<img alt="Atlanta Braves v New York Mets" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/egJS4vHSe-vCo7YQP_C3hAnXf0k=/0x0:3824x2549/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73498040/2164125865.0.jpg">
Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images
The Braves’ second sub-.500 month of the year at least ended on a positive note. If everything was about vibes, well, then July 2024 was about the most whiplash-inducing calendar month a team could have. The Braves ping-ponged between vibe extremes during the month:
They defeated the Phillies in a series early on; but then...
...came out of the All-Star Break ineptly, losing six of seven; including...
...a six-game losing streak that was the longest during the team’s current run of playoff appearances; which also featured...
...probably the worst loss of the season for the team, where they were foiled by sheer, doesn’t-belong-on-a-baseball-field ineptitude; and yet...
...they then rebounded to win four of five to close out the month, including taking a series from the NL Central-leading Brewers on the road.
Oh, they also made the ultimate vibe-laden move by re-acquiring postseason hero Jorge Soler, while not doing anything else to shore up the roster. It was a crazy month, basically.
But, everything isn’t about vibes, and really, the Braves’ 12-13 July, one where they nonetheless had a positive run differential, was really just more of the same for a team that’s been beleaguered and beaten down by things other than their performance. In addition to losing Max Fried (short-term) and Ozzie Albies (longer-term) and going through an injury scare with Reynaldo Lopez, the Braves once again finished with a notable xwOBA underperformance, this time the sixth-worst in baseball. While a marked improvement from May (second-worst) and June (third-worst), the reality is that the Braves still have the worst xwOBA underperformance in baseball since May began. In that span, they have the 12th-highest xwOBA but the seventh-lowest wOBA; in July, it was the 11th-highest xwOBA and eighth-lowest wOBA. So it goes, and as a result, the Braves will enter August at 58-49, with a tenuous 1.5-game advantage to holding a playoff spot. The roster remains strong, despite the injuries, and there’s always the hope that maybe they won’t get dumped on by the threads of ball-in-play stuff in August, but the dumping has been a constant companion so far.
Consequently, the Braves finished July a miserable 27th in position player fWAR, including a placement of 25th in wRC+. For the season, they’re now 19th in position player fWAR and wRC+ both, despite the eighth-highest xwOBA, which, yeah. They finished sixth in pitching fWAR for the month (tenth for the rotation, third for the bullpen), but with by far the best xFIP for any staff in July. For the year, they’ve moved up to the second-best pitching staff overall (fourth rotation, fifth bullpen). The record is not surprising in terms of outputs — you’d expect a team with a stellar pitching staff and below-average hitting to be something around the top ten of teams, and the Braves enter August with the ninth-best record in MLB. They’re better than that in both run differential (eighth-best) and BaseRuns (seventh-best), and are two wins off their pace on both. But the long-lasting underperformance of their inputs remains the big problem, and the Braves haven’t found a way to bend fortune to their will just yet.
This definitely had an effect game-to-game, as you can see below;
<img alt=" " data-mask-text="false" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/HEerx9VrVs4Tr3e8EFDoap9s40M=/400x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25556754/Screenshot_2024_08_02_092118.png">
Game-to-game, the Braves were supposed to go 13-12 or 14-11 for the month, but of course, underperformed that. The loss when facing Hayden Birdsong and the Giants at home was probably the worst of the month in that regard, but it happens, especially when you allow a .420 xwOBA (and .391 wOBA) to the opposing lineup. But, that sort of thing was actually the exception, in some ways. Check out the following: the Braves outhit their xwOBA in nine games for the month. In those nine games, they went 6-3. In the remaining games, they went 6-10. They out-xwOBAed their opponents in 16 games, and went 11-5; they went 1-7 when out-xwOBAed, which is rough.
