AJ Smith-Shawver Flirts with No-Hitter in Win Over Reds
In Episode 193 of the Hammer Territory Podcast, Stephen Tolbert and Shawn Coleman celebrate the near no-hitter from AJ Smith-Shawver against the Cincinnati Reds. They look at why Smith-Shawver has been so good lately, how the Atlanta Braves starting pitching depth is rounding into form, Alex Verdugo, Ronald Acuna Jr., and much more.
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00:00:19 Speaker 1: Welcome one and all to the Hammer Territory Podcast. My name is Sean Coleman. Hope, wherever you are and wherever you are listening, you are having an absolutely outstanding start to your week. If you're a Braves fan, it's been a fun two days. But I can tell you maybe who's having the most fun tonight, you know, Stephen. They used to talk about the fact that every year the Miami Dolphins would get together and have some type of you know, big party or have a case of beer, have cigars together, or something like that. The nineteen seventy two Dolphins, when the last undefeated team each single season lost in that in that respective season. Well, you have to think, you know, hey, every time the Braves come close to a no hitter, Kim Merker may have himself a cool winder or you know, a cigar or something like that. That's probably not true to wherever Kimp Mercury is. Hope you're well, sir, But we mentioned this because tonight was an absolutely spectacular pitching performance from a J. Smith Shober and we're here to break it all down. Stephen. Before we do that, good talk with you, partner, Hope always been well. You are a hard working man when it comes to the Hammer Territory podcast. 00:01:20 Speaker 2: Yeah, what's up, buddy. We were not planning on doing a show tonight, obviously, Brad and I just did a show last night, and then Seaun and I did a show on Friday night, and so we were gonna take the night off. But listen. A. J. Smith Shalver had other plans, and he was unbelievable tonight. And you know, we're gonna break the news here if you didn't watch the game, but you know, he didn't give up a hit to the eighth inning. He threw a one hit, eight inning shut out. The Reds are a good team. Brad and I talked about this on Sunday. The Reds are above five hundred team. They've got like a plus thirty five run differential. They've been a good team all year long. And AJ, you know, it was just really impressive. I thought he found his command late in the game. I didn't think he had his best command early in the game, and then he just kind of got hot and he got settled in and it was just it was fun to watch. We're going to talk about it more in depth, obviously, but yeah, big game, big win. You know, start of the series against the Reds and a J. Smith Schover with these big, big starts when they need him obviously with the the uh injuries in the rotation. So great, great game from the Braves tonight, and I. 00:02:28 Speaker 1: Think it's all about natural maturation. 00:02:30 Speaker 3: You know, a J. 00:02:30 Speaker 1: Smith Shover what still twenty two to twenty three years old. Believe he's twenty two this season. But the thing that stands out to me, Stephen is that you're seeing the confidence happen every single start. You know, coming into a couple years ago, when we first caught our glimpse of a J. Smith Shov, it was, you know, pretty good fastball, but not the best of command. You know, he had good natural stuff, didn't know where a lot of it was going to go. Last year started to hone it in a little bit. But this season what has really stood out is he's finally starting to find the compliments to the fastball. But now he's not throwing his hard as he once did. He still can dial it up to ninety six to ninety seven if he needs to, but he finds his comfort zone that ninety four to ninety five range. But that splitter has become a very very effective pitch, one of the best over a forty percent with rate on the splitter coming into tonight, one of the most effective. You know, swing of his pitch is out there, and he throws it with confidence early in the count, late in the count, what have you. He throws a pretty heavy dose of them. But that's what I think is standing out. His control still is a work in progress, but you're seeing a pitcher this season, especially over the past couple and starts Steven who really is standing out as having not only confidence in his pitches, but knowing him he can throw him at any place, at any time in the count for a strike. 