been trying to find all the stuff that's going on here. Major League Baseball has not said anything about scenarios that might cause them to just cancel Monday's doubleheader altogether. But the big thing is if the Braves win on Sunday. As of now, this is definitely the case. The Braves went on Sunday, or the Diamondbacks lose, the Braves are in. They still might have to play on Monday. We will not have that full word until Sunday evening, unfortunately for everybody involved. But this whole time, since basically the division got away from the Braves a while ago, has then can Atlanta get to the playoffs? Can they get there? And there were times I came on this podcast with Scott there was literally pretty much one maybe two days in which I actually thought the Braves were more likely to miss the playoffs than to make it that definitely happened in the last couple of weeks, and then everything has broken right for the Braves the last few days now, knock on wood, all those things. I understand that we are all crossing our fingers, all that fun stuff, but back to back days have literally gone as well as they could have gone for the Braves. In the standings, four games all swoll perfectly on Friday, three games swoll perfectly on Saturday, and of course at the top of that is the Braves winning baseball games. So the percentages are what they are at this point in time. The Braves I never ever, ever, ever assume anything until it's done, so I'm sure there'll be a lot of celebrating right now around Braves Country. I get it. The chances of the Braves making the playoffs are so much higher than they were just a few days ago, but nothing is assured. The Braves have to still play baseball on Sunday, they are probably going to have to play baseball on Monday, and weast potentially baseball on Monday. There is seating up for grabs. If the Braves happen to care about that, I don't know if they do. They probably don't on some level, but getting is the big thing, and the Braves control their own destiny here. They were not always insured of doing that. I mean, they guess they work on some level the last few days, but because of the way things broke with the Mets and the Diamondbacks on Friday and Saturday, it could not be clear for the Braves when on Sunday they are in and we'll touch on later on the podcast they're pitching plan or lack thereof, and listen the public as of right now. We'll also get into the game that actually happened on Saturday with my notes from that one. But I wanted to lead with the big picture. The Braves are in a commanding position now in the Wildcard race, with at least one more game to go, maybe as many as three games to go, and we'll have more coming up in a second. First though, and work from our partners on today's podcast, All right, before we dive into the Sunday look ahead, the Braves to play a game on Saturday that's worth analyzing on some level, and we'll get to the late game hero in Travis Darnaut in a second, But I want to begin with Ronaldo Lopez, so he is really the biggest story as far as the on field product. Obviously the playoff race is the biggest story in the aggregate. But Lopez had not pitched in eighteen days. He went on the il with right shoulder inflammation. We found out yesterday he was going to pitch today and he spoiler alert. He was fantastic. Six innings, two hits, one run, no walks, huge there and nine strikeouts. Even the run that he allowed came on two singles and a double play, so it wasn't as if he got hit hard really at all in this one. For reference, our friends over at stat cast the Baseball Savant had the Royals putting up a one thirty nine expected batting average for their batted balls in this game. That's for the full game, but a lot of that was Ronaldo. He was very, very good in this game, and crucially, he looked the part as far as his stuff was concerned. Obvious's shoulder stuff is concerning. Any arm issues are concerning for a pitcher. But he averaged ninety six point two miles an hour with the fast ball, he reached ninety nine miles an hour with the pass ball, and basically looked to be zero concerns, like he was up beat after the game. Obviously, you don't not untill he kind of recovers after this first start back, but he looked fantastic. Got sixteen whips in the start. The slider was excellent in this one, and he looked fresh. He looked good, and Rinaldo now has a two point zero zero ERA for the season. Look that peripheral numbers are not quite as good as that, but we've been saying it all year long. It's worth acknowledging one more time right now. Lopez has been a godsend who was a great signing. Even if, just even if that's all they got was this year, we would already have returned value on that contract. Great to have him back and look big picture, hit the Braves again. I'm saying this, if the Braves make the playoffs. Lopez is a versatile option. He can pitch for you as a starter, as a fourth guy behind Sale and Freed and Schomamach if you want to do that. He can be a high leverage reliever. He has that pedigree and that stuff, so super duper encouraging stuff from him, and looking ahead a little bit now, if you wanted to slash needed to, you could put. You could pitch Ronaldo if they get there in game three of a wild card series because he pitched today on four days or scp back for game three. But no matter what top lift on the game, he was excellent