With that said, though, the vibes right now are way more positive than before. Sure, winning four of five to end the month will do that, and acquiring Jorge Soler basically goes to 11 on the vibe-o-meter. But, there’s more to it than that, largely because the team is finally doing what they were expected to. Not only have the Braves out-xwOBAed opponents in their last eight games, they’ve also out-wOBAed them in five of their last six. They’re also finally hitting bombs: they’ve hit 18 in their last seven games, after hitting zero in the three-game period before that (and just eight in the seven-game period before this one, with four of those coming in the same game). While the Braves are still second-to-last in their rate of barrels becoming hits, their rate of barrels becoming homers has now surged upwards, allowing them to escape the worst such rate in MLB at long last.
Will the vibes continue into August? They did into the series opener, as the Braves again rode three homers and not much else to victory. We’ll see what happens, but despite a 12-13 month, you can’t blame the Braves for dreaming a bit at this point.
Totally Meaningless Ivan Award for July 2024 Performance - Position Players
I’ve been on this blog long enough to remember the fierce, partisan conflicts of yesteryear — there were the Nate McLouth/Jordan Schafer wars, the inimitably stupid Jason Heyward/Jose Constanza conflict, the persistent existence of Nick Markakis, and so on. What we have this year is a little stranger, and was rendered even stranger still in July, as Travis d’Arnaud went ham, further muddling the catching situation in Atlanta for the foreseeable future.
I’m not going to use this space to talk about the catching decisions for this franchise, because enough digital ink has been spilled in that regard everywhere else. Instead, I’m going to tell you that Travis d’Arnaud had a hilarious 198 wRC+ in July, finishing 0.1 fWAR away from the team led only because he got 50 PAs to Marcell Ozuna’s 106.
Did he get lucky? Sure, he outhit his xwOBA by a hefty .036. But, his xwOBA itself was a second-on-the-team .420 (behind Ozuna’s .429). But hitting four homers (both in multihomer games) in 12 games is pretty impressive, not to mention that he also played a big role in two other games (including one the Braves lost).
Anyway, thanks for the homers, Travis, though I’m a little less thankful for the internecine conflict you’ve emboldened with your awesome July.
Totally Meaningless Ivan Award for July 2024 Performance - Starting Pitchers
Chris Sale is now tied for the MLB fWAR lead among starting pitchers with 4.1, despite having two fewer starts than co-leader Garrett Crochet, and three fewer starts than co-leader George Kirby. His numbers in July weren’t quite so video game-y in some respects (59/59/78, compared to 67/59/62 prior to July), but he got similar-to-better results, and really mostly dominated the game in each of his five tries. The Braves had fairly easy wins in four of his five starts, and the fifth, well, I don’t want to talk about it (but we definitely will later).
As a random note, Spencer Schwellenbach actually had a lower ERA and xFIP than Sale in July, though he only made four starts over the course of the month. Maybe he’ll win this award in August? Who knows.
Totally Meaningless Ivan Award for July 2024 Performance - Relief Pitchers
Was Joe Jimenez the best Braves’ reliever in July? No, no he was not. A lot of guys in the bullpen had either dominant peripherals and/or dominant results; Raisel Iglesias didn’t get charged with a run all month, and thereby avoided any meltdowns. Jimenez did not avoid any meltdowns; there was a game in Arizona where bad things happened. But there was also a game in Arizona where he shut the door with a one-run lead and the mystically-placed runner on second, and I’m a sucker for succeeding through stupid adversity, so there you go.
Something that amuses me about Jimenez is that his line is now 55/66/100, which is probably not what the Braves were overtly aiming for when they re-signed him coming off a 68/83/82 season. July only furthered the wackiness, as he went 39/64/103 in the month after a 61/67/99 through June. Now rocking a cool 2.0 percent HR/FB, it’s clear he stole A.J. Minter’s mojo and then some, but hey, the Braves will take it. Let’s just hope this particular worm doesn’t turn.
