Sale is Splendid, Offense Erupts in Win While Michael Harris II Heads to IL

00:00:22
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Hammer Territory Podcast. My name is Sean Coleman. Hope, wherever you are and wherever you are listening, you are having a great start to your weekend, a great end to your Friday night, a great start to your Saturday. And I can tell you this in terms of results on the field, it's a pretty positive time to be a bravesman. Two straight wins, and it's two wins in which our offense, you know, I had a bit of life, had a bit of success. Will break that down from a seven to three victory over the Tampa Bay Rays to get a win in the series opener, plus the latest when it comes to the fact that when the Braves get any type a positive momentum, it seems like that they've also got to couple it with some type of negative development. Of course, this time around it was Michael Harris the second leaving the game early with a hamstring injury. We'll cover all that in this abbreviated version of the Hammer Territory Podcast, part of the Foul Territory family of podcasts. My name is Sean Coleman. You can find me at Stat's sec on Twitter. Five Flying Solo Tonight It was great to be back with Stephen Tolbert last night. Make sure you check out all the podcasts that we've done this week. Both Brad Rowland and Scott Coleman will be back on Sunday. But hey, there's some fun things to talk about. As we started off this series against the Rais and you know, kind of set the scene a bit. This is something that me and Stephen talked about. You know, we talked about the fact that you know, Thursday was such a needed win for this Braves team and the way that they went about doing it was needed as well. Getting some runs early. That was the big thing for the Braves. That was what was such a defining characteristic of all the Braves to access in twenty twenty three, offensively, was the fact they were so good at getting the lead early. Well, that's what they did on Thursday, and they were able to maintain it despite a bit of a comeback from the Orioles. Well that's exactly what they did once again, and in an even better fashion on Friday evening. You know, Chris Sale was on the mound the Brave you could I think, you know, even though Ronaldo Lopez has had you know, a lower ERA this season. I think some would think that Chris Sale probably has been the braves best start of this season. So you had to feel comfortable with Chris Sale on the mound for the Braves against again a Ray's team that was struggling offensively. Me and Stephen talked about a big factor coming into this series against the Rays was the fact that but the Braves and the Rays had so many of their players who were struggling through the first two months of the season offensively well, the Rays actually got off to a better than expected to start against Chris Sale. He only allowed one run in the first inning off on an Ahmed Rosario double, but it looked like that the Raids could have scored more, but thankfully Sale was able to keep it to only one run. And then that's when the Braves bats came to life, a five run first inning for the Braves, allowing for them to get off to a five to one lead. Of course, the big hit Marcelo Zuna for the second straight day. Again, I don't feel that it's going out on the limit all I don't feel it's far fetched to say Marcelo Zuna has a case to be in that top five of the MVP conversation so far in the National League, my Marcelo Zuna for the second straight day, connecting with the big hit a three run homer. Nineteen homers sixty RBIs for him through sixty seven games so far this season. He has just been an absolutely magnificent force in the Braves lineup. That gave him a three to one lead, and then of course Matt Olsen giving an extra base hit, but perhaps the biggest development of all. Talked about it again yesterday with Steven the biggest development of all a RBI extra base hit off the bat of Austin Riley, and then after the fifth run scored on the drab by the Rays, Austin Riley came back in the second and head and launched a four hundred and twenty plus foot home rood. We talked about it on yesterday's podcast. Austin Riley is making hard contact at similar levels this year as he's done in the past, but the big difference is is that so many of the balls that he's putting in play at one hundred miles an hour or better have it on the ground half of them this season. But in this game he was finally able to get a few of his hits into the air. His double wind for one hundred and eight miles an hour, his home run went for one hundred and seven miles an hour. We saw the Austin Riley of old, the elite Austin Riley showed up and made the difference in this game, and that allowed for the Braves to get the seven to three victory. And that's where you know it