in this game. The bullpen did his job with three scoreless endings. It was a little bit dicey around Pierce Johnson. In the seventh he issued a lead off walk and then a ground rule double, but fortunately in between those played appearances picked off the guy who walked before the double happened, so that kind of erased some of the more significant damage in that inning. And it's worth acknowledging Pierce has been a little bit shaky for a while. He came into tonight with a four point seven to four ERA and a four point eight five FIP since the start of August, so that's something a monitor with Pierce like, he's looked really really good at times, like at the end of last year, even for most of this year, but he's not been quite as dominant for probably almost two months now. And look, it seems like Johnson and Dylan Lee are still number three and number four in some order on the pecking order for Brian Snicker with number one Iglesias and then Ifenning and Jimenez in the eighth. But I've been a little bit less comfortable than I want to be with Pierce Johnson. I have that I'll speak for me on that one, but a little bit shaky today. I just want to at least note that because it's not been a recent trend. It's been like a two month trend for Pierce. So just keeping an eye on that for the future and saying it out loud offensively. In the game on Saturday, it was not exactly spectacular. They did catch a break early in this one because Seth Lugo's very good for the Royals, pitched only two innings because the game didn't matter to the Royals. That was one of the reasons why we were rooting as the Braves for the Royals to clinch early in the series is that they kind of pull the dogs off, and that was the case with Lugo. I mentioned the one thirty nine expected batting average for the Royals in this game. The Brays were only at one ninety four, which is also quite bad. It was a low scoring game, as you might imagine to one. They only had two extra base hits until the Darneault home run in the ninth, and one of those was actually a bit of a gift. Arcia had probably what should have been a single yet by the left fielder. So it was not like they were hitting the ball hard for most of this game. It was kind of feeble, I will say. Also in typical twenty twenty four Braves fashion, they had they were zero of six with runners in scoring position, and they left seven guys on base, so they had some opportunities in this one couple times when they had guys on base, you know, two or three at a time, and did not take advantage of those until it actually mattered. They were also down one nothing in this game, and the tying run actually ended up scoring on a throwing air by the pitcher that went into the dugout, and it was actually pretty fortunate. And look, the Valley broadcast was on this as well in real time. It was a huge break that the ball actually went into the dugout because or Hay Hilaire got kind of caught running back to second base as the base runner, and he would not have scored that ball stayed in play, he would have gone to third, but he wouldn't have scored, so that was actually quite fortunate. Ended up needing that run to tie the game, and then the walk off happens at the end. Speaking of the walkoff, Travis and he won one time the ninth inning, two oh count, gets in middle middle fastball and absolutely unloads on it. It was an absolute shot four hundred and twenty one feet and it was kind of fitting in some ways after what happened with Sean Murphy hitting a big home run on Friday. The Ketcher's spot's been pretty darn shaky lately for the Braves. Travis had been the bright spot there. It's been a rough year for Murphy all the way around, as we've kind of talked about intermittently, but Travis had a really good start of the season. But since I believe August first, his ops was like in the low five hundred range for about two months. So Ketcher's been kind of a wasteland for again two months now, but Travis right on time. I've said it many times on the podcast, but if you're a new listener, I have always kind of thought about Travis in this era of Braves baseball as the best backup catcher in all of baseball. I stand by that he's obviously an or guy this point in time, getting at the end of his career, but hugely valuable piece to have on your roster in a huge, huge moment, and I just didn't miss the pitch. It was right there for him, and he blasted it and it was a walk off. The celebration was appropriate and a big, big win for the Braves on this Saturday. So before we get out of here, I'll acknowledge this, the pitching plan on Sunday is very uncertain. In fact, Brian Snicker said on the record to the media after the game on Saturday that the Braves were going to wait until they got the result of the Diamondbacks game, which was about thirty forty minutes after he spoke to the media. Part of that is strategic. That's a good thing for like Snick and avoid revealing that information because he knows that the game will happen for a while and make a wait till tomorrow if they want to. I'll say this, you might know the answer by the time we listen to this podcast, because I'm recording this about eleven o five pm. Eastern on Saturday. This could come out overnight. They could link it to the Beat guys, they could announce it. But as of the time that I am recording, we do not know who Pitcher's going to be on Sunday, and by