00:03:45 Speaker 2: Yeah, and people were old enough will remember this. With John Smoltz, the splitter is is an incredibly effective pitch when you're ahead in the count because the by definition, the splitter, it's it's it sinks below the zone very hard, very late, and it's a very tough pitch to lay off when you're behind in the count. And with aj when he's ahead in the count, that splitter is so devastating, and we saw it a lot tonight. The problem he has is when he gets behind in the count, obviously, the splitter is not a pitch that it rarely ever actually ends up in the strike zone. So when he's behind in the count, you know, guys just don't have to swing at it. And so it's so much more effective when he's ahead in the count. And you know, early in the game, I thought he was getting behind in the count. He had a couple of walks, Cincinnati had some hard hit balls. I was thinking, well, this is probably gonna be a five and dive game for AJ. But around the middle innings, he just got his command. He was in the strike zone a lot more. He started having much more efficient innings. That splitter is just so much better. It's just so much more effective when you're ahead in the count like he was. And I hope, I hope tonight is a like an eye opening kind of, you know, light bulb goes off kind of moment for him where he's like, man, if I just start every you know, every count, if I just you know, the first three pitchers I throw, if two of them are in the strike zone, that splitter, even major league kidders don't know what to do with that splitter. That splitters real, and it can it can take my career to another level. If I'm in the zone and you're right, he does back down off the fast boy. He doesn't throw ninety nine ninety eight like he used to. I think some of that is command related, quite honestly. I think he commands it better at ninety four ninety five. And it's nice to know you have it in there when you need it. But if it's gonna be in this zone more at ninety four ninety five, then I'm okay with him cutting some off, you know, to be in better counts. So yeah, really impressive night from him. Obviously, I really thought we might have something special. It really started feeling like it. He really got his pitch count under control to the point where he thought, man, he could do this, like if he he could do this. And then obviously they got a single on the eighth then that that ended it. But I was impressed he got he gave up that single on the first hitter in the eighth inning and then immediately got three outs. You know a lot of times after you give up that first hit, the air comes out and you give up a three run homer and now it's a game again. And he didn't do that, and I was very That was honestly, and maybe more impressive to me than the start itself was how he responded after he gave up the hit to get out of that any clean. So really really big, big time performance from a twenty two year old. 00:06:20 Speaker 1: And of course, you know, the Braves had been hoping that, you know, at some point they would not necessarily get a you know player to step up like Bryce Elder did or excuse me, I'm Bryce Elder. We're good to him in just a second, but like Spencer Swellerbach did last year. But they were hoping they really needed to see one of their young pitchers step up to deliver, especially early in the season as they were waiting on Spencer. Strider had come back, and A J. Smith Shauber is starting to do that. But it's not just a J. Smith Schauber. We've talked about Grant Holmes, you know, Friday night, Grant Holmes struck out show hey O, Tani, Mookie Bets and pretty freeman in the row. Bryce after did the same thing and had a really good start. If you look over the past three weeks, you start to see Grant Holmes, Bryce Elder, and A. J. Smith Schauber, all three of them really starting to give some confidence in their pitches and pitch well. And then you look back at the schedule and you're like, over the past ten games that Bryce Selder, Grant Holmes or A. J. Smith Schapper has started for the Braves, the Braves are nine and one, nine and one on those last ten starts that those three pitchers have pitched. You want to talk about the depth of this starting rotation really starting to step up, especially when Chris Selle has not found his groove yet and Spencer Swellerbach has run into a bit of a struggle. It's really awesome to see Holmes Elder as well as Ad Smith Schouber step up. And then once you get Strider back, you now got some depth. We've all desperately been warning for this rotation, especially with how much they've lost in the off season. 00:07:47 Speaker 2: Yeah, you might look back at this stretch where those three guys kind of kept this team, kept this team afloat while sel figured his stuff out, while Schwallenbach figured his stuff out, and while Strider got healthy. You might look back at this stretch as one of the keys to the season. If the Brave's going to run and those three guys finally find their form, because that's incredible. And me, that's when you told me that before the we started to record. That's an incredible stet. Nine to one, last ten guy, last ten games. Those three guys have started. The offense is some of that, but those guys have pitched well. I mean, I can't only think of maybe one time where like the offense had to bail one of those guys out in that stretch. So incredible. And the Brave, I mean, my god, you talk about timing. The Braves desperately