Braves Sweep Phillies As Austin Riley, Michael Harris Heat Up

00:00:21
Speaker 1: Hello everyone, and welcome back to the Hammer Territory podcast. It's this episode three six five. My name is Brad Rowland and I'm joined on a Sunday evening like a warm Blankets by Scott Coleman. Scott, what is the sorcery? The Braves have won back to back Sunday night games. How are you feeling? Hell bred? We're feeling really good, And.

00:00:40
Speaker 2: I mean this Braves team what a start. Like I think we were all optimistic that this team was going to bounce back after not only a down twenty twenty five, but I was kind of going down memory lane, and you know, they started out really well in twenty twenty four, but it was pretty rough from like the middle of May on. The offense was bad, they had injuries, Like twenty twenty four, even though they made the playoffs, was not all roses and daisies. And then we know how bad last year was. But such a good start fifteen and seven, coming off a sweep of the Phillies. Just everything about this team has been good so far and it has been so much fun to watch.

00:01:18
Speaker 1: I would strongly agree with that characterization. It was a fun weekend. It's been a fun week It's been a fun season so far, and that will be the theme in a moment as we mix it up, engineered by our friends at Fast at All, the Atlanta Braves execute a weekend sweep over their bitter rival Philadelphia Phillies. That's kind of where we'll begin on today's pod. And I mean, the vibes are immaculate right now, Scott. It's not exactly our resting state. The two of us I would actually include Steven Tolbert and that as well the three of us. Sean is a much more positive human being, but not a resting state usually to be this excited, but the Braves are fifteen and seven, the second best record in baseball, and more importantly, they've won five in a row nine of the last eleven, including busting out the Brooms in Philadelphia on the road, and they're probably their biggest like showcase series so far this season, a couple of National TV games and they go in there and just it wasn't entirely smooth, Salen, but they were the better team very clearly. And it's been quite a start of the season that was punctuated by this weekend.

00:02:28
Speaker 2: It really has, and I mean just across the board with this team. Offense has been great. The defense man alive. I mean every night the Braves are making big time defensive plays. I mean Acunya tonight had a fantastic running catch at the warning track to probably save the game, if we're being honest, some great defense. Seemingly every night there's a play or two. Even you know, on Sunday night, even Austin Riley like kind of sneakily had maybe the play of the game with a fantastic throw across the diamond to keep it, keep the inning at bay and keep the Braves ahead. Defensively, they've been great. And then the pitching, I mean, what more can you say about this pitching staff? Maybe the stat of the season so far. The Braves have played twenty two baseball games so far. In those twenty two games, in twelve of them, they have allowed two runs or fewer. They also have four shutouts, which leads all of Major League Baseball. Again, man, in more than half of their game so far, they have allowed two runs or fewer. Just across the board, it has been so good. Five wins in a row, nine out of the last eleven. I mean, they are really firing and They've really started to distance the distance themselves in the East, even if it is still early. I mean, every single game you can distance yourself between the Mets and the Phillies, the Marlins, the Nationals. You absolutely take it.

00:03:50
Speaker 1: I am wary of what I'm about to say because I don't want to be accused of the reverse jinks. But the Mets haven't won a game in about two weeks. This is a brave segment, but we have to just say that out they and M's the lost eleven straight games. That's outrageous. But the stat that I'm about to share that you just teed up for you beautifully is the one that would rival the run prevention stat that you shared. I can't believe this is true. I just double checked it twice to make sure it was correct. And look, it's April nineteenth as we're recording the sample twenty three throwst in to this podcast on Monday. It's very early. The old saying about don't check the standings until Memorial Day it's been you know, that's not always like gospel, but I get it. It's super early. You know, if you're a listener to the podcast everly, you'll know I'm We're not trying to take a victory lap at any point in time. I promise you that. With that said, this stat's insane. Right now, the Braves have a five game lead in the National League East. That's a huge that's hugely on April nineteenth. That's first and foremost five game lead by the middle of April is outrageous. Beyond that, to drive the point home, how crazy, that is the largest lead in any other division right now in Major League Baseball as of Sunday night is zero point five as in a half game lead. Is the largest lead in any other division, and the Braves are up by five. Wow. I don't even know what to say about that. I mean, does it again? Does does it matter? No? Is anything over? Absolutely not. There's a lot, a lot of it's pout to be played. I promise you that there are one hundred and forty more baseball games. But I mean, when you have that kind of cushion this fast, and part of that's because the rest of the East is kind of floundered. I mean, I joke about the Mets to some degree, but they shouldn't be this bad. The Phillies are not playing great baseball. But part of that's the brazen playing Austin baseball. So it's a combination of all those factors. But they are playing at a super high level, to the point where only the Dodgers have a resume that you would say is even comparable to the Braves, if not better. And that's not a bad place to be, not a bad zip code to be in any point. Basically, you know, it's.

00:05:47
Speaker 2: Fair to say that. Sure, it's only been twenty two games of a one hundred and sixty two game season, but it's also been twenty two games, I mean, fifteen percent of a season roughly at this point in the calendar. And they've i mean again, really good and just under the hood. You know, if they were fifteen and seven but the run differential was way lower than what it was, or if they had just a ridiculously easy schedule where they had played you know, the Rockies and the White Sox and the you know, pick the three other worst teams in baseball. But they've played solid competition so far, everything under the hood looks great, and as we know, they're not even close to being healthy right now. I mean, if they could take all of the injured pitchers on the injured list right now and make a rotation. It would be like a top fifteen, top twenty rotation in baseball, and you're still waiting on those guys to get back. Sean Murphy's getting closer, Hassan Kim is getting closer. You have all these talented pitchers in Triple A who could be coming up at any point. Like it's just it feels like even if some of the early season stars cooled down a bit. And sure, I don't know if Dom Smith is going to have a twelve hundred ops the rest of the way, but you would also think that Ronald Acunya Junior really hasn't gotten going yet, like inevitably he's gonna get going. I think Mike Kistremsky has shown some signs of life, especially against right handed pitching lately. Austin Riley has figured some things out. Michael Harris, who we're going to talk about, has figured some things out. So sure, maybe there's some regression coming for some of the roster, but I also think there's a lot of progression coming from other parts, and you're gonna get healthier. It's just really hard not to be excited about this team.