Best Offensive Play - Murphy’s turn to play savior
July 8. The Braves have just taken a series from the Phillies, but their inconsistent season winds on, with them trailing the Diamondbacks in the series opener in Phoenix by two runs in the ninth. With two outs and two strikes, Eddie Rosario gives the team a little bit of life by rolling a single through the right side, bringing up Sean Murphy. Murphy watches a ball, then a strike. Then, he gives the Braves a whole lotta life, and helps make this the third win of a four-game streak:
It seemed like, at the time, that this game could save the season. But, even after winning this one and the next one, the Braves ended up splitting the four-game set. Then, after taking a series from the Padres, they withered coming out of the All-Star Break. Baseball, man.
Best Run-Stopping Play - Better lucky than good
Pierce Johnson has been really good this season, but sometimes, you also need a little luck to help you out. The Braves haven’t usually gotten that this season, but they did here:
This ball was hit sub-70 mph, but it wouldn’t have mattered if it weren’t hit right to Matt Olson. Thankfully, it was, and the Braves walked it off in the bottom of the inning. Had this ball not found Olson despite its poor velocity, chances are the Cardinals score two here, and the Braves have a massive losing streak coming out of the All-Star Break. Thanks, luck!
Most Dominant Single Game Offensive Performance
The Braves tangled with the Padres in a rubber game on the day before the All-Star Break. Travis d’Arnaud tangled with destiny.
In a tie game in the fifth, he drew a walk and... stole a base.
He later scored the go-ahead run. The very next inning, with two on, he gave his team some much-needed cushion. But he wasn’t done there, either. In the eighth, after the Padres had made it a two-run game, he struck again, capping the scoring.
d’Arnaud has three multihomer games in 2024 so far; that’s as many as he had from 2020-2023 combined.
Most Dominant Single Game Starting Pitching Performance
Even before the vibes got great, Spencer Schwellenbach tried his best to improve them. Two days after the debacle that was July 24 (we’ll get to it, I swear, even if you don’t want to), and a day after the Mets crushed Charlie Morton with three homers, it was up to Schwellenbach to do something to avoid the malaise from turning into murder, and he did that and then some.
Facing the very same Mets that had won the first two games of the series and had the best offense since the summer started, Schwellenbach hit a completely new level of dominance. He struck out 11 Metropolitans while walking none, allowing just two baserunners (both doubles) in a seven-inning statement that he could be the next Braves’ youngster to fly through the system and have a huge impact on MLB proceedings.
How do you even top this start? I have no idea. A Maddux to clinch a playoff spot, or something?
Most Dominant Relief Pitching Performance
After Murphy’s game-tying homer on July 8, the job wasn’t done. The Braves got a sacrifice fly in the tenth, but so did the Diamondbacks. The Braves got another sacrifice fly in the 11th, but nothing else, which meant it was up to Joe Jimenez to slam the door. He did! There was a weak flyout, a walk, a strikeout of Christian Walker, and then this scary fly ball from Lourdes Gurriel Jr. that ultimately didn’t do any harm but just ended the game.
Most Crushed Dinger
The Braves lost this game, but good lord, Marcell Ozuna. This is beyond majestic, it’s like undying imperial interstellar hegemony in a three-book scifi series overwhelming:
And yet, despite all this awesome above, the Braves went 12-13. Can the vibes be good even if the month was bad? Sure seems so, but the vibes about the below were very, very bad indeed.
Worst Offensive Result - The Jarred Kelenic / Ramon Laureano bunting debacle
Nothing else in the past half-decade plus made me have an existential crisis about the Braves more than this play. Not the spending on relievers, not the slow starts, not getting swept by the Phillies to open the 2021 season nor the next four months of that year, not the presence of a draggier ball making the beginning of 2024 a slog, nothing. It was this Katamari Damacy-esque Gargantua of sheer stupidity, where Jarred Kelenic (in his own words) decided to do “too much” and showed bunt with the go-ahead run on third, didn’t actually bunt the pseudo-pitchout he received, and resulted in Ramon Laureano getting thrown out.