needed it. You know, the season was kind of slipping away. They finally went on this run. A lot of it contributed by those three guys you just mentioned, and they've kind of righted the ship and at least you know they're they're not in such dire straits as they were three weeks ago. And yeah, if theyre going to run after this, then we're gonna look back on this stretch where those three guys were in the rotation out of pure necessity and delivered like this. Because it's been massive and so I get some tough opponents in some tough parks, these guys have really done well, and so hats off to all three of them. The Braves would be in a lot of trouble without these three guys, and all of them deserve tons of credit for what they're doing right now. 00:09:18 Speaker 1: Absolutely, and we'll discuss a few more players who are definitely deserving the credit right after this message from our partners. 00:09:25 Speaker 3: If you want to be bougie and have your own personal shopper, Hungry Riot is actually the spot, and you can do it at an affordable price. 00:09:31 Speaker 4: Yeah, without a doubt. And especially with my busy schedule with kids on the run all the time, baseball, gymnastics, I need a source that's gonna get me going and my kids as well. So I'll pop in an easy chicken palm or grilled chicken, put it in a nice container, get it to go, and the kids are excited and they're full and they're nutritional, and it's ready to rock for their games. 00:09:50 Speaker 3: There will be snacks that you have never heard of that you will immediately fall in love with. They will pick them out for you if you want. Obviously, you can go on there, you pick all of your preferences. Hunger gets the job done, okay, ftfam, We love Hunger. Take advantage of this exclusive offer for a limited time forty percent off your first box, plus a free item in every box for life. At hunger dot com slash f T. That's code f T Hunger dot com slash ft code f T for forty percent off your first box and a free item of your choice for life. The code is simple, it's two letters f T. 00:10:28 Speaker 1: So Stephen, obviously when we took you know, you talk about the fact that you know, the season was you know, kind of teetering on the brink there for a while, and it's been awesome to see how Bryce Elder and Grant Holmes, as well as A. J. Smith Shauber have really helped kind of write this ship. You know, yes, we're still two games that are five hundred, but we're coming along. You've been a pretty you know, better rate than we were. But I go back to April eighteenth, you know, we that was two weeks after you know, we had found out that Jerks and Profar was going to be out for the first half the season, also out for the playoffs. We were kind of scuffling, you know, when my Harris be the leadoff hitter until Ronald came back. Would osi Albiz, you know, who would fill in and then lo and behold, Alex Rdugo comes up, and Verdugo has a good game. He has another good game, and he has another good game, and lo and behold. I know I've said that two times now in the past minute. We're now nearly two and a half weeks into the Alex Redugo experience, and I know that in recent years he has struggled at the plate, but he is making a huge difference out of that leadoff spot. And it's not like he's putting up otherworldly power numbers or anything like that. He's just consistently putting together good at bats since April eighteenth, when Alex rdu Verdugo took over the leadoff spot for the Braves. The Braves among all the MLB teams, they have a one to twelve WRC plus out of the leadoff spot. That's twelfth among MLB teams out of the leadoff spot since April eighteenth. But the biggest stat of all that is such an awesome, awesome compliment to the rest of this lineup. Out of the leadoff spot, the Raves hitters have only struck out five point eight percent of the time over the past two and a half weeks. That's the best strikeout rate out of the leadoff spot in the Majors since Verdugo came enjoyed the Braves. That is such a huge asset to the rest of this Braise lineup. A guy that can put the ball in play, a guy that can put together good at bats. You had hoped Profar would be that guy, but when he wasn't, Dugo coming in and maybe even doing better than many of us could have expected Profar to do. It's been awesome to see and it's been a big reason why our lineup is again coming along. Get a good clip, yeah, I mean, just look at the last two games. Tonight he had two hits in a walk. He was on base three times. Last night, he was on base both times. 