00:07:23
Speaker 1: Right now, it's a harder acent true. And yeah, even if that's a great way to frame it, even if you build in some of the regression, and I think it probably is coming on the run prevention side along the way. They should be able to hit at a high level based on what the talent indicates, but to what the underlying numbers indicate the guys who are in for an uptick like Roniccunya, et cetera, et cetera. So yeah, maybe they don't win fifteen out of over twenty two games the rest of the season. Maybe you know, maybe don't win not of every eleven, but they are a good baseball team, which is a refreshing thing after what happened last season. So we will stop with the full on effusive love now. But they earned it with the way they played. You you would five in a row, nine to eleven and sweep your rival on the road. You kind of have to come out and say how fun it was to watch and how good they've played so far.

00:08:12
Speaker 2: You know, last Sunday, at the top of the show, we did a three up, three down segment, and as I was thinking about the show, it's like, okay, maybe we do three up three down, And to be completely honest with you, Brad, I don't know if I could come up with three down segments for the Braves right now, Like I would probably have to cheat and maybe pick the Phillies and the Mets as it as being down, or I mean, sure you could probably pick on one or two players. But again, man, it's just been very largely positive, a lot of fun, and it's a lot of baseball to go one hundred and forty games, but through the first three and a half weeks, you really could not ask for much more.

00:08:49
Speaker 1: Absolutely, and we will be diving into what transpired over the weekend in a moment. First of all, though, or shout out our friends at Fastenal fasten All Industrial Supplies in NABIB Solutions if you want to learn more, or visit Fastenall dot com. Okay, Scott, let us dive into what transpired over the weekend. Three wins. Obviously, Friday night was the breeziest of the victories and it came on Martin Perez night. You don't always assume the fifth starter for this Braves team is going to be leading the Braves to a comfortable win. It wasn't all because of him, and we did acknowledge there even on our preview, I know, with Grant and also you and I. Last week, the Braves were facing the Phillies weakest start around Friday night, so it wasn't like they had a huge mismatch. But nine nothing is nine nothing. And hey, Martin Perez didn't seem overly thrilled that he had been dfaed in some of the comments that he made. He was just kind of pretty candid about that. But he was also like, hey, I'm back, let's do this thing. And he pitched really well, and it was a combined shutout and you shout the Phillies out on the road like you're doing something right.

00:09:51
Speaker 2: Hey, combined shutout from Martin Perez and Jose Suarez.

00:09:56
Speaker 1: Your guy, Jose Suarez famously sky bold Hisrez enthusiast. That's right.

00:10:02
Speaker 2: I'm getting me a jersey here any day. But no shouts to those guys. I mean, they really set the tone for the series. The first couple innings. Perez was really in and out of danger. I think he loaded the bases in the first inning and it was like, oh boy. The Braves took an early lead, and it sure felt like Perez was going to give it right back, but as a veteran and somebody who's pretty crafty out there, found a way to get out of it and then really cruised after those first couple innings. I mean, man alive the Phillies. How many runs did the Phillies score this weekend? They were shut out on Friday, they scored one run on Saturday and two yeah, three runs all weekend long. And shouts to Perez and Suarez. You set the tone. Shouts to the Braves bullpen, which I mean, is this the best bullpen in baseball? I mean, I think statistically it is, but even just like beyond the first three and a half weeks of statistics, I mean, they have two legitimate closures at the end. Dylan Lee is one of the best lefty relievers in the game. Tyler Kinley is been great, and we know they have more waiting in the wings in Gwinette. Like this bullpen shouts to the whole pitching staff. But you know, on a night where the Braves didn't give up any runs, it was also good to see the offense really come to life and back the pitchers up.

00:11:14
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do this carefully after you made fun of me last time we talked about the bullpen for some phrasing. The bullpen has been fantastic so far. They have the second best era in all of baseball. Number one in whip, number one in walks, all these numbers across the board, And you're right, it's it's a crazy, almost luxury that you have three guys at the inuar bullpen. And I do mean Dyan Lee is part of that, full stop part of that. Dylan Lee is a fantastic reliever. And if you can just shorten the game, I mean, we we'll talk about when we get to Sunday's game. If you know, the whole theory of shortening the game to basically six dings is that you could turn it over to your big three at the end and close things out. And that happened again today. So yeah, huge hots. Everybody evolved there. Oh as far as that nice, totally a part of that. But he was on Friday and a breezy win. On the offensive side, we should shout out Austin Riley, who over twice. Tom Smith, who is headed to Cooperstown any minutes, homered once again on Friday, and then you gave me a little bit of a tease about Michael Harris earlier. Look, Michael Harris has been good like full stop, and it doesn't seem to be fake. Obviously the walk jokes right themselves, but well, Michael Harris hits the ball. He is rocketing the ball, which is mix up for a lot of weaknesses other places when you just hit the ball with you hard all the time.

