Braves Sweep Rockies As Ronald Acuña Jr. Hits The IL

00:00:21
Speaker 1: Hello, everyone, Welcome back to the Hemrit's Territory podcast is episode three seven three. My name is Brad Rowland. It is a Sunday evening here in early May, and I'm joined as I always am on Sunday as in particular by my friend Scott Coleman. Scott I said a week ago that I was uncomfortable with the Brave success. I'm not any more comfortable, but they keep winning games. What's going on?

00:00:43
Speaker 2: Hello, Brad? You know I got a great stat courtesy of the broadcast that if folks missed it, I just wanted to emphasize this one more time. The Atlanta Braves are twenty five and ten through thirty five games. That is the best start in franchise history since the eighteen ninety two Boston Bean Eaters. Did it again one more time, the best start through thirty five games for the franchise through thirty five games, and was that one hundred and thirty some odd years. I mean, just a ridiculous start to the baseball season. You've got guys coming out of the woodworks. I mean, jonah Heim had five RBI on Sunday afternoon. That's the most twenty twenty six Braves thing imaginable. It has been so much fun to watch. They've won games, low scoring, high scoring. It's it's just a good baseball team. Is where we are at as we near the quarter point of the season.

00:01:42
Speaker 1: Absolutely, And you know, if you're just joining us for the first time or maybe the third time ever, we are Hammer territory. We cover the Atlanta Braves all year round. Let's during the season also really actually all year round on this podcast or part of the Phala Tarby Tour network. But I say that because even the most optimistic Brave fan could not have reasonably said twenty five and ten coming out of the gate. Like, no one could have said that. And if they say that now they're probably lying to you. That's fine, and it's gone so well. And I am joking about being uncomfortable. It is what it is. But again, like you go into the weekend thinking, all right, they'll probably beat the Rockies in the series. The Rockies are pretty bad sometimes, but it's at course. Field coursefield does weird things. Today was a very course field game we'll talk about later on in the podcast. And then they go down six to nothing on Friday, and it's all right, I'll probably lose this one, no big deal. Like they're obviously rolling and you look up twenty minutes later and they're leading, and it's like, oh, they're gonna win this game too. This is going crazy. So they sweep the Rockies. They score twenty eight runs in the series. You already gave their best stat, a twenty five and ten stat. They're fifteen and three in the last eighteen games. And look, it's not it's not a huge ample size, but twenty two percent of the season's over, Like you're still stacking these wins. They all count, and it's it's really crazy. They're on pace for almost one hundred and sixty wins right now. That's not what I would project them to do the rest of the way. That'd because because that's like an all time historic pace. But the fact that you've now done that for almost a quarter of the season, that's pretty indicative. To your point, a really good baseball.

00:03:13
Speaker 2: Team, it is. And you know, it's fair to say, I think so far the competition has been average. Like, sure, the Braves have not played a total gauntlet. If they had this record and they had already played the Yankees and the Dodgers and the Padres and you know, some of the better rosters in the game than I think we'd be even more over the moon, but the schedule does get more difficult, especially the next couple of weeks. But you know, across the board, I mean, the Braves have the best run differential by a mile, even with some of the injuries that they're now dealing with, some of the underperformances that they've dealt with. Even though a lot of the roster has been fantastic, there's still room for growth with some of these players. You should be getting healthier in the weeks to come. It's been a lot of fun. And the fact that we are now eleven series in and the Braves are ten to zero in one in those I really wish they would have won one of those weekend games out in Phoenix, because then they'd be eleven to zero in series, which is just remarkable. I believe the Braves have never started a season with eleven series and without having lost one of them. Just another just feather in the cap of this team. And sure there's still a lot of baseball to go. I think the Phillies and the Mets are gonna eventually wake up and try to make a push, but last time I looked, I think the Braves are now seven and a half up in the East. It's just it's really a good feeling in good vibes, even if, as we're going to talk about later in the show, they just lose a Kunya. Michael Harris is dealing with some stuff. There's some questions about the pitching staff overall, though, I mean, twenty five and ten is a remarkable accomplishment.

00:04:44
Speaker 1: One reason we're going to open with all of the accolades is that, yeah, there is some stuff to talk about that's not the most exciting Ronnie's injury. Is that, of course the headliner are beyond the results. But I just checked because I thought you were right, and it's actually eight and a half lead in the division as of this moment on Satday night. So it's crazy the series thing. One more fun big picture stat that I just have to share because our colleague and co host Steven Tolbert pulled this and tweeted about it today. In twenty twenty three, which was famously a very good regular season one hundred plus win team, all time great offense, the Braves had one hundred and eighty eight run scored through thirty five games. That's a lot of runs in thirty five games. This year they have two hundred and five run scored. They have seventeen. They're actually about an extra half run per game than they were in twenty twenty three. And again, that was a team that led the league in home run, sorry, in run scored by a lot, and it was essentially one of the top five conservatively offenses in the history of Major League Baseball. And they're scoring more runs this time around. Now, some of the underlying metrics this year are not quite as dominant as those, so there's all kinds, but no matter what, if you're anywhere on pace, even much less exceeding that offense through a quarter of a season, almost you're doing something right. And as we talked about a lot in this winner, you're pitching questions. If you mash, it covers up a lot and the Braves are essentially mashing almost every night. And I was encapsulated by this weekend when they score it again. You almost thirty runs with three.

00:06:09
Speaker 2: Games, and it really is amazing because it seems like every night somebody knew is stepping up, Like I think the true kind of super constants have been some mix of Matt Wilson, Drake Baldwin, Aussi Albey's is kind of quietly having just an unbelievable season, and then Michael Harris when he's been healthy and in the lineup, has been mashing the last couple of weeks. But you know, I mentioned jonah Heim has five runs driven in. On Sunday, Jorge Mateo had a home run. Like you just come up with these players and it's like, Okay, who's gonna be the unsung hero tonight. It's just it really does speak to the depth of this team. Mauricio Dubon had an awesome game on Saturday night, playing great defense in center field, which of course is not his usual position. He also had a massive three run triple in Friday Night's game. You know, you name it, Like the stars are playing like stars for the most part, but you also have these kind of bench in periphery guys who were just every night man, Like it's like, Okay, who's going to be the hero. It also feels like no matter what the circumstance, or even if Atlanta goes down by a lot early as they did on Friday night, they're never out of a game like you can probably count on one hand the number of games this entire year where they just didn't even make a puncher's chance, like it was just done early in the game, was basically over. There's been a couple of down nights, but for the most part through thirty five games, I mean, just about every night if they don't win, they're right on the cusp of winning absolutely. I mean, Matt Olson is on pace to set the all time record for doubles in a season right now, and he's also top five at home runs, So that's he's been ridiculous in You're right, it's beaking go on and on, but it's been a super fun start this season.

00:07:51
Speaker 1: Scott. We do have to talk about one news thing though. That's a big old news thing. It's Ronicuyan Jr. Before we get to that, though, let's just tease it out. Let's be professionals on this podcast. We'll tease it out. We'll come back to talk about ronalc Quon Junior in a moment after a word from our partners.