Beyond the play itself, I don’t understand what Kelenic was doing. Who in the dugout or in the organization is coaching guys to bunt to get these types of runs in? Moreover, who isn’t drilling the idea that the approach they are coaching is the right one and shouldn’t be deviated from into the players’ heads?
The only saving grace here is that we haven’t seen much more of this inanity, and the Braves’ current homer binge started after this particularly prickly example of hitting rock bottom. If that’s what it had to take to get the boys swinging for the fences again, well, I’m still not sure it was worth it.
Worst Pitching Defensive Result - A major leaguer overruns an easy fly somehow
Oh, but things weren’t over yet. In the bottom of the inning, Pierce Johnson was doing mensch-like things, striking out both J.D. Martinez and Mark Vientos to try and give his teammates another shot to win it, gigantic goof in the top of the inning and all. And he did! Jeff McNeil pulled a curveball into an easy, weakly hit pop fly down the right field line that ended the inning... or it does in most universes, except this one, where Laureano somehow overran the ball.
This ball was hit at 81 mph off the bat and falls in for a hit about three percent of the time. After the play, Laureano said that he doesn’t do (or not do, I guess) things like that. Well, he did this time, and perhaps the bigger surprise is that he didn’t get jettisoned off the roster immediately. I guess the rest of the season is his chance for redemption once again, because this was just one disaster piled atop another.
Worst Single-Game Hitting Existing Performance
Sorry, still mad about Laureano (and Kelenic) (and whatever it took to get the Braves there).
Worst Single-Game Starting Pitching Performance
The Braves went 1-5 out of the All-Star Break. They gave a start to Bryce Elder (he wasn’t bad, but they lost). They gave a start to Allan Winans (he was horrible and they lost). They did not give any of those starts to Chris Sale (though they lost his start too, thanks to f’n Kelenic and Laureano). I’m not mad that Winans got shelled, even though he did, because, well, what did you expect? I’m more mad that the Braves went this way despite having almost no cushion in the standings. But I’m flummoxed and/or hangry about the fact that while Winans was getting trashed by the Cardinals, they actually pulled him before he hit the apparently-sacred 100-pitch mark.
To be clear, this team has let Max Fried (who wasn’t pitching well) face a batter a fourth time through, I guess because of pitch count. This team doesn’t make decisions based on the time through the order penalty, even when definitely warranted, even in the playoffs. But in a game that was already a lost cause, with a soft-tossing pitcher who could definitely eat some more innings and help save the bullpen (the team’s primary obsession, or so it feels on most days), they pulled Winans after 65 pitches and seven outs, during which he had allowed two homers while putting up a 3/2 K/BB ratio. I can’t really make it make sense; I can only tell you that they did the same thing with Charlie Morton a few days later. Sigh.
Worst Single-Game Relief Pitching Performance
The Braves’ only loss on this recent run of super-homer-fun-time came when Grant Holmes (who was awesome!) departed after five innings, and the Braves opted to give Jesse Chavez the sixth inning.
Chavez has had a weird season, with a 43/110/94 line coming into this game. Is he one of the Braves’ four best relievers that should be locking down a one-run game? Probably not. Unfortunately, that decision turned rotten on the Braves pretty quickly, as a leadoff bloop single and a walk put two on, and after a forceout, Willy Adames did his best Marcell Ozuna impression:
Of course, Chavez then rebounded by getting two weak groundouts to end the inning, meaning that his frame was four weakly hit balls, a walk, and that three-run homer. Yeah, that sucks, but so does Chavez’ 118 FIP- at this point. Maybe Joe Jimenez stole his mojo and A.J. Minter’s mojo. That makes sense.
Most Crushed Dinger Allowed
Max Fried didn’t even have to watch this one:
On the flip side, Eugenio Suarez did some kind of weird binoculars gesture, so it’s like he watched it for the both of them.
See you next month!