00:12:39 Speaker 2: When Riley hit his homers, so that you know it took two solo homers into two two run homers. He's got a one thirty two WRC plus since joining the team, which is tremendous. I think my favorite Brudugo s dadd is he's got six walks and four strikeouts. He's got more walks than strikeouts since joining the team. You don't see a lot of that in this day and age. You don't see a lot of guys. You know, that's it's not easy to do in today's game to have more walks and strikeouts. He's been, I mean, he's been everything the Braves needed, and you're right, everything the Braves kind of thought Profar was going to be at the top of the lineup. He's just been on all He's got a three to eighty five on base percentage since joining the team. Three eighty five. That's like, that's like Akunya's average. That's like a Kunya's career average like that, that's the level that he normally sits at. So you can't say enough. I mean, this guy was signed in late March for like two million bucks. You know, there are anybody in baseball could have had Alex Radugo, anybody The Braves didn't exactly go out and you know, have to beat a bunch of teams in a bidding war to get him. And where would they be without him right now? I mean, the outfield was such a disaster. You know, Eli White Nick Allen have also come along and and shored up some black holes that the team had for a long time. The entire outfit was just a disaster for the first three weeks of the year, and then Dugo and Eli White have kind of taken over, and then you know, Nick Allen at shortstop, I don't know where the Brads wo be with that. You know, we talked about the three guys. Maybe that's the theme now is you know, you got these three unheralded guys in the rotation and Smith, Shoalver Elder and Holmes, and you got the three unheralded guys in the lineup and Verdugo, Eli White and Nick Allen. I mean, where would the Brads be without those six guys. I mean, not only have the Brais had injuries, but some of their best players have not performed to the level we thought they would. Those six guys out of nowhere have kind of righted the ship and helped save the Brave season. And so massive credit to them, Massive credit to Alex Rodugo. You know, he did not have the year he wanted with the Yankees last year. Obviously did not have a free agency that he wanted. And you know, if he keeps playing like this, he's gonna get a nice payday in the offseason. He's obviously going to be a free agent again, and we've talked about it before. I'm very interesting what happens with jerksip Profile comes back, because are you just gonna t away starts from Alex Radugo. I mean, I don't know if you have an opinion on this, but like I don't, I'm not I'm not just taking Verdugo out of the line. I mean, I know, I know Profile makes a lot of money, but like, if Dugo's earned the starts, he's getting you muted, Sean, you muted. 00:15:21 Speaker 1: Give me goodness production overpay all day long. When it comes to the leadof Spot, especially when it comes to what we kind of know Profar has been, you know, suspended for you know, I think Profar could definitely be a useful piece. But if Dugo is doing well, I mean, neither one of them are going to be the leadof Spot. Obviously, when Ronald comes back, that's something to remember. So I think that kind of plays into it. But if Alex Rdugo, you're not getting Profar back to the first of July. So if Alex Verdugo wants Macune comes back, if he still has a WRC plus well over one hundred, he's playing good left field defense. I think you certainly continue to plug and play him, and then of course if you falls off, then you could just play profar. But the other thing that I want to speak to We've got Ridugo out and left, We've got Nick Allen at shortstop. We've got Eli White out in right field. Something that I don't think is being talked about enough. We talk about what is this team going to do? Where is this team going to be elite in order to win at the rate that it needs to to be able to get out of the hall that it started in the season. Well, what a lead aspect of this team is the defense. 00:16:24 Speaker 4: Now. 00:16:24 Speaker 1: I know that defense overall is tough to measure depending on which metric you use, but I'm a believer in if you see your team among the top five and several defensive metrics, that means they're a pretty good defensive team. And that's what this team is. They're up there in terms of out of average, they're up there in terms of drs. Whatever you want to use as a metric, this Braves team stands out and right now they're playing some of their best defenders. I know that that may go a little bit down once we get Ronald ocoony Back and others. But the thing that stands out to me is that that bench is still going to be very versatile defensively. Steven the defense has been huge. If he can continue to be that way, that's something that can help your pitching staff sustain success to go along with the offense. 