00:08:06
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00:08:38
Speaker 1: Okay, Scott. We talked about all the plaudits, all the awesomeness of this team so far, and we will rehash more of that later in the podcast. When we discussed these three weekend victory they just got in Colorado. The one prominent hiccup over the weekend was that Ronald Kuen Junior left the game on Saturday and has been placed on the injured list with a hamstring strain. Weiss revealed on Sunday that it was actually probably good news compared to what we thought it was going to be, maybe not going to possibly could be. It's a Grade one hamstring strain. That's the good kind. You don't want the higher grades, you want the lower grades. And then the direct quote that was passed along I didn't know. I was not there, but it was passed on with multiple reporters. Quote. All things considered, it could have been a lot worse end quote. So I want to I want you to take listeners and viewers behind the curtain. What was your reaction when this happened, and what is your reaction now with twenty four hours and a little bit more information. I thought that we know a little bit more.

00:09:38
Speaker 2: You know, it was really a bummer on Saturday night as the Braves just kind of blow the Rockies out, Chris sales dominating. But I think in the back of every Braves fan's mind it was like, what's wrong with Ronald for a a player who very unfortunately has had kind of chronic knee problems of some kind. But I I think we are all going to breathe a little bit better knowing that it was a Grade one strain for Acunya. It seems like Ronald is going to be fine and back sooner rather than later. I will say that hamstrings are always a little scary because they can nag and reaggravate if you're not careful with it. But Ronald seemed like he was in really good spirits in the dugout on Sunday afternoon. He was messing around. He was filling up Ozzie Alvey's his glove with dirt and sunflower seeds. So he seemed to be doing okay, and goodness gracious that takes around Ronald were just infuriating. I wanted to just like throw my phone across the room because I couldn't take him anymore. I muted everything I could. It's a shame, I promise you. There is nobody on earth who wants to be healthy and on a baseball field more than Ronald Acunya Junior. And it's such a frustrating talking point that his body continues to fail him at varying degrees and look, hamstring strains happen. Like if Ronald was ninety pounds overweight and clearly didn't like care and work out and take care of his body, that'd be one thing. But this guy, he is a physical specimen. He plays year round. Maybe Ronald needs to take a few days off in the offseason. Maybe that's maybe that's a conversation for later on, But it unfortunately happens locally. The takes were flying. Nationally, the takes were flying, and I think you just have to hope that maybe in two or three weeks you have a Kuonia back out there as your lead off hitter and really getting his season underway despite a relatively slow start by his standards.

00:11:31
Speaker 1: I started to and I actually did ask you on Twitter and joking fashion, I started to ask you, just now what the takes were, and now don't I don't want you to say them on the air. Let's just not let's just not acknowledge many of the things that were said. No, no, you're right, And look, I'm with Walt Weiss. Obviously he's insteadive eyed, suspended a little bit. But I think the fact that it was a Grade one, they're coupable saying that that's all good news. It might be a couple, it might be a few weeks, that's not you know, Steven had the same reaction I did. I think Steven and tweeted it and I didn't. But it was like, usually, if you have to leave the game with a with a muscle strain, muscle injury that you can visibly see, it's gonna be a couple of weeks. Not always, but like he's usually something lest they explicitly say it's like precautionary, which they didn't say this time around. It was like everyone saw him limping. It wasn't one of those like he kind of tweaked it a little bit and they just took him out of it. You know, they suffered the injury. We all saw it. I think I'd be back, you know, in a few weeks. That's not not the worst thing in the world. It is not great timing. I mean, they're obviously winning a lot of games, which helps, but there they have a tough stretch coming up at Seattle at the Dodgers' home for the Cubs is their toughest stretch so far of schedule. Michael Harris didn't play again today. He has the quala issue. I don't know if he's going to be able to I don't Maybe you saw this and I didn't hen to play the outfield tomorrow. I don't know the answer to that question. The Chloe don't want them to play the outfield as of today. They started the guy who they called up today, uh, and had Michael come off the bench, and do you know, God bless Maurice Dumont, who could play anywhere you wanted to play. That's a huge factor here. But they are not super deep in the outfield, especially if left handed pitching, where you don't want yass playing, et cetera. And look, Ronnie's not been his absolute dominant self. He's been fine, and if you look out of the hood, the advanced metrics are way better than the results, and even nationally so if people don't believe us with our braves colored glasses. There's been multiple stories written about like the most unlucky hitters in baseball this year, and Ronald's like always at the top of those lists. So I'm not really worried about his performance so far, even though he's not been incredible to date. But you don't want to see a guy hobbling around, and hopefully they can let him get right. For me, maybe it's easier to say this now because they have this cushion of wins. Give him an extra of three days when they think he's ready, Like, I don't want him pushing it at all. Honestly, we don't know what's gonna be yet. They've not given a timeline other than the grade one thing but if it's three weeks instead of two, fine, If it's for for weeks instead of three, fine. I mean, take the long term view with this guy. He's in a contract form multiple seasons. This is a season where you have very large aspect, and that's more important than him playing this the first day he possibly can well.

00:14:05
Speaker 2: And the benefit of being eight and a half games up in your division on May third and ten games ahead of the Phillies and the Mets on May third is that you can be cautious, and the Braves should be. I think the Braves will be over the years. Famously, it was like the Bobby Cox thing where if you feel like you're gonna go today, well you're gonna sit one more day and be back tomorrow. So we'll see how I'm guessing. In the days to come, we'll get more of an update. I was encouraging that Ronald is staying with the team, So that also leads me to think that it's going to be shorter. If they knew it was going to be a long term thing and they're like, well, we need to get him back to Atlanta so he can get better treatment than what he can get on the road. That's encouraging and again, man, he did not look like somebody on the bench on Sunday afternoon who was just like down on his luck and knew it was going to be a long time. It feels like we dodged a bullet here, especially for a player who's had so many knee problems, and I mean last year he had the calf strain and everybody thought he blew out his achilles, and thank goodness, that wasn't the case. It's just it's such a shame that for a special player and just a one of one type of talent that especially his lower body just continues to fail him and has continue to fail him basically his entire career. You just have to hope that at some point he gets a little bit of fortune on the injury side, and let's hope this is kind of the one and only thing he has to deal with this year.

00:15:26
Speaker 1: I did say we wouldn't poke fun at some of the takes. I do have to poke fun without naming anyone at some of the quote unquote reports that were out there about how Ronald Torres amstering and all these things that were on Twitter. Those made me laugh because as someone who actually is a little bit more on the media side of things. It does actually reporting from time to time. You better be right, man, and you're not if you're ford that he was, that he torres hamstering, please log off for the duration of your month or something. No that you know, do you want to talk about jose Is it a zo car? What's the best possible for pronunciation? I tried this today. I try to listen the broadcast, Brandon, you didn't let me know I try. I just you know, it's not a guy I'm familiar with, to be honest with you, not supermic with anyway.