<img alt="Atlanta Braves v New York Mets" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/egJS4vHSe-vCo7YQP_C3hAnXf0k=/0x0:3824x2549/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73498040/2164125865.0.jpg">
Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images
The Braves’ second sub-.500 month of the year at least ended on a positive note. If everything was about vibes, well, then July 2024 was about the most whiplash-inducing calendar month a team could have. The Braves ping-ponged between vibe extremes during the month:
They defeated the Phillies in a series early on; but then...
...came out of the All-Star Break ineptly, losing six of seven; including...
...a six-game losing streak that was the longest during the team’s current run of playoff appearances; which also featured...
...probably the worst loss of the season for the team, where they were foiled by sheer, doesn’t-belong-on-a-baseball-field ineptitude; and yet...
...they then rebounded to win four of five to close out the month, including taking a series from the NL Central-leading Brewers on the road.
Oh, they also made the ultimate vibe-laden move by re-acquiring postseason hero Jorge Soler, while not doing anything else to shore up the roster. It was a crazy month, basically.
But, everything isn’t about vibes, and really, the Braves’ 12-13 July, one where they nonetheless had a positive run differential, was really just more of the same for a team that’s been beleaguered and beaten down by things other than their performance. In addition to losing Max Fried (short-term) and Ozzie Albies (longer-term) and going through an injury scare with Reynaldo Lopez, the Braves once again finished with a notable xwOBA underperformance, this time the sixth-worst in baseball. While a marked improvement from May (second-worst) and June (third-worst), the reality is that the Braves still have the worst xwOBA underperformance in baseball since May began. In that span, they have the 12th-highest xwOBA but the seventh-lowest wOBA; in July, it was the 11th-highest xwOBA and eighth-lowest wOBA. So it goes, and as a result, the Braves will enter August at 58-49, with a tenuous 1.5-game advantage to holding a playoff spot. The roster remains strong, despite the injuries, and there’s always the hope that maybe they won’t get dumped on by the threads of ball-in-play stuff in August, but the dumping has been a constant companion so far.
Consequently, the Braves finished July a miserable 27th in position player fWAR, including a placement of 25th in wRC+. For the season, they’re now 19th in position player fWAR and wRC+ both, despite the eighth-highest xwOBA, which, yeah. They finished sixth in pitching fWAR for the month (tenth for the rotation, third for the bullpen), but with by far the best xFIP for any staff in July. For the year, they’ve moved up to the second-best pitching staff overall (fourth rotation, fifth bullpen). The record is not surprising in terms of outputs — you’d expect a team with a stellar pitching staff and below-average hitting to be something around the top ten of teams, and the Braves enter August with the ninth-best record in MLB. They’re better than that in both run differential (eighth-best) and BaseRuns (seventh-best), and are two wins off their pace on both. But the long-lasting underperformance of their inputs remains the big problem, and the Braves haven’t found a way to bend fortune to their will just yet.
This definitely had an effect game-to-game, as you can see below;
<img alt=" " data-mask-text="false" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/HEerx9VrVs4Tr3e8EFDoap9s40M=/400x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25556754/Screenshot_2024_08_02_092118.png">
Game-to-game, the Braves were supposed to go 13-12 or 14-11 for the month, but of course, underperformed that. The loss when facing Hayden Birdsong and the Giants at home was probably the worst of the month in that regard, but it happens, especially when you allow a .420 xwOBA (and .391 wOBA) to the opposing lineup. But, that sort of thing was actually the exception, in some ways. Check out the following: the Braves outhit their xwOBA in nine games for the month. In those nine games, they went 6-3. In the remaining games, they went 6-10. They out-xwOBAed their opponents in 16 games, and went 11-5; they went 1-7 when out-xwOBAed, which is rough.