00:12:31
Speaker 2: You know, Michael Harris had some really good batted ball numbers coming into the weekend, but really didn't have much to show for it statistically speaking. And usually if you hit the baseball hard and your exit veilosities are high and your expected numbers are good, eventually the numbers.

00:12:46
Speaker 1: Are going to come.

00:12:47
Speaker 2: And we really started to see some of that over the weekend in Philadelphia, and quietly after a home run on Friday and then a three for three with a walk on Sunday night. Michael Harris is now up to two ninety with a three thirty eight on base and a four to seventy eight slugging percentage on the season, a one hundred and twenty seven WRC plus, which is fantastic. We know the defense is good and if Mike can just keep hitting the ball the way he's done. He's also I think since he returned from the paternity list, I think he's drawn three or four walks in the last few games, which is a I mean, God, goodness, gracious, that is a massive thing for Michael Harris. Really good signs for Mike and happy that kind of the underlying data finally started to show itself in games because he was probably the MVP on Sunday night. Yeah, huge game, and you know he's always had the potential. You just got to figure it out, and you know, I'll leave it. A little bit of play discipline goes a whole long way for Michael Harris, and he showed more of that in recent days.

00:13:50
Speaker 1: Let's talk about Saturday's game as well. It wasn't quite as breezy. The Braves to take advantage of a big error early in the game that accounted for all, I believe all three of the runs they scored in the game. It was a three to one victory. I will note that Ronald Kuna Junior was robbed of a home run literally on the first batter of the game, or it might have been. How many of those is Ronny have already this year where he's hit like a four hundred and five foot flyout just keeps happening over and over again to him.

00:14:14
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's like a collective I don't know, ten feet from having three or four more home runs this year. Yeah, I mean, just very on par. I think it's Ronald has not looked great in the first three and a half weeks of the season. But similarly to Michael Harris, his batted ball data looks good and he I can't believe that ball did not get out to start the game on Saturday night.

00:14:35
Speaker 1: Yeah, there was a whole conversation about the low fence out there too, just the way it was able to be played, but also the dead center field, like it's a little bit unlucky when you hit it like to the one spot on the ballpark when it doesn't go out. I think stack guy said, is maybe going out in like eleven ballpark something like that a third of the ballparks. So anyway, Ronald will be fine. No one's worried about Ronald whatsoever. But yeah, offensively, it wasn't this great game on Saturday by any means. They left eleven guys on base, and that gets us to Chrisale. And Chris Sale is regularly a hero of this team. He's the one starter that no one worries about whatsoever. But he was once again awesome on Saturday. He hasn't been like AA plus plus plus plus Sale this year. He was the one starter I said that talk about with Granda a little bit on Thursday. He was the one starter that has underlying numbers that weren't like, clearly a little bit scary compared to their actual performance. But hey, you just rolls out of bed seven innings, one run and lights up the Phillies lineup in a way that you would hope that he would, because when you don't score a ton of runs, Oh nice to line that up with Chris Sale on the mound, Becausechris Sale doesn't need a lot of runs.

00:15:40
Speaker 2: Yeah, Chris really had the slider working, and that was something that Adam Waynwright in the booth was talking about a lot, and obviously Wayno knows a whole lot about pitching, but really I thought that was the best that Sales slider looked all season long and had it working, and he also worked into the seventh inning. He completed seven innings, which was a really good sign only the one run given up was the very first at bat to a rookie, and he, of course he homered, and it's like, you know what, good for him?

00:16:08
Speaker 1: Cool moment.

00:16:08
Speaker 2: But other than that solo homer to the first row of Citizens Bank Park, which man alive? How many first row home runs has that ballpark scene over the years between the Braves and the Phillies. But regardless, really good start from Sale and a tip of the cap. Chris Sayle passed Tom Glavin in all time strikeouts number two thousand, six hundred and eight, which moved Sale now is twenty ninth all time. I think he's like one away from number twenty eight, so he'll make he'll move beyond that in his next start, and I mean twenty six oh eight. He has a real chance knock on wood assuming his health cooperates. I think Sale is gonna probably get to three hundred strikeouts, which is just a remarkable accomplishment.

00:16:50
Speaker 1: Yeah, he is remarkable, and he was the biggest story on Saturday and became a nice win. I will note that we'll help talk about this more and we'll get the Sunday's game. There was a little bit of a discussion after the game Saturday because rysaou Aglacias did not pitch in the ninth inning of a close game, and people were like, oh, what's going on here? It was Robert Torres, who It's great to have Robert Torres to throw in the ninth inning. But it came out pretty quickly after the Iglesias reportedly slept on his shoulder wrong the night before. Who among us, Scott, Yeah, Rysel is almost almost as old as I am, not quite, but almost, and that can happen to me. I'm just it seems relatable to me. But he because he pitched today, it's not concerned. It seems like anymore. Like it wasn't like he was his absolute best self tonight, but he seemed to be fine. His be low was fine, all those things. So a little bit of an exhale, But there was like a ten minute period like, what's going on here with rysol Iglesias? I l anything weird, but it seems like he's fine, So excell.

00:17:44
Speaker 2: Yeah, very much. A thirty some odd year old injury sleeping on your shoulder wrong? I mean, who who hasn't at this point. I'm I'm a little younger than you. Brad and I sleep weirdly in my neck hurts for like four days.

00:17:56
Speaker 1: What are you? What are you gonna do?