00:16:06
Speaker 2: Yeah, jose A Zokar will go with that. About to be thirty years old, can't really hit, can play a little bit of defense, and can't run the bases a little bit. But you know, I will say this weekend the Braves saw a lot of left handed pitching, which is not optimal right now, especially without Murphy and without Akunya and without Hasan kim So against right handed pitching, I think the lineup is gonna look much better. I know Mike Yastremsky has been off to a very slow start, but hopefully seeing some right handed pitching this upcoming week in Seattle will get him going and he'll be in the lineup for sure. We'll see about Michael Harris. I would hope that Mike against Righty's will be able to either play center field or d H. And unfortunately, kind of the player who has been squeezed off the lineup the better part of the last week with all these varying ailments is Dom Smith. And Dom was awesome as we know the first month, but he just it's been tough to play, and it's really no fault of anybody's. It's just when you have Michael Harris, well, you don't want to lose his bat and you have to d H him. You don't have a Kunya MICUs Chremsky's been very slow out of the gate, So you could really use Dom Smith to kind of balance out your lineup a little bit more from that left side and hopefully one Harris a little bit healthier, and two we can get Don back in there as the DH because you really do feel his impact when he's batting. I mean even like seventh or eighth, I mean he's just been really really good for Dom so far.

00:17:27
Speaker 1: Right he hasn't had he hasn't had a game with more than one played appearance, maybe two play appearances in like ten days. He's spent kind of in in Pinch Hit and Little Duty. And that's it does make sense when you lay it out. I saw I suck up today like where's Dom Smith? And it's like I get why that question is being asked, but you just laid it out like why that would be? I mean, Harris. You could argue baby Doll Smith's a better hit Michael Harris. He probably isn't. And Michael Harris has been great this year, so plus Michael Harris, just the stature is different there, and yeah, it's handedness, all those issues, as we'll talk about later. They're going to face some rieties this week that will be interesting to see. And yeah, I'm with your hundred percent. By the way, A Zocar was over to today and then was replaced as fast as possible. Bye. Yes on the subject. We'll come back to this later on. We'll talk about Snay's game. Everyone made the same joke or with some same version of the joke about how bad today's lineup looked on paper and how it was like, how is this the lineup of a twenty four and ten team and then score eleven runs. Great, it was a course field, but it's just one of those things that's funny about baseball.

00:18:23
Speaker 2: Yep, yeah, very unbrand. We should have known it was coming. And man Coorusfield, what a park. That place is coreat. I don't know if I could watch if I was a Rockies fan or just a baseball fan who watched a lot of Rockies games. I don't know if I could watch eighty one games in that park. Not only does the ball carry, but there's just so much room in that outfield for the ball to find some grass. It's just and we'll talk about the pitching and Spencer Strider and all that, but it's tough to pitch, it's tough to hit, or it's hard to field because there's so much room to cover. It's just, man, I don't know. Well, we will hope for the best with the lineup here and hopefully without Acunya. The lineup's gonna be okay all things considered. And I mean on Sunday you drop eleven runs. It's been more good than not, far more times than it has been.

00:19:13
Speaker 1: Yeah, that is the sneaky part always about course field is that it's yeah, the home runs are there, but there's a reason why bad bit is like through the roof at Course Field, because it's a massive, massive park and like so many doubles, even so many singles, stuff falls in there. And at least it's not just home runs. I know, the home runs get the lead treatment when it comes to all the run scoring course, but it's not just that, I promise you. With that in mind, let's go back to Friday, talk about the comeback win, the one that was probably the most dramatic of the victories this weekend. The Braves, has noted earlier, briefly, were down six to nothing in the second ending of their first game in Colorado. And you know, no one, no one should have been panicking, as they were playing really well at that point time, but they were in trouble and I'd have read the game off. But I certainly assume they were gonna lose. I don't know about you. I mean, we could be honest about it on this podcast. It was like, all right, they're probably lose, no big deal, but they came back. Now we should talking about Grant Holmes real quick. First, before the positive stuff. Grant Holmes was not particularly good on Friday. Now, I will say, I'll be the positive guy and I'll let you tee off if you want to. Scott Holmes did a good job getting them through like three more innings when it was clear he didn't really have his best stuff, and he saved the bullpen. That's the only thing I'd say about Grant Holmes start on Friday is that he didn't leave the game in the second eddy. Other than that, it was not great. And in general this season, gren Holmes, who we've we like, I think generally on the podcast, has not He's been one of those things, one of the smallest of things that's not gone very well this year.

00:20:41
Speaker 2: Yeah, it does not look great for Grant right now through the first six weeks of the season. A four to three four ERA is not terrible. But his underlying stuff like his FIP and x FIP are upper fours, low fives. And the problem for Holmes right now is that his strikeouts are way down. Now we know that Grant when he's really humming that slider, it's a big swing and mispitch and he gets strikeouts on it. That's not been the case this year, and I mean it's a miracle. So within within seven batters it was five to nothing. On Friday night, Grant was getting hit hard and then he gave up a solo homer in the second inning and it was six nothing, and it was like, Okay, maybe the Braves are just due for one of these nights where they just are out of it. But again, thankful for Course Field, Thankful for Jose Kintana, who's been pitching for like fifty years at this point in the majors. Just I don't know if I think ideally Grant Holmes is more of like a bullpen weapon, a hybrid option something like that. But clearly, with the way the rotation has gone so far, it feels like Holmes is going to be in that back end of the rotation and you just have to hope that he figures some things out and gets back to getting a few more swing and miss and strikeouts, because that's really what he needs to get back on track.

00:21:57
Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree. I think Holmes is not someone who I bet we've ever thought was like some dominant pitcher, and he there's a reason why Alex is very open, very up up front in the way he's not always about how Holmes would have been the guy that lost the rotation spot if they had added some big arm this winter. He was very open about that, and Holmes might be in the bullpen by the end of the season. That would not surprise anybody right now. Right now, it's Lopez for velocity reasons and all those things, but Holmes has been like a fifth starter level guy so far, not getting you absolutely teed off every night, but not someone you're like loving to see pitch. I got a little bit distracted, Scott. I gotta say, because you brought up hoose Katana and if you are an old head, you might remember that there was a Hosei Katana trade cycle with the Braves in twenty seventeen that involved Ozzy Alby's. Can you can you imagine if they had traded Azy Alby's for Rosey Quintana that almost happened.

00:22:42
Speaker 2: That would have been a, to put it lightly, very very bad trade. I think was. I think Jeff Passing had like a big, like full on report that the White Sox were pushing for Kintana and the Braves were kind of getting closer to contention. Thank goodness. Sometimes the best trades you make are the ones you don't make because that would have been not good.

00:23:02
Speaker 1: I'm just showing my age. And also this is the second straight week when we've done that. We've talked about Aaron Nola in the non Aaron Nola contract on last Sunday night show Today's Latana. You never know what you're gonna go done this podcast. I gotta say a lot of heroes on Friday, Grenholmes not one of them, but a massive basis clearing triple from Maritio Dubon to take the lead or maybe I know it's not sorry to get back within six y five in the eighth Dubon of course, I mentioned, you know, I talked, I talked about how cold Dubon had been and look immediately he was awesome again. So I guess I was wrong. I was right at the time. But hey, Marrisha was like, no, no, no, I will not cool off. I will have a massive triple. By the way, with two strikes, and our guy sejnick Nikowski bro broke it down on Twitter about how that was just a great play appearance too, like just protecting yourself down, you know, down oh two and I think he got into two two by the end and Strokes the triple and suddenly it's a different game.