With that said, though, the vibes right now are way more positive than before. Sure, winning four of five to end the month will do that, and acquiring Jorge Soler basically goes to 11 on the vibe-o-meter. But, there’s more to it than that, largely because the team is finally doing what they were expected to. Not only have the Braves out-xwOBAed opponents in their last eight games, they’ve also out-wOBAed them in five of their last six. They’re also finally hitting bombs: they’ve hit 18 in their last seven games, after hitting zero in the three-game period before that (and just eight in the seven-game period before this one, with four of those coming in the same game). While the Braves are still second-to-last in their rate of barrels becoming hits, their rate of barrels becoming homers has now surged upwards, allowing them to escape the worst such rate in MLB at long last.
Will the vibes continue into August? They did into the series opener, as the Braves again rode three homers and not much else to victory. We’ll see what happens, but despite a 12-13 month, you can’t blame the Braves for dreaming a bit at this point.
Totally Meaningless Ivan Award for July 2024 Performance - Position Players
I’ve been on this blog long enough to remember the fierce, partisan conflicts of yesteryear — there were the Nate McLouth/Jordan Schafer wars, the inimitably stupid Jason Heyward/Jose Constanza conflict, the persistent existence of Nick Markakis, and so on. What we have this year is a little stranger, and was rendered even stranger still in July, as Travis d’Arnaud went ham, further muddling the catching situation in Atlanta for the foreseeable future.
I’m not going to use this space to talk about the catching decisions for this franchise, because enough digital ink has been spilled in that regard everywhere else. Instead, I’m going to tell you that Travis d’Arnaud had a hilarious 198 wRC+ in July, finishing 0.1 fWAR away from the team led only because he got 50 PAs to Marcell Ozuna’s 106.
Did he get lucky? Sure, he outhit his xwOBA by a hefty .036. But, his xwOBA itself was a second-on-the-team .420 (behind Ozuna’s .429). But hitting four homers (both in multihomer games) in 12 games is pretty impressive, not to mention that he also played a big role in two other games (including one the Braves lost).
Anyway, thanks for the homers, Travis, though I’m a little less thankful for the internecine conflict you’ve emboldened with your awesome July.
Totally Meaningless Ivan Award for July 2024 Performance - Starting Pitchers
Chris Sale is now tied for the MLB fWAR lead among starting pitchers with 4.1, despite having two fewer starts than co-leader Garrett Crochet, and three fewer starts than co-leader George Kirby. His numbers in July weren’t quite so video game-y in some respects (59/59/78, compared to 67/59/62 prior to July), but he got similar-to-better results, and really mostly dominated the game in each of his five tries. The Braves had fairly easy wins in four of his five starts, and the fifth, well, I don’t want to talk about it (but we definitely will later).
As a random note, Spencer Schwellenbach actually had a lower ERA and xFIP than Sale in July, though he only made four starts over the course of the month. Maybe he’ll win this award in August? Who knows.
Totally Meaningless Ivan Award for July 2024 Performance - Relief Pitchers
Was Joe Jimenez the best Braves’ reliever in July? No, no he was not. A lot of guys in the bullpen had either dominant peripherals and/or dominant results; Raisel Iglesias didn’t get charged with a run all month, and thereby avoided any meltdowns. Jimenez did not avoid any meltdowns; there was a game in Arizona where bad things happened. But there was also a game in Arizona where he shut the door with a one-run lead and the mystically-placed runner on second, and I’m a sucker for succeeding through stupid adversity, so there you go.
Something that amuses me about Jimenez is that his line is now 55/66/100, which is probably not what the Braves were overtly aiming for when they re-signed him coming off a 68/83/82 season. July only furthered the wackiness, as he went 39/64/103 in the month after a 61/67/99 through June. Now rocking a cool 2.0 percent HR/FB, it’s clear he stole A.J. Minter’s mojo and then some, but hey, the Braves will take it. Let’s just hope this particular worm doesn’t turn.