00:17:58
Speaker 2: Shouts to Dilaneley great eighth inning, and shouts to Robert Swarez, who filled in in the ninth inning for Igalacias. Robert Swarez is disgusting. I mean in the most complimentary ways possible. This dude is a joke, Like, come on, man, he throws he throws one hundred and one millin hour fastball. And I wanted to mention this too, and a couple people pointed this out, and it was like, oh, so, Robert Swarez is apparently now throwing a cutter, and he's thrown it a decent amount in the early going of the season. So I went back and looked. So when Suarez came over, he was pitching in Japan and then joined the Padres in twenty twenty two, Suarez did throw the cutter a little bit. I think it was like eight to ten percent in his first season, but then he basically stopped throwing it in the four seasons beyond that. And I don't know if it's Jeremy Hefner maybe had an idea of hey, maybe you should throw this ninety five mile an hour cutter that moves, because I mean, what are you supposed to do against Suarez? You have a one hundred milinn hour fastball that nobody hits. You have a ninety five mile an hour cutter that just takes the hardest left turn you can imagine. And then he also works in like this change up that's ten miles an hour slower than the fastball and has opposite movement. I mean, I don't know how you're supposed to hit him, and just looked really, really good. He looked good again on Sunday night as well, and I'm in again. We're we're not even a month into a three year contract, but it looks so good for Suarez right now.

00:19:23
Speaker 1: Yeah, the answer is you don't hit him, hopefully if you're the Braves and I can't. I mean, this is the case for everybody. I understand that, but he is particularly nasty. I don't feel like, you know, he has the era. He has kind of the aura that you want of a lady reliever, when you feel really confident when he's out there, like, oh these guys are hitting him tonight, It's not gonna happen. And maybe I'll have a rough night. It's some point he's gonna have a blow up. Everybody does, but I feel really good about him at the end of the game. Oh. One more thing about Saturday we should get too quickly is that the Braves had some ABS success on Saturday. Fine with a rarity. That's like, the one thing that's actually mad about this season has been an ABS challenges, not Saturday.

00:20:00
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know it's funny. The Braves went four for four in challenges on Saturday night and it actually moved them up. So I think they were either dead last or second to worst in ABS challenges, But after going four for four and getting a couple of them right on Sunday as well, I think now they're like twenty third in the league and ABS so baby steps. I gotta say. I love ABS being able to challenge pitches. It's been such a welcome edition. I think you feel similarly, Brad. Please stop me if you don't. I think a lot of fans would probably feel similarly. It's fast, you get it within like four seconds. It's just two feels like the right number. Maybe you get one more in there later in games. Maybe teams get like one more challenge after the seventh inning or something like that, but shouts to abs just another fantastic change.

00:20:50
Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree, it's awesome. Robot imps in full is the next step that they need to do that. But I like it where it is now. I do think I think challenges make sense. Do like a little bit of framing in my life. Like all those things. Fine, and it's a good mix. And the speed of it, like you reference, is mix it where it's like hard to complain even if you don't like it. It's like it doesn't hurt you in any way. It takes you, takes very little time. Yeah, you're not challenging every pitch if it was unlimited to be like all right, this is kind of exhausting, but it's not so strategy to it all those things.

00:21:20
Speaker 2: Yeah, no complaints. It's been really really good. I mean even like on Sunday night, Ozzy Alby's was called out on strike three on a pitch that was a foot north of the zone. I mean, I don't even think they gave the measurement on the screen. You know, sometimes if it's like a millimeter off the zone, they show how far out it is. They didn't even show the distance because it was so egregious. That's what ABS is here for. If there's a fringe pitch. I think the human element of the umpire is still a good thing. I've said before. I think a full automated zone would become kind of boring and stale, but the ability to challenge the most egregious of calls is really really good.

00:21:56
Speaker 1: Yeah. For some reason, Ozzy gott In Matt Olsen's strike zone on that pitch is a little bit strange. Yeah there for now, Yeah, a little bit odd on that front. All right. There's more to come, including a big one on Sunday, injury updates, a preview of what's to come this week, and more. We'll get to all of that after award from our partners on today's podcast, Summer is Coming. I'm always trying to find the best deal on Brave tickets when I'm trying to go down there over the summer. That's one of the big reason. That's why I want to give a masive shout out to our sponsor on today's podcast. That's the good folks at Sea Geek. They over thirty five million downloads already, takeet the number one rated ticketing app n We're in sevent thousand events lists on seeek right now, including concerts and sports festivals and more. Of course, baseball is rocky and rolling right now, NBA Playoffs and NHL Playoffs, NFL Draft is on the horizon and now Work Cup tickets are also available on seeek as well, and they are the official ticket marketplace up MLB, which means your tickets are fully guaranteed and still be fulfilled in your account after you are purchasing them. I love you Seek for many reasons, but one of those reasons that Seek always has your back as well. Every ticket is rated on a scale of one to ten, so you actually know if you're getting a good deal. So that means you're looking for the green dots. Green means good, red means bad. At sea Keek plus, every single ticket is backed by their buyer guarantee. And of course we have a code for you guys. With sea Geek. You can use code Territory ten. That's Territory ten for ten percent off your next set of tickets at sea Geek. Ten percent off any tickets with promo code Territory ten and make sure you quick the link of the description to leap down on the app and have the code automatically add it to your account so you can use it later. Shout out Seekeek for sponsoring today's episode. Okay, Scott, let's die back in to the game on Sunday evening. I was an afternoon out of habit. It was another evening game for the break, I will say. Yeah.