00:23:53
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that Dubon is a professional hitter in the sense that he did He did exactly that he shortened up with two strikes. The ball was coming in at like ninety nine miles an hour, so all you got to do is get a little bit of the barrel on the ball and it's gonna carry. Really an impressive at bat. And then also credit to Austin Riley, and it was a mixed week for Austin is probably the way I will describe it. We'll dig into Austin Riley here in a minute, but you know, credit to Riley. It was an O two pitch. The Braves had just made it six to five, and it was like, oh, man, if Riley strikes out here, they're still gonna be trailing. But Riley takes a it was like a slider almost off the plate that he poked your right field. I was almost surprised. I thought the right fielder in the moment might let it drop and see if it would go foul. But of course that's really hard to do in the moment. But Dubon came in to score. It was really a great moment. To tie things up six to six and just kind of goes back to what we talked about off the top, where even if this team goes down early, they're gonna fight you. They're gonna try to scrap and claw their way back into it. And to come all the way back from six to zero early when it looked like it was gonna be kind of a lost game. And also credit to the pitching staff where even though Holmes was just awful early, Grant and the bullpen kind of pieced it together and kept it at six, which is really hard to do in Quordsfield.

00:25:08
Speaker 3: Yeah.

00:25:09
Speaker 1: Absolutely, And you know, the big the hero of the game, the guy all the headlines with Michael Harris who hit the pinch, the pinch hit to run home run and the ninth to win it. Obviously, that's the biggest swing of the game. You win the game on a home run essentially, that's going to get the attention. And by the way, he was fired up, I mean, Michael Harris was going nuts, and you know, with good reap, with good reason, but coming off the bench cold, you're kind of nine hundred percent great swing. But we wanted to make sure we at least shout it out Dubon and Riley in particular, because those were huge, huge play appearances that made the Harris home run matter. Like that's a probably two simplfied way of saying it, but you did your points has got double play as well. If there was, there were all kinds of heroes along the way, and you kind of have to have that when you're about six nothing. You want to avoid that deficit if you play if you possibly can, but uh, everything kind of has to go right from that point forward. And that basically is what happened.

00:25:58
Speaker 2: You said it a minute ago. That was the most animated and fired up I've ever seen Michael Harris. I mean he was yelling as he ran around the bases and just such a cool moment too. And I wanted to just give a quick shout out to all of the West Coast Braves fans who were at Coursefield. There were so many Braves fans down the third baseline for Harris's home run. It sounded really loud. When Austin Riley hit that home run on Saturday night, it sounded like a mini home game for the Braves. So credit to all the fans in Coursefield who made their presence felt and just a really really cool moment for Mike. He has had kind of a clutch gene throughout his entire career. Even when he's struggling, it still feels like Mike is good for a big hit when the team really needs it, and really just an exclamation point on a big time comeback. And then of course Robert Swarez comes in and shuts everything down in the ninth inning. Was just man, just a really fun game. And we've said it before on the show, but we didn't have these games a year ago. We didn't really have these games for the better part of twenty twenty four, like the last twenty four months for the Braves have not been a ton of fun and continue to find a way to win. It's just really exciting and really encouraging moving forward.

00:27:07
Speaker 1: I agree strongly, and we will talk about two more victories on Saturday and Sunday and just some moments after I work my partners on today's show.

00:27:15
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00:28:18
Speaker 1: You might imagine over the course of a weekend sweep, the odds are if you're going to do that, you'll have one breezy win. And that happened on Saturday. Saturday is pretty breezy nine to one final. There was the lead story which is run on a Cooney's injury as discussed. Aside from that though, it was pretty much all great. Drake Balwin was ridiculous on Saturday. He drove in four of the first five runs and with a triple away from the cycle after exactly four innings. He was unconscious to begin the game. That's pretty good. And from there it was like, hey, Chris Sale has run support and we can all go home.

00:28:51
Speaker 2: It was two starts in a row for Sale that the Braves gave him a big time early lead, and it was pretty much cruise control from that point on. And you know, quietly, it's funny. As good as Drake Baldwin has been, he actually was, by like his lofty standards, in a little bit of a mini slump coming into Saturday night. I took a look because I'm like, man, Drake hasn't had a great last week. He only had a sixty one WRC plus over the ten days coming into Saturday night, and guess what, he almost has a cycle by the fourth inning. Just such a special player, just hits the hell out of the baseball every time he goes up there the power has been great, he's been working the counts, he's been getting on base. Just cannot say enough. And I mean, what a what a player development win for the Atlanta Braves to take a catcher who was taken near the top of the draft, but you know, not a first round pick, not I it was a third rounder.

00:29:44
Speaker 1: I believe.

00:29:45
Speaker 2: For Drake to be this good, this fast is just so impressive and a testament to the Braves developing him and Drake working at it to become such a good I mean, arguably the best catcher in the National League already.

00:29:58
Speaker 1: Right, we are quite spoiled by the Braves catching situation and have been for multiple decades at this point. It's like hard to make one of our one of our pillar points on this podcast is that the baseline at catcher is really bad around baseball because it actually is especial at the plate. But it's hard to say that to Braves fans, Braise fans, only no good catching situations, right, And Drake's been so good that he's kind of covered up for Joe to him so far. And you know, the idea was to have Drake and Sewan Murphy, which we hopefully be happening as soon as tomorrow. But Balwin's been incredible and you're right he had cool off someome, but he was awesome in this game. Austin Riley had a two run home run against a nine eight min hour of fastball on Saturday. That was probably the most encouraging swing from him in a long time. I think I can't remember what exactly why you said it earlier, but it's it was kind of a hit and miss weekend. I was all ready to jump on it being super encouraging, and then he kind of kind of a rough day on Sunday, but you know, he still had I think four hits this weekend, had the home run, had a big swing today. That cuts a rally going. We don't have to do the daily or hourly Austin rally check in because it's still he's not played great. But there were enough signs where we got to people like asking us even like, hey, what's going with Riley? Is it fixed? Like it's like, no, it's I wouldn't say it's fixed. Maybe you will, Scott, but I just want to check in because he had a better weekend than he had been before.

00:31:21
Speaker 2: I think it was baby steps in the right direction for Austin, and especially on the home run. It was a ninety eight mile an hour fastball from Chase Dolander, and Riley crushed the ball. I mean, the entire ballpark new within a millisecond that ball was out. I'm really good to see. And Austin's been pretty good against lefties, even though his numbers are down overall, but against righty's he has been abysmal, so that was a really good sign. Of course. He followed it up on Sunday had two pretty ugly swinging strikeouts against Kyle Freeland, but then in a midst of a rally in the middle innings, hit the ball really well down the third base line, bounced off the bag. If it doesn't hit the bag, I think it probably rolls all the way into the corner and probably clears the basis. So I think it was encouraging. Still a ways to go for Austin to kind of figure this thing out, but I thought of sometimes a weekending Corse field is good for the soul, and I mean, frankly, it's good for just about everybody, and hopefully especially without a kunya. If there was ever a time for Austin Riley to really step up and kind of carry things offensively. It would be in the next ten plus days while the team isn't going to have their star leadoff man at the top right.