00:17:09 Speaker 2: Well, Nick Allen is as good a defensive shortstop as I've seen in a Braves uniform, maybe since Angelton. You know, I know Dansby had some really good years. I don't want to discredit Dansby, but Nick Allen is nasty at shortstop. He made some incredible plays tonight, made some incredible plays. On Sunday, Brad and I talked about it. He's just so solid and listen, I know he can't hit and he's not gonna you know, he's not gonna hit, even even though he's running like a three eighty batting average of balls and play he's got like a ADWRC plus. So, like, all signs point to the fact that he's not gonna hit. But when you play shortstop at that level, like this is what they thought Orlando Orsi was gonna be, right, They thought he was gonna be this elite defender who can live at the bottom of the lineup and maybe every once a while get a big hit and you live with it because the defense is so good. That's Nick Allen to a t. So he's been a godsend on defense. Eli White has been incredible. Obviously, Michael Harris, we're not gonna go deep into I know a lot have a lot of people tweeting me about Michael Harris about are you worried about Michael Harris? What do you think about Michael Harris? His numbers are just absolutely in the toilet. He's got like a forty eight WRC plus for the season. There will be time for that. We're not gonna talk about that tonight. But he is still an elite defender in center field. And that's to Shawn's point. He does help the defense. Matt Olsen is playing unreal defense at first. We haven't talked about that a lot. You know, Murphy is a great defensive catcher. You know, Albi's is not a great defensive second basement anymore, but he's had a decent year over there. Riley is really improved over there. I mean they are a strong defensive team right now. And let's say when you're not scoring a ton of runs. And they scored four runs tonight, scored four runs last night. Catching the ball. You know, it's a zero sum game and keeping runs off the board is just like scoring more runs. Yeah, it's been a it's been a huge help. And I think a lot of it starts with Nicky Allen and Eli White, who have really helped change the defensive, you know, culture of the team a little bit. And yeah, it's been a it's been a it's been incredible to watch, quite honestly. 00:19:16 Speaker 1: Absolutely, And we'll have a few more thoughts on, you know, some notable Braves who are on the field as well as currently off the field, but hopefully on the field soon here in just a moment, Steve, And I'll be honest with you when it comes to the Braves, I would think that if you were to look of the ten or fifteen guys in the National League who you were most confident would hit forty home runs, the Braves probably had the two that you would be most confident. None of those would be inside the park home runs in Matt Olsen as well as Marcello Zuna, Neither one of them are necessarily a speed Merchant on the base pass. But lo and behold, Matt Olsen had an inside the park home run tonight. That was the good news. Unfortunately, the bad news was it Rocky Tyler, and only his fourth game for the Reds, made a spectacular ep out in left field. Unfortunately, I haven't seen any updates. It looked like that he he had a pretty severe injury to his his arm. That's what kind of contributed to Matt Olson's inside the park home run. Seems like he may be out for a while. Certainly want to wish him the best. You hate to see that, especially for someone so early in his career. But I bring that up because I don't We've seen players get injured before and that's led to inside the park home runs. 00:20:28 Speaker 4: You know. 00:20:29 Speaker 1: Acune injury, I think was the one that stands out to me the most. But it's never one of those things that you like to see. Certainly wishing Tyler Callahan the best. 00:20:39 Speaker 2: Yeah, jass Chisholm had a inside the park homer when when Acuna tore his a cl in Miami in twenty one, Yeah, that was a nasty injury. The Reds did announce that he fractured his forearm, so he's obviously out for the season. That was. That was nice. It was a hell of a play. I mean, to make that as close as it was. I saw Reds fans who were adamant that that was a catch. I don't I don't think that was. I think the umpire's got that right. I'm gonna actually go back and look and read the rule, but I'm fairly certain the umpire's got that right on the ruling. I also saw some Reds fans who are mad that Matt Olsen was like running the bases like it's a live ball, Like your job is to score there, Like, you know, nobody wants to see anybody hurt. But when the ball's you know, it's a it's a live ball, you gotta run. So, I you know, I thought that was a little ridiculous, But yeah, real, I mean that was an I mean that that that was one of the more violent injuries I've seen on a baseball field that that did. That did not involve two players colliding or a ball hitting a player like that was. That was nasty and so yeah, all the you know, our thoughts are with that. With Tyler, I mean, that was he's probably gonna be out for the year. But man, that was nasty and obviously did help the Braves end up being a tour on Homer. But you never want you you never we never want injuries. I don't care who it is, I don't care what team they played for. You never root for injuries. You never want to see guys get hurt. And I hope that dude has a speedy recovery and gets back. It's such a bummer. He just he literally just came up, like you said, it was only his fourth game in the majors. Dude to live in his dream and then breaks his arm, you know, kind of a freak play. So yeah, all the best to him, you know. Obviously I hope for a speedy recovery. 