00:23:39
Speaker 2: One one quick note, I'm sorry to cut you off. We've had back to back Sunday night games, which frankly I don't love. I think most fans would prefer the one thirty five first pitch with Brandon and CJ in the booth. It was long tonight too, by the way, Oh it was it was, and which is so funny to say. I think it was like three hours and five minuts, which nowadays feels like an eternity for a baseball game. But I mean shout out to the pitch clock, because I mean that used to be the average length of games and we are well below at now. But yes, one quick note, I think they only have one more Sunday night game, and it's actually the Little League Feel the Dreams game, I think, and that's not for months from now, and then they are on Sunday Night baseball in quotations. But one of them I think is the fourth of July or the fifth of July, and then the other one is later in the year against the Phillies.

00:24:32
Speaker 1: But it's a three.

00:24:33
Speaker 2: Pm Eastern time start. So for a long time we are done with these seven to twenty pm Eastern time Sunday night first pitches.

00:24:41
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm kind of with you. Not only for podcast purposes. We end up recording late at night sometimes anyway if it's an afternoon games because the schedules and Scott's on the West Coast and all those things. But I do like to have Brandon and CJ. I do like to have a little daylight with my baseball on the Sunday afternoons. But alas we talk about Michael Harris already having a big game on this podcast, the Rape scored three eight three runs in the fourth inning of my apologies, not exactly the most like hype powered game. Offensively, there was some There was a swinging bunt that helped along the way. Ozzie shots to our guy Ozzie, who we just made fun of her being short in a roundabout way. I love I love you, Ozzie. You're my guy. But it wasn't like it was a blowout. Grant Holmes not the best. I mean, it was an interesting game. I don't know about you. I'd never felt particularly comfortable all the way through Sunday Night's game. The Rays were losing. Also, like we exchanged texts. I'm not afraid to share that to say, oh, here we go might be a little bit of an interesting night. When they got down to nothing, but in on braid fashion so far this season, they rallied and put it away and hey, get it to the bullpen and you're good. Yeah. Yeah.

00:25:49
Speaker 2: It did not start well. I think within about six pitches Grant Holmes had given up a single trade turner and another first round or first row home run in CBP to Kyle Schwarburer, and it was like, all right, we're due for a bad game, Mary Phillies are gonna Yeah, here we go. Gonna be a long night. But credit to Grant Holmes, he settled in, you know, only gave up two hits in one walk. From that moment on the rest of the way and really interesting. Once again, Walt Weiss was hyper aggressive with his bullpen so to set the stage. Fifth inning Holmes is now seeing Schwarber and Harper for the third time, only at eighty one pitches, and instead of letting Holmes continue to face Schwarber and Harper again eighty one pitches had only given.

00:26:33
Speaker 1: Up two runs.

00:26:34
Speaker 2: Would not have been crazy to leave Grant out there to keep going and try to save the bullpen a little bit. Walt went out, pulled him for Aaron Bummer, and even though Schwarber honestly it wasn't even that bad of a pitch, Schwarber doubled, but then Bummer induced a ground out from a fantastic play from Austin Riley to end the threat. So again, just another theme of the early season is that Walt is not afraid to go to his bullpen early. And in the moment, I thought it was the right call and it ultimately worked out.

00:27:03
Speaker 1: Yeah, I you know, we've said this before a couple of times, and I know Stephen Sean have as well, Like, I'm all for a little bit of aggression. When you have this great bullpen, Let's use it, you know what I mean, use it there, you know, absolutely, and these the stars that he've done that he's done it with. It's not like he's taking Chris Sale out in the fifth inning. Chris Sale is going to have a longer leash, and he should. He's their guy. But Grant Holmes, Bryce Elder, I know Bryce has been great this year. I'm not saying otherwise, but he's not at the level where you like had this ultimate long leash with him, So yeah, get aggressive and it's worked out. And credit to Walt for you know, this week in particular, they have no off days, so we'll see if that kind of continues or if he's a little bit more careful to try to manage a bullpen. But I think it's been correctly navigated so far from Weiss. And I think you already mentioned that the Austin Riley ridiculous play, we should you know, focus on even more like it's just what a play from Riley and our guy Grant McCauley was really talking about Austin's defense on the show, and we talked on Thursday, and I went back even after we talked, and just like the numbers back it up too, Like he said, a very strong season defensively so far, and it's part of the whole scheme. But that was one of those plays you have to just like center in the frame to say, hey, this might have flipped. I mean between that and Ronnie Ryan getting the last out those two games, those two plays mightus won the game. I mean probably did swing the game. So that's always pretty notable for defense. So just to quickly recap, so Schwarber doubles off of Aaron Bummer. You have runners on second and third. You're winning by two runs at that point, and you have Bryce Harper, and I don't care. Harper could be oh for one hundred and he would still terrify me. I'm amazed he ever makes it out. Bumber throws a good pitch, Harper kind of softly hits it down the third base line, but Riley has to one field the ball against his body and then fires a perfect one bouncer across the diamond. Good on Matt Olson. It was a little bit of a short hop and he was able to snag it and just hold on to it. Beats Harper at first base by about a foot. If Riley does not make that play, a run scores it's four to three. You have runners on the corner, and then you have a doles Garcia coming in, who is a really good right handed hitter against left handed pitching, and Bummer had only faced two batters at that point, so there was no rescuing Aaron Bummer. And who knows.

00:29:18
Speaker 2: If Riley doesn't make that play, maybe Garcia comes up and hits the ball in the gap. All of a sudden, the Phillies are winning. Maybe the entire game has changed. Nobody scored from that point on either, So to me, I mean you mentioned it a minute ago. The two plays of the game, huge tip of the cap to Riley and then a fantastic running catch on the warning track by Acuna to end the game.