00:32:28
Speaker 1: And I know a lot of people have always whenever we talk about Riley and is somewhat negative light, there is a crowd that will always say, well, he's streaky, he'll get hot. It's like, well, yes, that's true, he is streaky. He hasn't gotten hot for a while. But it's also in the back of your mind, like, all right, maybe one day he'll flip the switch and I'll have one of those months where he just dominates, and that'd be fun. I'd love to see it. I don't know if it's gonna happen, but maybe maybe something this weekend will have found it for Austin Riley. Two quick run prevention notes from a nine to one win, because getting up one run in course field is always goods was the biggest part of that seven innings one run, only lots of guys to reach base struck on eleven. That's a lot of strikeouts. In fact, it was the most for him in almost a calendar year for a good pitcher. Obviously, and he had twenty swings and misses. Chris Saleen even coursefield, it's like there was one I feel it's this is anecdotal. I think there's one inning every time Chris Dale pitches right now where it's like it's a little hairy, yeah, and then he figures it out. He might give up one run and it's like completely nails the rest of the game. And that's how it was on Saturday.

00:33:28
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a good call. It does feel like for maybe a stretch of like fifteen pitches, Chris kind of loses command and loses the zone. But then more times than not he's been able to work out of it. You mentioned twenty whiffs and seven innings. I mean, the Rockies were pretty helpless up there. Really couldn't get much of anything going. The expected batting average was low for Colorado. So really good to see Chris. He is just when he goes on the mound, especially the way this team is scoring runs. I mean, you feel so good about the braves chances that night, and his next stroke's going to be against the Dodgers in Dodger Stadium, which is a whole different animal. But you just have to hope that he's able to keep building off it, and I mean he looks every bit as good as he did when he won the Cy Young a couple of years ago, and even last year before the rib injury kind of derailed his season. Sale has been so electric. Seems like he's really figured some things out too, and hopefully he's able to hone in that command a little bit more and avoid the potential blow up, because we have seen that in most of his starts this year.

00:34:27
Speaker 1: Yep. I mean you look up and at seven starts two point one four ERA on his way to a five win season. Ho home, He's just been ridiculous, as he always is.

00:34:38
Speaker 2: What a trade like? It's funny. I was flipping over the weekend. I was flipping and the Mets are playing the Angels and up comes von Grissom, who I think began the year in the minor leagues and was called I mean, what a trade? That is a once every five years, once a decade type of heist to trade von Grissom who was like a fringe big leaguer who has not been able to catch on for a cy Young winner, and they paid Chris Sale salary when he won the cy young and when he's been healthy since that trade, he's been as good as literally anybody. He's up there with schemes and scooball and it's just what a trade.

00:35:13
Speaker 1: I It's one of those deals where I'm so glad because there's evidence of us on the internet. Scott, I'm so glad. We liked that trade in real time. We praised it when it happened. If we hadn't, we would look really dumb because it was it was one of those, like all time great deals, and you don't want to be on the wrong side of that. I'm wrong a lot. We were not wrong about that one at least, but you know, Von gris Man's a huge fans and I got it. I mean, he wasn't like we weren't super high on me wrong gris as a podcast, I would say, but he was a real prospect who had real value and people were mad that he got traded, and I got it. But Chris Sale is even now, it's like, hey, when he's healthy, he's just he's always been good and he's still knock on wood, knocking on all the not any wood you can find around you about his health. But he's so much fun to watch.

00:35:58
Speaker 2: Yeah, He's just it's fun too. Even when Sale has the little mini blow up and loses his command, you can see him get like visibly angry at himself. Like in Anaheim he was hitting himself in the head with the baseball, which is basically his only bad start of the entire year, and you just see him get frustrated, and then more times than not, he strikes out a couple batters to get out of it, and you can just see him. He's just a maniac in like the most complimentary way possible. He's just an absolute maniac out there and just so good. I hope he has another few years in him after this season, because even though he is getting up there in age, I mean, it has not slowed him down in the least.

00:36:35
Speaker 1: Agreed. And before we moved to Sunda, Eggs gon to be a very long podcast, Marisa Dubon had this nice catch in center field where he ran into the wall and man, I it didn't really appropriately hit me in the moment. How lucky everyone got that he didn't get hurt. Yeah, because of that was post Acunya. He already left the game, Harris. Still we don't know, man, they have to have Dubon, so that was He's okay, But that was I was not as scared as probably should have been in that moment. I gotta say after the fact.

00:37:05
Speaker 2: You know, it's funny. Right after Dubon made the catch, the cameras went to Walt Weiss and the dugout, and you could tell, even if Walt was trying to like mask it, you could tell the I mean it was like when like you have a young child and they fall down at the playground and it's a parent, It's like, oh my god, is my kid hurt? That was the last thing. Thank goodness, Dubon did not get hurt, because that would be the last thing this team would need. Just a I mean, all out balls to the wall catch. He left his EyeBlack. I know there was some conversation about was it EyeBlack that was left on the fence or was it something previously Regardless, just a remarkable catch from Dubon, and I mean, again, what a great addition he has been to this team.

00:37:46
Speaker 1: For sure, we're gonna do the short version of the Sunday game because it was a very very coarse field baseball game. Final score eleven to six, It was back and forth throughout the Brazen was at different points of this game. They scored a lot of runs. The offense was absolutely delightful. Eleven runs, fourteen hits, six walks, just scoring in bunches. That's the positive. They won the game. Also, obviously we live with that. That's all that matters. We should talk about special Strider. It's probably the main topic, even in a win, in a runaway win, it's probably the biggest as far as importance is concerned. It's probably the number one topic of this game. He did not look great. It was his first outing this season after several rehab outings coming off of the injury. We did talk about like how it was an interesting choice for him to start at course, and I don't want to put it all on that, but I do also want to just note that for the record that I'm a little bit interested to see what he looks like in a non moon environment. I say all that because it wasn't very good today. What did you think?

00:38:53
Speaker 2: So we'll say it's one start. There's going to be more starts. We're going to have more opportunities to see Strider. And very clearly after the game, Spencer was frustrated and annoyed with himself and had some pretty blunt comments about I'm paid a ridiculous amount of money and i am not here to not be able to work deep into a game and just be I mean, he was really down on himself in the postgame. If folks want to look at those comments, it was not good to be blunket three in the third innings. He needed eighty seven pitches to record ten outs, gave up four hits, three runs, five walks. The only thing that you can kind of point to is encouraging is Spencer did get six strikeouts in those so six of his ten outs were strikeouts. But I mean, I don't think Spencer had any idea where the ball was going when it was coming out of his hands. He was missing armside with the fastball, and a lot of the breaking stuff was down in the dirt. It just was not encouraging. I did. We talked about it a week ago on the show, how challenging it can be for some pitchers to pitch in course field, with the altitude and the way the ball moves differently and all of that. It was an interesting choice to have him come back in course, but Spencer's next start is going to be at Dodger Stadium next weekend. That is a massive, massive challenge on the horizon, and hopefully he's able to, I mean, at the very least just throw more strikes, because obviously, if he's not able to get out of the fourth inning because he just cannot find his own that's.