00:22:28 Speaker 1: Absolutely and hope he's back on the field as soon as possible. The other thing that that, you know, was a notable news today was that I know that last time we spoke on Friday, we just talked about ag or excuse me, aj Spens shopper, Ronald Accuoney junior, you know how they had talked about it would probably still be kind of a month or so before we see him on the field. Well, it was announced today, at first that he was going to have to go back to LA get checked out one more time and after that probably would have the green light to do a rehab assignment. Well then it was announced within I think about her of an hour or so that actually doesn't have to go back to LA. So nothing has really changed in the ronald' kooney junior front, but it just what was confirmed today was that it literally now is up to the braves. Whenever the brave was feeled that he is ready to get on that rehab assignment, he likely will start that rehab assignment. We won't cover it like we did on Friday. The big thing is this is that now we're to the point where any day now still likely going to be a bit of time, but any day now we could hear that ronald' koune junior will be ready to go. Still likely will be multiple weeks of a rehab assignment to really get him in that game shape, but it's good to see that we're coming get into the ten yard line in the process of his recovery and there's not been any type of setback. Continues to be positive news, so hopefully sooner rather than later, maybe towards the end of this month, likely early June. It's going to be good to see Ronald back. 00:23:43 Speaker 2: Yeah, nothing else. Today's news just meant it might go a little quicker, you know. Obviously, the initial plan was he was going to go back to La get checked out again. They apparently had a phone call with his surgeon today and he confirmed that they that he did not need to see Ronald, that he you know, it's kind of up the team to decide, you know, if he's ready to do a rehab. He's been cleared of everything medically, and now it's just up to the team and Ronald to kind of figure out how quickly he's gonna come back. My guess is, whenever he starts a rehab stint, it's probably gonna be a couple of weeks of rehab games. I'm sure they're gonna want to see him play back to back games. They're wanna They're gonna want to see him run around. They're gonna want to see how he responds after the game the next day, you know, how much movement, how you know, any limitations. You know, even though we're in early May right now, even if he starts a rehab stint, you know, at the end of the week or at the beginning of next week. Even if it's something that quick, they're gonna still take their time. So yeah, I still think it's gonna be end of the month, probably most likely even into maybe early June. But listen, Brad and I talked about this. No, there's very few players in baseball that use their legs as much as Ronald and I don't just mean running stolen bases speed, I mean when hitting. The dude is an entire like lower half hitter. That's why that's how he can hit a ball so far. Being this you know, weigh one hundred and eighty pounds, I mean, he's an entire lower half hitter. He uses his legs for everything. So it's worth it. It's worth waiting, it's worth taking the extra time to make sure he's got his legs. It was a good update today, but you know, I am in I have no interest in rushing this thing. Make sure that when you get Ronald back, he's got those legs. He feels comfortable and confident in them because they are literally, quite literally the key to his entire game. And you know, we want to see vintage Ronald back. We don't want to see, you know, a kind of a shell of what he can be. So you want to wait. You want to make sure you're patient and he comes back fully healthy. 00:25:50 Speaker 1: Absolutely, absolutely, And again, as we've discussed before, you want Ronald not only fully healthy, but to know be competent in the fact he's healthy. That's going to be your best formula. 00:26:00 Speaker 2: And it is like a lot of it's mental, it really is. And one good thing is he's done it before. This is not his first time, but like, yeah, one hundred percent, a lot of it is mental. 