starts and stops with this Brave Braves team. I've said it multiple times. The biggest that needs to change for this offense to really get going back to where it needs to be, for this Braves team to truly be in the conversation about a championship pursuit this season, it's Austin Riley getting back to being Austin Riley last year when we were so historic, the biggest reason why we had three top ten MVP candidates Akunya, Olson and Riley. This year it's Ozuna, who's been the constant MVP candidate. We know Riley and Olsen can perform at that level and that's exactly what we saw tonight. The big bats Riley, Olsen as well as Ozuna stepped up and showed out tonight, and the big hope for the Braves is is that the past two games can really be a reference point that can get that middle of the order going, and that if that middle of the order can get going, this Braves team, with their pitching, can get back to winning and winning three. Of course, Chris Sale seven innings pitch gave up five hits, seven strikeouts, again not his best stuff. But the thing again that stands out about Chris Sale, about Ronaldo Lopez, about Max Breed, they consistently even if they have a bad inning, even if they have you know, they give up a home run or they give up a big hit. You know that scores multiple runs each and every one of them have been so efficient in being able to limit the damage and get back on track to put the Braves in a position to win even if the offense has struggled for more and more often than not to get the job done here recently, but Chris Sale was outstanding. But once again, it is so good to talk about the fact that the Braves and now won two games in a row after losing five straight, and a big reason why is because of the offense. One thing I can tell you is that the Braves are a lot more fun to watch when their offense is going then win it struggles. But no matter where you want to see the Braves, whether their offensive struggling or not, Sea Geek is the best way for you to be able to do that, whether it's in Atlanta or perhaps if you want to go to a visiting ballpark like Steven Tobert has done here in recent days, the best plate for you to consult is SeatGeek dot com. It's the best place when it comes to the number one spot when it comes to finding tickets for MLB games, and they happen to be a new sponsor of the foul Territory family of podcasts with over twenty eight million downloads as well as over seventy thousand events that you could choose from. It's a great place for you to go, whether it's sports, concerts, festivals, what have you. And the great thing about it also is that they're going to have a rating system for your tickets. You know, green means good, red means not so good, and it's on a one to ten scale. 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00:09:36
Speaker 2: So.

00:09:37
Speaker 1: Of course, as mentioned, the offense getting going was a big development from Friday, big development from Thursday. Cannot overstate enough how awesome it was to see two straight games, two straight wins where the Braves scored five or more runs, where the Braves got ten plus hits, and when the offense played its part in a big win and again once again, it was great to see Chris sale as will but perhaps the biggest storyline of all, despite the offense leading to a se I Can win, was, unfortunately the fact that Michael Harris, the second who I believe you know, had his first six game hitting streak since the start of the season. May have been five or six games, but Michael Harris, who had kind of started, you know, really not heating up, but he started to you know, have better luck when it comes to putting the ball in play, getting on base. You know, he's been you know, he's been a catalyst for some of these run scoring opportunities over the past few games. Unfortunately, in the first inning, is he was going from first to third, he pulled up and he immediately was taken out of the game with what the Braves later described as hamstring tightness. Now, don't want to speculate, no, not a medical mind myself, don't want to speculate as far as you know, what the duration of time will be that it'll take for Michael Harris to get back to one hundred percent. But the fact that the Braves came, you know, after the game and immediately said he's going to the il he's going to have an MRI. That's that's pretty noteworthy. That that definitely means that it looks like instead of being day to day, this that the very least is going to be a week to weak type of development. And of course with the hamstring, not only is it this initial injury that you have to be concerned about, you obviously want to make sure also that when it comes to the healing process for hamstrings, you give it the time that it needs to recover so it doesn't pop up again. So it certainly