00:29:40
Speaker 1: Ryse still did not make it easy in the ninth I think our Guy Stevens reference on Twitter was he chose the adventurous routes this evening. You know, it wasn't like an all time great of the Runny, but he broke on it right. That's one of the things that Runny is not known for, honestly, is like routes and coverage the outfield. Huge arm, obviously, but he he broke right immediately, right place, right time. He's obviously still athletic when he wants to be, when he wants to turn on and save the game. I mean, it was a hard hit ball, it's swerber he tattooed won and if that drops, it's a it's a new game again.

00:30:16
Speaker 2: So well in that's that's pretty damn close to how he tours acl five years ago. Yeah, I know it's been five years, but there's got to be something just in the back of his mind that's like, oh, be careful here. But yeah, and also on I think it was Friday night, Acuna went the other way to the right center gap and made a fantastic catch on the run. It saved at least one run. I think Statcast had it as only a twenty five percent catch probability, which is really really hard to do. So Yeah, Ronald had a fantastic series defensively in right field, and again just goes back to offense, defense, pitching across the board. It's been very complimentary baseball in the early going for the Braves and just cannot say enough good things.

00:30:57
Speaker 1: Run prevention is, hey, in theory, just as important as run scoring. Gotta gotta do one or the other or both. Yeah, it's pretty important.

00:31:06
Speaker 2: Yeah, plus one for Riley, plus one for Acuna tonight, and.

00:31:09
Speaker 1: There the Bridges are still leading all of the nationally I believe, maybe all of baseball, Yeah, all of baseball in runs allowed and you can't it's not only pitching defense as a part of that as well, because they help the help pitch staff quite a bit. So that's kind of the breakdown of the weekend series. You know, three wins, five in a row, all those numbers still in play. There's a little bit of news we can get to while you have more to add Scott on the on field product injury updates. Nothing is imminent, but Hassan Kim is taking live VP again and schedule to play in a SIM game. I believe Thursday. He could be back within I mean not like on the field in the majors, but could be on a field in a competitive game within the next week to ten days in a minor league game. Probably step forward there. I know, uh insert joke here about how Mauricio Deban is doing just fine, but they need Hassan k back ideally to make this team the best can best that it can be. And then Strider and Murphy, who are already on the rehab assignments, are both playing in Gwinnette, so that's a step up in competition on Tuesday. So that's a couple things to watch for obviously, and you know, nothing you have to sell about having Strider back. Obviously that would be helpful even with the Braves having this great RU prevention numbers so far, Murphy more of a split, I know, but Murphy will still help you. Murphy's a lot better than Jonaheim. Murphy's a lot better than jonah Heim everybody. So no matter what you think about Stan Murphy every time it comes up, I know I'm triggered by this every time it comes up, like all Shoumberger stings. No, he doesn't, and he's better than Jonah him. So we could just agree on that much of nothing else.

00:32:42
Speaker 2: Yes, And you know, there was also an interesting bit of news that came down on Sunday. So in Gwinnette diddy or Frontes was a healthy scratch. So Diddyer was supposed to start for the Stripers.

00:32:56
Speaker 1: Another worrying moment, by the way, when he was scratched and was like, wait, what's going on? Oh no, here we go? Oh no, what's wrong? Is that the elbow is at the shoulder?

00:33:04
Speaker 2: Is he missing? What's wrong with ditty or fwent test? But it was a healthy scratch, which was intentional by the team. Mark Bowman MLB dot Com and Bravesbeat reporter kind of opined that by giving a healthy scratch for Fuentes, it kind of gives you two things. Number One, it gives you flexibility with his live arm. As the Braves play ten games in ten days, they do not have an off day, so you could at some point called Dittier up if you feel like you need it, either for the rotation or the bullpen. It also limits his innings. It's you know, five to seven fewer innings that he has to throw in mid late April, and you can be sure the Braves are going to keep an eye on Dittier's total number of innings this year. And if things keep going well and they have very important innings in August and September and October, well you're gonna want Ditty or Fuenttes in that big time fasketball that he has to be available and not. I feel like you have to cool him down because he's already at one hundred and seventy five innings when you're playing your most important games.

00:34:05
Speaker 1: Of the year.

00:34:06
Speaker 2: So a big exhale when Dideer wasn't pitching. It was like, oh, no, here we go.

00:34:10
Speaker 1: Now it begins.

00:34:11
Speaker 2: But all good on that front, and we'll see. Maybe he does get called up at some point in the next week or so if the Braves feel.

00:34:17
Speaker 1: Like they need the live arm. Yeah, as long as he is healthy, and everyone says he is, so I'm fine with that, Flint says, doing this what that makes total sense to me. I know that there's a whole discussion to be had about, you know, coddling young pitchers, and I'm not about I'm not someone who's always saying it's to be incredibly careful. But if you want to have him access to do your Flint says, which you're probably gonna want to in August, September, even October, potentially you're gonna he's not gonna be able to throw every fifth day all season long, and at his age, they're probably not gonnaant him to do that at full go every fifth day. Yeah, at least they would not prefer to have that happen. So giving him a break, maybe having up with the bullpen at some point, I'm fine with that. You're not babying him, but but let's be realistic. Most teams agree you don't want your twenty one year old twenty year old suddenly throwing one hundred and eighty five two hundred inning like it's just not going to happen. So I'm okay with it, and we'll see how they handle it, because right now, I mean, we kind of thought, talking behind the scenes, like maybe they would just you know, pop him in the probables after that as a starter. They did not do that. They did check it up with what we're talking about in a second. But yeah, I'm okay with it. You know, who doesn't pitch in the majors. I won't be bothered whatsoever that they skip. They kind of sipped him one seguette. That's fine, totally.