Best Offensive Play - Murphy’s turn to play savior
July 8. The Braves have just taken a series from the Phillies, but their inconsistent season winds on, with them trailing the Diamondbacks in the series opener in Phoenix by two runs in the ninth. With two outs and two strikes, Eddie Rosario gives the team a little bit of life by rolling a single through the right side, bringing up Sean Murphy. Murphy watches a ball, then a strike. Then, he gives the Braves a whole lotta life, and helps make this the third win of a four-game streak:
It seemed like, at the time, that this game could save the season. But, even after winning this one and the next one, the Braves ended up splitting the four-game set. Then, after taking a series from the Padres, they withered coming out of the All-Star Break. Baseball, man.
Best Run-Stopping Play - Better lucky than good
Pierce Johnson has been really good this season, but sometimes, you also need a little luck to help you out. The Braves haven’t usually gotten that this season, but they did here:
This ball was hit sub-70 mph, but it wouldn’t have mattered if it weren’t hit right to Matt Olson. Thankfully, it was, and the Braves walked it off in the bottom of the inning. Had this ball not found Olson despite its poor velocity, chances are the Cardinals score two here, and the Braves have a massive losing streak coming out of the All-Star Break. Thanks, luck!
Most Dominant Single Game Offensive Performance
The Braves tangled with the Padres in a rubber game on the day before the All-Star Break. Travis d’Arnaud tangled with destiny.
In a tie game in the fifth, he drew a walk and... stole a base.
He later scored the go-ahead run. The very next inning, with two on, he gave his team some much-needed cushion. But he wasn’t done there, either. In the eighth, after the Padres had made it a two-run game, he struck again, capping the scoring.
d’Arnaud has three multihomer games in 2024 so far; that’s as many as he had from 2020-2023 combined.
Most Dominant Single Game Starting Pitching Performance
Even before the vibes got great, Spencer Schwellenbach tried his best to improve them. Two days after the debacle that was July 24 (we’ll get to it, I swear, even if you don’t want to), and a day after the Mets crushed Charlie Morton with three homers, it was up to Schwellenbach to do something to avoid the malaise from turning into murder, and he did that and then some.
Facing the very same Mets that had won the first two games of the series and had the best offense since the summer started, Schwellenbach hit a completely new level of dominance. He struck out 11 Metropolitans while walking none, allowing just two baserunners (both doubles) in a seven-inning statement that he could be the next Braves’ youngster to fly through the system and have a huge impact on MLB proceedings.
How do you even top this start? I have no idea. A Maddux to clinch a playoff spot, or something?
Most Dominant Relief Pitching Performance
After Murphy’s game-tying homer on July 8, the job wasn’t done. The Braves got a sacrifice fly in the tenth, but so did the Diamondbacks. The Braves got another sacrifice fly in the 11th, but nothing else, which meant it was up to Joe Jimenez to slam the door. He did! There was a weak flyout, a walk, a strikeout of Christian Walker, and then this scary fly ball from Lourdes Gurriel Jr. that ultimately didn’t do any harm but just ended the game.
Most Crushed Dinger
The Braves lost this game, but good lord, Marcell Ozuna. This is beyond majestic, it’s like undying imperial interstellar hegemony in a three-book scifi series overwhelming:
And yet, despite all this awesome above, the Braves went 12-13. Can the vibes be good even if the month was bad? Sure seems so, but the vibes about the below were very, very bad indeed.
Worst Offensive Result - The Jarred Kelenic / Ramon Laureano bunting debacle
Nothing else in the past half-decade plus made me have an existential crisis about the Braves more than this play. Not the spending on relievers, not the slow starts, not getting swept by the Phillies to open the 2021 season nor the next four months of that year, not the presence of a draggier ball making the beginning of 2024 a slog, nothing. It was this Katamari Damacy-esque Gargantua of sheer stupidity, where Jarred Kelenic (in his own words) decided to do “too much” and showed bunt with the go-ahead run on third, didn’t actually bunt the pseudo-pitchout he received, and resulted in Ramon Laureano getting thrown out.