seems to be the fact that with Michael Harrison the second, we're going to miss him for you know, a decent amount of time, and it's just you know, something that you know, you've come to expect this year. Unfortunately, it just again seems that when the Braves again had this positive stretch, when it finally seems as if they're starting to break through and seem like the Braves that we expect for them to be, something occurs that you know, unfortunately, you know, doesn't allow for us to fully enjoy it. And this you know, injury to Michael Harris the second certainly is is significant. I know that he's struggled so far this year around a six fifty ops, but again he started to show some life, starting to show some better at bats. And of course when it comes to Michael Harris, there's the second. We know there are a few outfielders in the game that had the ptinchel that he does to impact the game in so many ways. Because one area that we get where we probably are going to miss him the most is, just like the ended the game on Thursday, is his defense. How absolutely incredible he is defensively, especially with ronald' kune junior out for the season, and so with Michael Harris the second, you know, looking to miss you know, uh, probably a decent amount of time. Again, we'll see, you know what it looks like as far and once more information is known, the next question becomes, you know, the Braves now are down one of the most dynamic outfield duos in the game. Of course, Ronald of Kuney Junior being out for the rest of the year, Michael Harris the Second now is going to be out for you know, a decent amount of time. But the thing that I'll say is this is that when it comes to a defensive perspective, I would say that Michael Harris the Second is probably harder to fill the It's probably harder to fill his void than it is Ronald A. Kunyew Junior. I'm not saying that, you know, I feel Ronald o' kunew Junior is the second best defender you know on this team, after Michael Harris the Second. But my point is is that now that you're without Michael Harris the Second. Yeah, logically you would think about putting Jared Kellennick out in center field. He's played good defense and left field, made a great catch tonight or on Friday night against the Rays. But the thing that I'm getting at is you think that he would be a natural fit in centerfield, and that's likely the direction of the Braves are going to go, and I would anticipate Kelnick can handle centerfield just fine, you know, for however long Harris the Second is out. But my point is is that you don't have, you know, a long track record of Kellernick being out in centerfield, and some of the you know, advanced numbers you know, don't suggest that he's just absolutely outstanding out in centerfield. I know that Adam Devall has you know, had a history of play in centerfield, especially for the Braves. He was our Maine centerfielder during the twenty and twenty one World Series run. But the thing is as good of a defender as he is in the corners, numbers suggest that he's not the same out in center field. It seems as if that initially recently signed Ramona, a veteran who had played with you know, the Cleveland Guardians here this season. I think he's played with them for a few years. He previously was with the Oakland Athletics. He's not done much at the MB level, especially when it comes to offense or just overall in recent years, but it did. He was reportedly removed from the Gwynet Stripper's game this evening. It seems like that that was, you know, correlated with what occurred to Michael Harris the second. So while no move was officially announced, it seems like Loreno, who the Brays again you know, in recent weeks, and signed to a minor league deal when Ronald Accunya Junior went down with his injury. It seems like that he could be the name that will be called up to Atlanta when Michael Harris the second is officially put on the IL. But with him coming up, you know, he's not someone that you instantly would comfortably put into the lineup. I would anticipate, you know, you have J. P. Martinez, you have Brian Anderson. I would anticipate that you're likely going to see Adam Deval continue to be mostly at every day player out you know it either left or right field. You're gonna see Jared Keldeck definitely be at every day player ed centerfield. And then you're gonna see some variation of JP Bartiitez, Brian Anderson, and potentially Ramote Lariano, you know, kind of be used in different ways to pit you to whether the Braves face are right or a left hander. But the point that I'm getting at is is that now with Michael Harris the second, you know, out of the light up for you know, at least you know, the next perhaps maybe a few weeks, the Braves outfield situation gets gets a bit dier.

00:15:28
Speaker 2: You know.