00:35:32
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm sure Diddy or will throw a bullpen in a couple of days keep the arm going. But yeah, that was big exhale. But again, I have a feeling that sooner rather than later, we're going to see Fuintes in Atlanta in some kind.

00:35:44
Speaker 1: Of a role. I just saw a funny note of a document that I know, I know that you added because I didn't about a farewell sweet prince to Osmondobido who was a DF claimed. Yes, very huge news for the Braves, but that made me laugh just the way put it on there, So I want to shut that out as a ball a Vita no longer in the organization now a white sock oh one especially it was a mail bag question. I can't remember who's sent it in, but I actually happened multiple times. We've been asked talk about this, so very briefly, the Braves early in the year had some issues against a couple of starters in the major leagues and it was not huge names, and we did note like they're pretty good pictures. We got a question basically saying, hey, you guys talked about the fact that the Braves offense, which has basically been awesome, floundered against Jose Soriano, and I believe it's it's it's messic from the from the guardians of Michael Soroka. All three of them are having great seasons and they wanted us to talk about that, so, hey, they are. So it does make the Braves look better that they were only kind of silenced by three guys who were run hot so far, especially Soriano. He's been riding.

00:36:46
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, Soriano has been I mean, maybe the best pitcher and in uh in baseball this year. I mean, whenever the Braves got mowed down by him, it was like, okay, no, maybe not a household name, but Soriano. Parker Messik from Cleveland has been similarly one of the best starters in baseball, and then old friend Michael Soroka has been fantastic as well. So you think about this offense not only has been very very good, one of the very best, but they have weirdly kind of run into some of the very best pitchers, at least early on in the year. And I don't know. I mean, if you would have told me that early in the season Jose Soriano and Parker Messk and old friend Mike Soroko would be three of the more efficient and effective starters, then I don't know if I'd necessarily believe you, But it really does go to show that even though the Braves on offense have had a couple of down nights, they have faced some of the best of the best, even if they are not well known names. Atlanta has lost seven games this season, and three of them are good. Those three guys who all have vras and like the ones or whatever.

00:37:45
Speaker 1: So I just want to say that out loud. Good question, and we did notice. We didn't talk about it a lot, but we did notice that, and it is worth bringing up. All right, Scott before we get out of here. Four game series on the horizon for the Braves in the Nation's Capital against the Nationals. As discussed, no day off this week. I'm reading again in your notes, Washington has been scoring runs. Their pitching staff has some some ugliness in the in the profile so far, that's probably the easiest scouting report on the Nationals. They have not been able to pitch thus far through a month of the season, so we'll see if that continues.

00:38:23
Speaker 2: Weird baseball team. You know, the Nationals are very clearly rebuilding. They're there to be blunt years away from competing with Atlanta and New York and Philadelphia. But weird baseball team. You know, the Nationals are ten and twelve, which is good for tied for second in the division.

00:38:39
Speaker 1: As we speak.

00:38:41
Speaker 2: Washington has scored one hundred and twenty one runs this year, which is only one run fewer than the Atlanta Braves, so we know how good the Braves offense has been. That's really impressive. However, this is where this is shocking. This season, the Braves have given up sixty five runs in the same number of games the Nationals have given up one hundred and thirty four runs, so more than double. Yeah again, sixty six runs for the I'm sorry, sixty five runs for the Braves, one hundred and thirty four for Washington, which is the worst in the National League. They've played a lot of high scoring games. Hopefully the Braves can go in there and keep the bats rolling. You know, their rotation is pretty void of household names. They traded Mackenzie Gore. Their bullpen has been bad for years, but they do have some real hitters, and you know, we got to keep the pitching rolling and hopefully able to calm their bats down.

00:39:35
Speaker 1: A little bit. Yeah, I mean, just to put the right number on that. They have a five point six y five team ERA this season, and the Knots have allowed the most home runs in baseball by a wide margin. They've allowed thirty nine home runs in twenty two games. Wow, that's a lot of home runs. For instance, the Braves have allowed I'm scrolling down seventeen home runs season. So yeah, as far as matchups are concerned, h Bryce Elder moves up a day. They given Lopez extra day of rest, which I'm fine with. Ronaldo coming off the long term injury makes total sense. Elder has a rubber arm knocked on wood, makes total logical sense to me. He's also been really good this season. He faces Jake Irvin on Monday. Then it's Foster Griffin against Ronaldo Lopez on Tuesday, Zach Ltel against Martine Perez on Wednesday, and then Chris Sale takes the ball and I believe it was it. Is it an afternoon getaway day spot on Thursday? Your favorite? I think it's lunchtime baseball for Scott Coleman on the West Coast.

00:40:41
Speaker 2: That sounds right, and you know again, Jake Irvin, Foster Griffin. Griffin's actually been pretty good this year. Zach Lttel was a late signing in the spring, has been awful. I think his era is nearly eight. And then Kate, Kate, I have to do medicle.

00:40:55
Speaker 1: I want of the Braves to signed Zach Ltel and he has not been very good. So I watch on YouTube. I'm raising my hand on that one. I think I think I think I missed on that one. So we'll see how that goes but hey, I'm willing to own that right here on the podcast.

00:41:07
Speaker 2: I personally was never quiet you did not.

00:41:10
Speaker 1: That's why I said. That's why I said, I I I Brad Rowland wanted to look. I was not eager to sign Zac Lttel. He was like my seventeenth option. I thought I should have sign him at the end. That would not have gone well so far by all accounts, and well, you know, maybe the brains would have fixed him in some ways and the Nationals did not. But so far I was wrong on that one.