00:40:21
Speaker 3: A real problem.

00:40:23
Speaker 1: One of the reasons I don't I'm not gonna be have a pass and neither is Hee. I'm glad you point that point of that out, because he was not happy, and nor would he be. Is a very competitive guy. He says things that are very blunts, and I appreciate that about him. Honestly, I really enjoy him. One reason I'm not as worries I might be normally is that it wasn't cores and there. It's just dust things to your command. Sometimes it's just an odd place to pitch. The air is different, you're the way your pitches break is different in course, but there's math behind it. It's not just like anecdotal stuff. And he did. He did get fourteen whiffs and three hun third endings. That's a lot of swings and misses, so like it was like his stuff was terrible. It was most mostly location. He's not firming the star as he used to. He may never I think he probably won't ever, to be honest with you at this point, but I think he can get He has enough stuff to get out. I think it's just that he can't locate the weight of today and everyone knows it. So it's one outing and we'll all obviously all monitor it very closely. It's a show out with the daughters anyway, It's all gonna be high profile. But that's probably the biggest thing from the game is that he was not himself and the Braves fortunately scored their way out of it with eleven runs.

00:41:29
Speaker 2: I have one more sad note as we are maybe the negative segment of this podcast, How Cooked is Aaron Bummer?

00:41:37
Speaker 1: I wanted to get to it. I mean we did last time you and I talked to and think we did kind of say I think it might be over. I think it got clipped by our social team at File Territory and people were yelling at me and I was like, well, I was the Aaron Bumber guy and I acknowledge that on that show, like he was good. I mean, there's data behind it. He is not good now, like things that the situation has changed his stuff way worse. I don't know if he's hurt. Maybe he is, and maybe that's the reason why. But I think if he was not making nine and a half million dollars, he would have been defaded by now, would be my guess.

00:42:10
Speaker 2: So yeah, it's not good. And you know, Bummer, he's not even getting lefties out if he was just getting obliterated by right handed batters. But good against lefties. You can work around that, you can find a way. But he's given up a couple of homers the lefties already. The stuff is bad. He can't throw strikes, and when he does throw strikes, he's getting it hard. I do think there's a chance Bummer might go to the injured list, whether real or not, because clearly what he's doing right now is not great. But it's just man, Aaron Bummer cooked. I joked earlier in the week that if if he was a steak on a hot grill for about three hours, they would be less cooked than what Aaron Bummer is right now. Because there's nothing in his profile that makes me think he's going to turn this around.

00:42:54
Speaker 1: His first season in Atlanta, when I was particularly passionate that he was much better than Braves. Fans were telling me that he was. He had a twenty eight point three percent strikeout rate that year. He was missing bats, stuff was lively. He had some bad luck on ground balls. He's a grand ball pitcher. I get all that. This year, he is always coming into today. I think I might have got worse after today. He is striking out sixteen point seven percent of the batters. That is probably the easiest indication of why things have different are different for Aaron Bumbers. So anyway, maybe though maybe he's maybe he is hurt. I don't know. But if he's not hurt, that's more of a problem because that means he's probably just done. So we'll see quickly. On the offensive front, I think you knowed it quickly earlier. Jonaheim had five barbi. Today he had a home run. It's of course fielding get that. But it was very funny to me, without being mean to Joonaheim, that he literally had his best game as a Brave on the day that charmer if he's supposed to come back, which is tomorrow, basically, yeah, I don't know.

00:43:48
Speaker 2: I don't know.

00:43:49
Speaker 1: That means anything. They were all the jokes were obvious, like oh, now he wants to try, Like gosh, he's been trying the whole time. He's been trying the whole time. I probably she's been trying the whole time. It's just funny that he lighted up for a good day today.

00:44:00
Speaker 2: We won't do a super deep conversation on who is going to leave the roster for Sean Murphy this week because as people are listening and watching to the show, they might already know. But I do think they're going to keep Jonaheim around, at least for now. I would imagine that Kyle Farmer is probably going to get the boot. They could bail on one of their outfielders. They have a lot of outfielders on this roster if they want to. But regardless, I think Jonaheim knew. He's like, I'm not giving my job back. I'm not ready to go be a free agent or get claimed by some team, because I do think if the Braves put Jonaheim through waivers, I think another team would probably claim him. He makes very little money. He's a respected veteran. He does good work with the pitching staff behind the scenes, it may come to a point where the Braves don't have any other option and they have to let go of him. But if I had to bet five bucks, I think he's going to at least survive this round of roster churning.

00:44:58
Speaker 3: Whenever Murphy's ready to go.

00:45:02
Speaker 1: Okay, Scott, let's talk about the non game stuff from this weekend. We already mentioned. John Murphy's going to come back on Monday. By all accounts, that'll be a welcome return. I know he's not always the most popular player with the Brave with Braves fans, but he is better than Jonah him, I can give you that at the very least. And uh also kind of ironic. He's come back against a bunch of righty's, he's most useful against left tanded pitching, and he's facing a much of rise this week. So I mean he can come back on two on Monday and not play. That's the same uch Sewn Murphy is like Drake. Paul Win's the guy he didn't play today. Drake's gonna catch tomorrow. I would I would assume are they gonna date Sean Murphy? I don't know. I guess de'iighty, I have no idea what they're gonna do. But he could be activated without playing. Welcome back Sean Murphy. Not much more to add. He's he's starting to look better as his rehab signment progressed. That's normal. I am a believer. I might be wrong. I'm a believer that the healthy version of Sean Murphy is still good. We'll see if that's correct. We'll see if that's correct, but that's that is my general belief. We'll find out.

00:45:59
Speaker 2: Yeah, I am too. And you know, especially without Acunya and with Michael Harris and his injured quad, know, the lineup is really going to be a little interesting to see when it comes out every single day. It's like, how is Walt White's gonna puzzle this out? Because sure, I think you are going to see a fair amount of either Murphy or Baldwin catching and the other one serving as the DH. But if Michael Harris can't play center field but he feels well enough to hit, well, you don't want to lose Mike's bat. If Michael Harris can go to center field, do you play Dom Smith as your DH, because he of course has been really good, especially against right handed pitching. I think against lefties, We're going to see a lot of Sean Murphy. I think almost guaranteed when the Braves see a left handed pitcher, I think Murph is going to be in there at either catcher or DH just about every single day. And you know what, I think we know at this point Murph he's a power first guy. He can absolutely run into a fastball and turn a game around. You know, he can hit a two or three run homer at any given point. And hopefully now that he has this hip surgery behind him, there was some encouraging signs at the back end of it is rehab with Gwinnette that we get Murph back and he's able to be. Obviously, offensively, I think everyone's gonna watch and see how Murph does. But defensively, there's no denying that he is an elite defensive catcher and does great work with the pitching staff.