00:15:28
Speaker 1: The defense now, I would say, is probably no longer near the strength that it was when you had Michael Harris the second in center field. And of course we know while Jared Kelnick has you know, improved his overall approach at the plate, while Adam Devall has looked better over the past couple of days. You certainly don't have just a straightforward, reliable option out there in the outfield, because you know, Brian Anderson was signed a couple of weeks ago. Obviously Ramond Leariano is going to be making you know, his you know, debut for the Braves at the major league level. So you don't have just a go to option in this Braves outfield. The upside of the Braves outfield, especially without Ronald Acune Junior and now Michael Harris the second all of the sudden, has taken a significant drop, and so that could definitely be something that you know, in time shows up, you know, if Michael Harris is out for an extended period of time. But while we know potentially again that the outfield, you know, moving forward at least for the next few weeks, is going to be some combination of likely Jared Kelnick in the center and then Brian Anderson, j P. Martinez, Adam Devall, Ramone Lariano out in the corner. Outfields. Not only defensively are you probably going to take a step back, but what do you do for the lineup, Michael Harris the Second had been the go to option in the leadoff spot, you know, not only against right handers, but you know, here recently even against left handers. My thought is is that you know, I know that some had been talking about with Jared Kelnick's improvement at the plate, especially against right handers here recently, he could be an option to potentially move up to that leadoff spot against right handers. With Ozzy Alby's leading off against left handers, perhaps Brian Snicker just wants to go with his foremost trusted hitters at the top of the order, and you've got Albie's leading off Alistair Riley back in that second spot, followed by Arizona and then Matt Olsen, and then you figure out the you know, five through nine spots in the orders order based off matchup. But the thing that stands out is that now I know that Michael Harris the Second had certainly struggled at the plate this season, but he recently had started to show some signs of life, and he especially had made a big difference. The Braves defense this year has certainly been at a better level than it was last year, and his play in centerfield was a big reason for that. So both defensively as well as offensively on the base paths, and in terms of having you know, an at least you know, somewhat sensible option like Michael Harrison second that could be at the top of the order for the Braves. All that is now gone for at least a few weeks, and so the Braves in multiple ways are going to have to find answers, probably going to be some trial and error as time goes on. You hope that it doesn't sit here and in any way, shape or form really kind of you know, take away from the positive momentum that we have offensively, but you certainly are going to see Brian Snicker have to make some changes to the lineup and you're likely going to see many different variations of it over you know, in the near future. Maybe maybe over the next few weeks, but in the near future you're probably going to see a lot of lineup shuffling based off who the Braves are facing. So now I know, there's not a lot of information to go with a lot of this to do. Certainly want to point out that a lot of this is speculative, just talking about you know, the different ripple effects that will come from Michael Harris to second injury. You hope that he's back as soon as possible, and you hope that he's good as new and perhaps from there he'll be able to get going offensively, you know, like we're used to seeing him do that. But in the near future, it's going to be very interesting not only how the Braves juggle their lineup, you know, and juggle their lineup in terms of where the outfielders were hit will hit, but also how they'll juggle the positioning of their outfielders in terms of who plays in the core along with likely Kellnick in center field. So a lot to certainly sort out with the fact that Michael Harrison the second is going on the injured list, but what we do know is that Charlie Morton will be on the mound on Sunday. The Braves will be looking to get their third straight win, their first series win as well, you know, in a week or so. They're looking at a Tomorrow would be a huge win for them if they can get the job done again. It'll be interesting to see how they juggle the lineup as well as the outfield. But you know, Charlie Morton will be ready to give a good performance. And again, if Austin, Riley Medolson and Marcelo Zuna can really build off these last two games and they can start performing that their normal expected levels, the Braves can start to put some needed wins together to really start to once again solidify themselves as being a clear force in the National League moving forward. Ken, thank you enough for joining us here on the Hammer Territory Podcast, part of the Foul Territory network of podcasts. You can find the podcast at Hammer Territory across all forms of social media, myself at stats sac on x slash Tritter. Make sure that you that you listen in On Sunday, Brad Roland and Scott Coleman will be back to recap the series against the Rays as well as the upcoming series against the Tigers. Until next time, go Brase. Thanks for tuning in to the Hammer Territory Podcast. We'll talk to you again soon here on the Hammer Territory Podcast.