proxy, who might pitch on Monday, et cetera, et cetera. Snith did say that it's going to be one of Charlie Morton, Special Swallenbach or Chris Sale. Now I have to say I laughed out loud when he included Chris Sale, because it would make absolutely no sense to use Sale on Sunday, given everything the team has said the last two days. Then included him. So I have to a least mention that there's been this debate and I'm not doing to do it now. On the podcast it talked about a little bit last night, did Steven and Sean. I didn't love the way they handled Sale. It has worked perfectly for them so far. Now I will acknowledge this. The Bereers couldn't possibly know that the Mets and Dynamacs would both lose on Friday and Saturday. That makes the plan look smarter, but they were holding Sale out. According to what's been lead to what's been selling on the record for a must win scenario. Basically, Sunday's not a must win scenario at this point in time, so if they pitch him, it'll be very inconsistent. I don't know why they would, but they did say that. Again, I haven't loved it, but it's also worked out well, so I'm definitely admitting that Free was fantastic last night. We're all looked good tonight, and if they're trying to get it to where sale is just gonna not have to pitch it all until Game one of the wild Card Series. They are almost all the way there, all the way of that, but they're certainly almost all the way or all the way there. So there's a debate happening online right now about whether it would make more sense to use Charlie or Spencer. I don't have a huge strong feeling on that one. I will say this, as resident Charlie Morton guy, this could be if you pitched Sunday, it's probably gonna be his last start of the season. At least could be because the Braves, I think, are viewing him as their fifth guy right now. Given the way that Renaldo looked in this game in particular healthy, plus the way that Spencer's pitched, and of course the top two in Sale and Freed. You don't generally need five starters in the playoffs. You generally use three and a half or four, and Charlie might be fifth. So now am I coming to play? Maybe throws a Sunday that'll be his last outing. We don't really know, but they could also use him as a piggyback alongside Rinaldo for instance, if they want to Ronaldo or Spencer be on a little bit of a shorter leash. Those guys have more high end stuff than Charlie does. But Charlie might start. There's all kinds of stuff that will unpack later on if the Braves make the playoffs again. If they make the playoffs, but I expect to see either Spencer or Charlie on Sunday. Sale will surprise me. But Stiff did include him, so I always want to say that out loud. By the way, as a final note here, Cole Reagan's, who is quite good for the Royals starting pitcher, is not going to pitch. He was listened as the pitcher originally for Sunday, but because again the Royles have nothing to play for. They're going to arrest him. So that is advantage Atlanta in some respects because no matter who the Royals pitch, the Braids will have a better pitcher. Even if it's Charlie. I don't know. People don't love Charlie. He's probably better than what the Royals will offer on Sunday. But nothing is a shirt and hold your breath. And again you'll probably know more than I do. As you're listening to this podcast on Sunday, it's an earlier start. Basically, the entire league is playing at like three pm ish Eastern Time on purpose, so the teams can't like finagle things is kind of an NFL thing that they also do, so an earlier start. I just want to doing the podcast now. We will have reaction and breakdowns, et cetera Sunday night, and if needed, the Braves play Monday, we'll have a reaction to that as well if the Braves. If things go perfectly on Sunday and somehow the Braves can avoid Monday entirely, we could spend Monday previewing a wildcard series TBD. But what I'll say here at the end of the podcast is if you made it this far. Number one, thank you for listening to the podcast and being patient with a solo episode on this Saturday. Hopefully it was coherent enough. And also number two, Please please please, if you're a new listener, please subscribe to the show. I would say ninety five percent of the time, there are at least two of us on the podcast. Not a ton of solo work, but this is a special kind of one off bonus show on a Saturday night. But myself, Scott Coleman, Sean Coleman no relation, and Steven Tolbert. We are here all year long. Please go ahead and subscribe on Apple, on Spotify. If you were watching on YouTube, we are now on video some of the time, not always, but some of the time on video on that platform. Please like the show as you're watching it, and please subscribe on that platform as well. And last thing, please tell your friends. I know there are lots of Brace fans around the entire Southeast and the entire country. Honestly that our longtime Brace fans have may not have found us yet after we changed over. It's still relatively new endeavor for this season at foul Territory, So please go ahead and subscribe. Tell your friends, I really appreciate all of that. We'll see how Sunday goes, we'll see how Monday goes, et cetera. But the braves are in great shame. It's a good night for the braves, a good two days of the braves in particular. And with all that said, we'll sign off now. We'll see you all next time.