Beyond the play itself, I don’t understand what Kelenic was doing. Who in the dugout or in the organization is coaching guys to bunt to get these types of runs in? Moreover, who isn’t drilling the idea that the approach they are coaching is the right one and shouldn’t be deviated from into the players’ heads?
The only saving grace here is that we haven’t seen much more of this inanity, and the Braves’ current homer binge started after this particularly prickly example of hitting rock bottom. If that’s what it had to take to get the boys swinging for the fences again, well, I’m still not sure it was worth it.
Worst Pitching Defensive Result - A major leaguer overruns an easy fly somehow
Oh, but things weren’t over yet. In the bottom of the inning, Pierce Johnson was doing mensch-like things, striking out both J.D. Martinez and Mark Vientos to try and give his teammates another shot to win it, gigantic goof in the top of the inning and all. And he did! Jeff McNeil pulled a curveball into an easy, weakly hit pop fly down the right field line that ended the inning... or it does in most universes, except this one, where Laureano somehow overran the ball.
This ball was hit at 81 mph off the bat and falls in for a hit about three percent of the time. After the play, Laureano said that he doesn’t do (or not do, I guess) things like that. Well, he did this time, and perhaps the bigger surprise is that he didn’t get jettisoned off the roster immediately. I guess the rest of the season is his chance for redemption once again, because this was just one disaster piled atop another.
Worst Single-Game Hitting Existing Performance
Sorry, still mad about Laureano (and Kelenic) (and whatever it took to get the Braves there).
Worst Single-Game Starting Pitching Performance
The Braves went 1-5 out of the All-Star Break. They gave a start to Bryce Elder (he wasn’t bad, but they lost). They gave a start to Allan Winans (he was horrible and they lost). They did not give any of those starts to Chris Sale (though they lost his start too, thanks to f’n Kelenic and Laureano). I’m not mad that Winans got shelled, even though he did, because, well, what did you expect? I’m more mad that the Braves went this way despite having almost no cushion in the standings. But I’m flummoxed and/or hangry about the fact that while Winans was getting trashed by the Cardinals, they actually pulled him before he hit the apparently-sacred 100-pitch mark.
To be clear, this team has let Max Fried (who wasn’t pitching well) face a batter a fourth time through, I guess because of pitch count. This team doesn’t make decisions based on the time through the order penalty, even when definitely warranted, even in the playoffs. But in a game that was already a lost cause, with a soft-tossing pitcher who could definitely eat some more innings and help save the bullpen (the team’s primary obsession, or so it feels on most days), they pulled Winans after 65 pitches and seven outs, during which he had allowed two homers while putting up a 3/2 K/BB ratio. I can’t really make it make sense; I can only tell you that they did the same thing with Charlie Morton a few days later. Sigh.
Worst Single-Game Relief Pitching Performance
The Braves’ only loss on this recent run of super-homer-fun-time came when Grant Holmes (who was awesome!) departed after five innings, and the Braves opted to give Jesse Chavez the sixth inning.
Chavez has had a weird season, with a 43/110/94 line coming into this game. Is he one of the Braves’ four best relievers that should be locking down a one-run game? Probably not. Unfortunately, that decision turned rotten on the Braves pretty quickly, as a leadoff bloop single and a walk put two on, and after a forceout, Willy Adames did his best Marcell Ozuna impression:
Of course, Chavez then rebounded by getting two weak groundouts to end the inning, meaning that his frame was four weakly hit balls, a walk, and that three-run homer. Yeah, that sucks, but so does Chavez’ 118 FIP- at this point. Maybe Joe Jimenez stole his mojo and A.J. Minter’s mojo. That makes sense.
Most Crushed Dinger Allowed
Max Fried didn’t even have to watch this one:
On the flip side, Eugenio Suarez did some kind of weird binoculars gesture, so it’s like he watched it for the both of them.
See you next month!
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