00:26:10 Speaker 1: Yeah, and that's what's going to give you the best stavenue to get the Vinyl that we all know and love back as soon as possible. Well, let's talk about this, and I want to give a little bit of an apology. I kind of think I sell seldom a bit short to the Reds. The Reds are a really good pitching team, Like their starting staff is one of the best in baseball. So if you're a fan of pitching, the remainder of this series is going to have plenty of good pitching matchups. Tomorrow Andrew Abbott versus Chris Sale Christill of course coming off his best start of the season, Hunter Green versus Grant Homes on Wednesday, and then Spencer Swellerbock versus Nicoldolo on Thursday. What stands out to me is this, the starting staff is going to have to remain on the top of their game throughout this entire series, Stephen. But the offense what separates these two teams. The Braves offense is better. So this pitching staff is going to need to continue to do well. But this Braves offense, especially runs early in the game like they have over the past couple of games. If they can give their starters room to work, we should be able to see good results. This is a series since you won the series opener, you could take three or four and that'll be a massive, massive, massive response coming off what you did losing three straight to the Rockies and the Dodgers. So it's right there for you. But you can't let off starting Staff's got to be good. Bullpen asks to be Chris. But what separates this team from the Reds is the offense. The offense is gonna have to stand tall at the end of the day. 00:27:31 Speaker 2: Yeah, listen, you got Chris Saylee, Grant Holmes and Spencer Swallenbach pitching the next three games at home. I think the Braves have more talent than the Reds. The Reds have played better than the Braves this year, but I think the Braves have more talent. Like you need, now that you've won the first one, you can reasonably go out and expect you need to win two of the next three games. Whether you're three best guys going. You know, the Reds have struggled on offense this year, especially away from home. They do have a really good pitching staff. It is a good team, but you have sale homes Schwellenbach. Next three games, you know, the offense looks better than it did in those two frustrating games against the Rockies and Dodgers. Go win two or three, Go win two of the next three, win the series, and then go You know, the schedule lightens up a little bit and you can make some hay again. But it'd be really disappointed at this point. You know, when coming into the series a split would have been a reasonable outcome. I get with two good teams, but now that you've won game one, you can be a little greedy, like three or four, that's fine, that like we should be aiming for that now, and if you win the next one, then you know, maybe you can even look at a sweep. But at this point, I think it's reasonable to say anything less than three out of four would be disappointing with your literally your three best pitchers going next against an offense that struggled. So yeah, I one hundred percent agree, go win three or four, get some momentum, get into an easier part of your schedule, maybe get some better and better news on Acunyon and Strider, and let's get this thing roll. 00:29:13 Speaker 1: Absolutely, And if you can put together another series win, especially three or four, you're gonna have another tough series against another team that's you know, starting to play better in the Astros. But hey, you sit there, you put together another you know, you win four out of five, basically going to that Astro series. Now you're staring five hundred in the face and really starting to see your season turn around. Steven, anything else you have for us on this edition of the Hammer Territory Podcast. 00:29:37 Speaker 2: No, I know you guys have seen us a lot. We don't typically do this many shows this you know soon, but obviously A J. Smith Shaver was so good tonight we could not talk about it, and so credit to him. What a game, what an awesome best game of his career. And I haven't even looked that up, but I'm almost positive that was the best game of his career only twenty two years old. Tons of talent, keep commanding that fastball, use that splitter as a weapon, and man, you know, the sky's the limit. Fore aj, He's got all the talent in the world. So unbelievable game, a lot of fun, really fun game to watch. And keep it going. Boys, let's get let's let's win at least two of the next three. Win this series and then go from there. 00:30:20 Speaker 1: Listen us being a part of the foul Territory family that's just a year and a few days old. This honestly has been one of the better months of baseball that we've seen in our time covering the Braves. So hey, if we're gonna be able to talk about stuff quite a bit, it's much more fun to talk about them when they're doing well than not so well. You can find me at Stat's sec on Twitter. You can find Steven Tobert at Bender score Outliers. One of the best when it comes to covering the Braves. Hair a territory across all forms of social media. Foul Territory part of the great family of podcast at foul Territory. Find it all over social media as well. Until next time for Sean Coleman and Steven Tobert, as always, go braids. We'll talk to you again soon here on The Hammer Territory, the podcast