00:47:14
Speaker 1: Ryan, he'll be the first pinch hitter against lefty in a big spot if he's not playing to like he's probably gonna get that role once he's back. But I'm with you. I mean, if you're trying to win the game on Monday, I remember have Don Smith and there as DH to John Murphy, I guess ariety, So I mean it's one game. I don't really care either way what they do there, but I think if it matter, if you're just trying to optimize that particular day's lineup, Dona Smith agains d'riety is better than Jehan Murphy. And I say that as the Sean Murphy guy. So there's that elsewhere on the injury front, wal Wise said on Sunday, as in today, the wrestle aglesis is going to be on track to be activated on Tuesday, which is the early wace. He can come back. Great news. There nothing else to add. Great news there, yes, great news. And then it also frees up Robert Suarez, who has been great in that ninth inning role, as we kind of suspected. It frees up Suarez to pitch the seventh or the eighth. It puts less pressure on everybody else because everybody else gets to move down a wrung in that bullpen. The bullpen has been really, really good, at least the top half. It's funny like you have this, it's almost like stars and scrubs in the bullpen right now. But if the Braves have been able to have a lead, they've been able to give the ball to the better half of that bullpen, and hopefully with the Glaciers coming back, I think Dylan Dodd is eligible to come back from the injured list at the end of the week. The bullpen should look better now than what it has the last couple of games. It is funny that you mentioned the bullpen because there's been a lot of turnover and a lot of bad moments from guys that you don't love, like for instance, they DFA Jose Suarez and you all pi umps on Friday morning and their replacements on the roster that day are both back in Gwinett already, Like they're rotating guys. What does this in the bullpen right now for? Because they need them down there. To be honest with you, Rinaldo has been hit and miss, like it's been effective as far as it runs or run freshians concerned, but he does not look great to me, so the end of the bullpen, like the top guys are great, the not top guys have been kind of a revolving door and we'll see. But you're right, I mean having a Glaciers back and honestly getting dog back like Dylan DoD is better than him. Mumber Like, I'm very confident about that. So if you need a second lefty, that's that's the guy you want to go to. Dylan Lee had to warm up because he had pished a while, but he warmed up and like did he come in when they were up like six? It was one of those like why is he why is there only coming in the game because and I thought about it more is like, oh they really have anybody to put in? He has a pitchion a while. I get it's one of those like he needs to work things. But it's been a little bit of an adventure in the bullpen. But you're also correct to say it it's been good on the whole. And that's with again. Suarez is now a member of the Mari Nurse Piumps, got guaranteed money and has already been DFAD. So that didn't go well, but maybe I'll come back and find it.

00:49:51
Speaker 2: Who knows, Yeah, no more Jose Suarez. So we will pour one out for our your guy left handed, Yeah, our left handed mop up duty guy who somehow found himself in important games all the time. And then Piomps, as we kind of suspected I mean, I would have loved if some team would have taken the two and a quarter million dollars that he has owed this year. Unfortunately, there were no takers. Not a huge surprise. So Piomps is back in Gwinnett. Hopefully he can work on some things. You know, a few years ago he was really good, but it's been a while since he's been effective. Probably for the best though that Piomps in particular is no longer with the big league bullpen, and I just I think we had seen enough of Suarez. It was like, yeah, he's probably gonna get claimed because he is a decently live arm owed very little money, and of course Seattle liked him and saw enough to put the claim in.

00:50:39
Speaker 1: There's a joke to be made about Suarez being on all those lists of starting pitching candidates that we saw all winter long that didn't go very well, But that's okay. Last thing on the end on the news front, injury front, Hassan Kim still going on the rehab assignment a week at least away. No surprise there. We talked about that this last week like it wasn't going to be a quick process. He had no spring training, Like yeah, no reason to hurry him at all. So we'll see. But it's crazy that Dubon is playing the playing the outfield right now and Kim is still like They're like, we're fine, everything's fine, you know, just just Shaston Matteo doing his job as the backup utility guy and take your time on a song. But the best version of this team still on Kim on it.

00:51:18
Speaker 3: So we'll see.

00:51:19
Speaker 2: Yeah, I would imagine the Braves have another week on the West Coast, but then they're home for a while. I would imagine that's when we will see Kim make his season debut with the Braves, And as we've seen over this weekend, we know Dubon can play all over the diamond. When you get Kim back, it really does free up Dubon to play basically anywhere you need him to be, and that's we're all going to be optimistic and hopeful that Kim is able to come in and make an impacted shortstop. But as we have been eagerly looking forward to, it will also allow Dubon to become a true super utility weapon and kind of wherever he best fits that night, I think Dubon is going to continue to be in the line up more times than not, and.

00:51:56
Speaker 1: I would imagine as long as Ronnie is out, he'll be in the outfield probably every night somewhere, and that's probably what should happen given their state of the roster. I think Mateo, they're fine with. He's not some great player, but he can be there at shortstop and they could play do Bond in the outfield and feel pretty good about it, especially if Parris can't play centerfield. Just yet, let us prety quickly the series to come before we get out of here. They're going to Seattle, look like they're probably already there now. We're close to it as a record of this podcast in the evening, but three Gamer in Seattle Monday and Tuesday are both nine forty pm Eastern times. Starts little Scott Coleman special this week. I think four games starting after nine o'clock. If you don't like to sleep like I don't, you'll be fine. If you are an early riser, maybe you'll be catching up with us in the mornings on the podcast. But Scott loves these games because scotts in Arizona.

00:52:44
Speaker 2: That's right West Coast games, and you know, I know, I know most of our listeners. A lot of our listeners are probably East coast. You're central and not loving baseball games that end after midnight. But I believe after this trip, the Braves only have one more West Coast road trip left in them when they come and play the Padres and the Giants, and I think that's at the end of June, so the Super Late Games will be Yeah, another few weeks and we'll be mostly done with the West Coast trips. But you know, Seattle an interesting team. Of course, they had a great year last year, but they've been pretty rough. They got swept this weekend at home by the Kansas City Royals. There are a few games below five hundred, although their run differential is not bad, and I think ultimately Seattle's going to figure it out. They have a really good pitching staff, but offensively they've really struggled, and a big part of that is cal Rally, who is of course just otherworldly a year ago. Not only is col Rally off to a slow start, but he's also a little banged up right now, and I don't know if he's going to play at least on Monday and Tuesday. Maybe he gets in there later in the week. But Rally's dealing with side soreness, which sounds like obleaque soreness to me. And if there's any concern with Rally, I think Seattle's going to be careful. So sure a don't have a Kunya, they don't have Michael Harris healthy. But if if the Mariners don't have Rally healthy, that that kind of balances things out.