00:41:28
Speaker 2: Yeah, when you when you lose three of your five projected starting pitchers, what nine days into the spring, we all get a little stir crazy. But yeah, hopefully you mentioned just awful numbers for the Nats pitching staff. Hopefully you just keep scoring runs on them. The Braves are gonna need to score runs because cj. Abrams, their shortstop, has been fantastic this year. James Wood is terrifying. I mean, that guy is man for being such a young hitter. James Wood is as good as it gets in the National League. And they have some other players too who you've never heard of, who have ops's of nine hundred so far. They're gonna calm down a bit and hopefully that starts this upcoming week. But you know, so far, the Braves have not lost a series. Let's keep it rolling. Sure, it's a four game series. I guess you can objectively say two and two would not be the end.

00:42:16
Speaker 1: Of the world.

00:42:17
Speaker 2: But the Braves are playing so well you'd really like to think they could take three out of four in Washington and get home with a fantastic road trip under their belts.

00:42:26
Speaker 1: Yeah, I just stay on brand as myself. I think anytime, if you if you can go to and two on the road against a non terrible opponent in a series, that's not a disastrous outcome. So will I can tell you right now on Thursday night or WinCE or Friday, whenever it's going to be, I will not say that's bad if they go in too and two. But it's a series you should probably win. I mean, if you're the better team Thennts, by the way, are one of the two teams that is tied for second place in the division right now. They are five games behind the Braves, but they are ahead of the Phillies, they are ahead of the Mets, so this isn't like you're It's not like you're playing the who's the worst team in the league the Rockies probably objectively, they haven't been so far, but they roster.

00:43:09
Speaker 2: Hey, the Rockies just won back to back games against the Dodgers, which is the most I don't understand.

00:43:15
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it's probably on brand for us to say that because I'm a big fan of Hey, these guys are all pros, and even the worst team beats the best team. That's one of the coolest about baseball, honestly, So good good shots on that, Scott. But yeah, pick whatever the team you're talking about. The that's are not that they're not terrible, so that's well, they're pretty bad.

00:43:34
Speaker 2: I mean, they haven't been terrible so far, but they're I'm not saying they're going to be good because they're not.

00:43:39
Speaker 1: But I think their offense might be legitimately good. That pitching staff is not legitimately good, so they're probably gonna They're probably gonna lose ninety games. But I think if you could score the way they've scored so far, I take you at least someone seriously in your home ballpark. So yeah, for I mean, if the Readson want to go out and sweep the Serious and have one nine in a row at the end. Awesome. I wouldn't project that to happen, but I would project probably the most likely outcome is like two point seventy five wins out of four.

00:44:08
Speaker 2: So yeah, cool, yeah, absolutely take advantage hopefully. No, I swear every time the Braves play the Nationals there is a rain delay, whether real or fake. So I maybe we'll get lucky and avoid the storms in DC for the next couple of days. Nobody, I mean, I thought they were gonna delay Sunday night baseball when it started to downpour. Rte his first pitch was gonna happen. It was like, oh no, not. And it's already gonna be a late night. I mean, that's worth probably noting. I mean, it's already almost midnight on the East Coast. Atlanta's probably not going to get to the hotel in DC till what two am or something, so it'll be a late night. Hopefully the boys are relatively fresh. I'm guessing they probably flew Bryce Elder ahead of time just to avoid him having such a late night. But let's keep it rolling, keep taking advantage against the East. I mean the East has been really bad so far, I mean, probably the worst division in baseball outside of Atlanta. Let's keep it rolling, keep putting distance between yourself and everybody else, and then you get back home for a nice long home stand.

00:45:07
Speaker 1: Right. Part of why the Braves have the aforementioned biggest lead by far in the division is that the East is the only division where there's not at least two teams that are at five hundred or above. The Braves are the only team the buff five hund or even at five hundred right now, because the Marlins and Nats are tied for second at ten and twelve as of this Sunday evening. So yep, good spot on the horizon. We will have you covered throughout the week as we always would, probably not going to be every day. The way we did this past week was a bit of a rarity where we I think we had five straight days of a show that doesn't always happen on the feed and it shouldn't be the projection every single week, but we'll have plenty of concept for you. Please go ahead and subscribe to this podcast, Hammer Territory. Just search it, interfavorit, podcast player, Apple, Spotify, YouTube, et cetera. Follow us on social media as well. If you'd like to Hammer Territory, follow Scott Coleman at Scott Column fifty five on Twitter. That's correct, all right, we know it's the one. I'm a BT role if you want to follow me there and just tell your friends about the podcast. I know it's fun time for the Braves. So if you have fans that you know in your life that may and may not have found our podcast yet, hey, just sit a link or a shout out or a text, say hey, check out Hammer Territory. We definitely appreciate that organic growth. And it's been a good week, good month on the podcast. Honestly, we're very happy with everything and we're thankful to you, the listeners of viewers of this podcast for supporting it. And hey, we understand if the Braves win generally that is good for our podcast. All the tops are just our personal enjoyment. It's good for the podcast. So say Braves win games.

00:46:37
Speaker 2: And even when the Braves lose, they could lose fifteen and nothing tomorrow, I sure hope not. But even if they lose fifteen and nothing tomorrow, click, we'll be download. Yeah, download watch for ten minutes on YouTube, patronize our sponsors. It all really helps us out and as always we appreciate all the love and support.

00:46:53
Speaker 1: Absolutely All right, Scott, let's get out of here one more time. Subscribe, tell a friend. We'll see everybody next time.