00:54:07
Speaker 1: I agree, and it's I would encourage people to not view Seattle as the team of their record, like you got into it, but this is this is a ninety went projected team, like this is a good team on paper. I think they're better than they've been so far. Take Rawley out, though that's a different, different team. For sure, He's definitely the centerpiece of their offense. This is a good pitching staff, though there might this is not this is not course field. This is there might be some three to two games this week, maybe not, but that's a good pitching staff that Braves will face Logan Gilbert, George Kirby, and Brian wu all of whom are good on a Tuesday Wednesday. A lot of good pictuers on the other side, hopefully for the Braves, ticking face with Jose Jose Suarez at some point in the series, we would go full circle. Yeah, I'm just saying that would be possible. He's he's currently a Mariner, so we might see him.

00:54:53
Speaker 2: Watch Jose Swarz come in and just mow the boys down for three innings just like straight.

00:54:58
Speaker 1: That would not surprise me at all. But no, I think for me without sale, and this is sales off pitching. In the series, the pitching matchups kind of lean to Seattle to be honest as far as like overall quality. The offense, of course, leads to the Braves very heavily. So do you or choice? But oh, Jamed, Richie, this is also going to be a story you probably hear one hundred times on Monday night on the broadcast, and it should be Richie's from Seattle, so that's going to be a huge talking point and with and with the reason.

00:55:27
Speaker 2: Yeah, Richie, his high school is like forty five minutes away from downtown Seattle where the Mariners play, So I'm sure Jr. Is going to have a million people in the stands for him. Hopefully he's able to build off these first two starts and throw the ball well in front of his hometown fans Bryce Elder on Tuesday night, and we know that Bryce has just been a revelation in this rotation. Well, there's a pretty good Seattle lineup and then Grant Holmes. We need Grant to figure some things out. That is an afternoon game, a late afternoon game on Wednesday, and then a day off on Thursday before a massive series against the Dodgers. So I think I think what you said is right. I think it's fair. I think you lean the pitching side, at least the starting pitching side, uh for Seattle. But let's keep the bats rolling. They had a great week, scoring big time runs, and I think it's uh, it's always going to be interesting, especially with all the injuries this team has right now on offense, it's like, Okay, who's leading off, who's batting sixth? It's uh, it's it's gonna be a little bit of touch and go until we can get healthier.

00:56:28
Speaker 1: All three of the Murder starters this week have made the All Star team before, so that tells you a little bit about them. Brian, I just checked this to make sure I wasn't crazy. Brian Wu, who is probably the least known of the three, was awesome last year and has a era of like three point one over the last three seasons combined. Like, these guys are good. They're not utterly dominant, They're not you know, they're not Chris Sale, but these are three quite stars the Bresert Facing. So we'll see how this goes. And I've encouraged Stamp late watching baseball. It's gonna be it's gonna be fun to kind of dig into the series. And as we kind of go full circle here, the schedule is getting more difficult. The big ones coming the next one after this, which is the Dodgers series. That's the one everyone's gonna circle with good reasoning, is it Dodgers. I want to be sarcastic right now, Scott and say the Braves are gonna sweep the Mariners and then they're gonna lose at least two or three in LA and people are gonna act like they're the worst team in the world. They be honest.

00:57:21
Speaker 2: Looking forward to that already, you can make a real case. The next ten days are arguably the toughest ten days the Braves have on their schedule this year. It's a challenge and they're not healthy for it, which is a bummer, but that's when you start out twenty five and ten. You've built in some cushion, and who's to say. Maybe the Braves do keep rolling. You know, Seattle, You're kind of getting Seattle at a good time. Hopefully you can take the series against Seattle, and then in La is going to be a real challenge. But the Dodgers have also cooled down a bit. The offense has gone a little bit quiet. So let's finish up this West Coast road trip on a winning note. Six big games on the horizon. It is nice to get the off day on Thursday, but yeah, the competition is certainly increasing in the very near few true.

00:58:01
Speaker 1: I think, according to a quick check just now of the betting market, Monday's game might be the biggest underdog that Braves have been in the game this year. If I am with my recollection intact, I'm saying might because I don't want to say it's not definitively correct, But the Braves are a sizeable underdog right now in the betting market for Monday with Richie, and I get it. People don't know who Richie is aside from Atlanta. He's a prospect, He's a good prospect. I like him quite a bit, but him on the road against the quality starter is a on paper, not great matchup. But I think Richie's gonna be good and we'll see. So I am once again looking forward to watching this team. By Baseball, It's been a lot of fun so far through a month plus. You cannot overstate the absurdity in the good way of twenty five and ten. You do that all the time. There's there's there's parties to be had at the end of the season. So if they lose a game or two in Seattle, I promise you no panic is necessary. Same in Los Angeles this weekend. If there is a beauty to being twenty twenty five and ten, and that is that you have, you have some cushion. And I'm looking forward to watching the Skip play every night. It's it's last year. Look, it was like pulling teeth and zuns. We covered the team all the way through. We were honest about that. It was frustrating. There were nights last season. I'll speak for myself, Scott, you don't have agree with me. There nights last year when I was like, I don't really want to watch the team. Bay Baseball right now, I don't really have any desire to watch the team by baseball absolutely and this year, this year is there's none of that. I mean, I haven't watched every pitchure of the season because there's life gets in the way sometimes. But I've wanted to watch asmuch as as a plus we get and that's that's fun to have that kind of in the background as the summer awaits. It's been a joye occasion to this point.

00:59:35
Speaker 2: It really has really fun. Again, we set it off the top, basically the greatest start that any of us have ever seen as Braves fans. Through thirty five games, it's been so much fun. New heroes, unexpected heroes stepping up. Hopefully we get healthier soon here too, Like we know how good they've been so far. Imagine if they get a Counya back and Harris healthy, and Kim off the injured list and Murphy off the injured list, and hopefully Spencer Strider settles in. Who knows, maybe Hurston Walder comes back at some point, Maybe Spencer Schwallenbach comes back at some point. This could be just a really special year. It's been a really great start, the best start any of us could have humanly asked for, and hopefully even as the competition gets harder, they're able to keep it rolling. And I mean, boy howdy, if they still have the undefeated series streak going at the end this time in a week, then it's like, okay, is this going to be like an all time special team. Let's not put the cart before the horse, but that would be quite the story. If they're able to keep winning series in Seattle and in la I.

01:00:32
Speaker 1: Would agree, and everyone should keep it locked right here with Hammer's Territory the entire way. We'll be there to cover it. Subscribe to the podcast anywhere you get your podcasts, Apple, Spotify, YouTube, et cetera. Follow us on social media Hammer Territory as well. Tell your friends ratings, reviews, comments. If you want to follow Scott's personal thoughts at Scott Callin fifty five on Twitter is the place to go ahead and do that. He tweets more than I do about the braves. I occasionally do at bt Roland, so follow me there if you'd like to do that. But one more time, our plea to you, and we thank you by the way for supporting the podcast. It's been I think April was our biggest month ever. I don't want to speak out of school, but I think it was our biggest month ever. As far as listenership, love to see it. Keep it going. The Braves are fun. You're listening, We love to see it. Thank you for listening. As always, subscribe to the podcast and we'll see you all next time.