<img alt="Milwaukee Brewers v Atlanta Braves" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/-AbisQ5mrmOsmJ7VnTg8rq6Mopg=/0x0:6036x4024/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73543355/2165395080.0.jpg">
They’re not up there, Luke. They’re in the infield. | Photo by Kevin D. Liles/Atlanta Braves/Getty Images
I missed our little spectral buddies Hey, do y’all remember the halcyon evenings of mid-2019, when Luke Jackson spent much of the season being the only non-disastrous reliever for the Braves, but as a cosmic punishment, he and the Braves had to endure wacky poltergeist-esque hijinks when he pitched? Well, depending on how you felt about those salad days, today was either really funny or really annoying, and probably nothing in between. Basically, the short of it was that the Braves used Luke Jackson in a tie game, the ghosts returned, and the Braves ended up losing 5-1, with little blame to be laid at the feet of Jackson or anyone else on the Atlanta pitching staff.
The extra-early start time to this game led to some pretty soporific offensive performance, a lazy Sunday affair. The Nationals scored a run off Reynaldo Lopez in the first in very weird fashion; with runners on the corners and one out, Andres Chaparro hit a comebacker that glanced off Lopez’ leg and to Whit Merrifield at second base. There was no chance for a double play, but with the runner at first retreating to force Merrifield to throw on to first before a rundown, the runner at third ended up scoring. That was the only run the Nationals would score until the ghosts appeared, as Lopez shut them down despite looking off here and there. Overall, Lopez posted a 7/3 K/BB ratio in six frames; while he missed the zone a bunch and got into deep counts, he also had the fortune of being bailed out by Nationals batters chasing his breaking stuff horribly with two strikes, and the fact that both of balls the Nationals barreled off of him went for harmless flyouts.
The Braves were, largely, even worse against DJ Herz. They actually loaded the bases in the first, thanks to Michael Harris II getting hit on the hand, and two walks, before Merrifield bounced out to second to end the threat, but that was really about all they could muster. (Harris initially stayed in, but later departed in favor of Jarred Kelenic for precautionary reasons.) The Braves got only a couple more baserunners on against Herz; when the third time through rolled around in the fifth, Herz struck out the side, finishing with an 8/3 K/BB ratio.
Jacob Barnes (why doesn’t he go by Jake, dangit?) came on to relieve Herz in the sixth, and promptly gave up a massive dead-center dinger to Matt Olson. As this series has shown, Olson’s issue isn’t that he can’t hit fastballs — it’s that he can’t really put it together to do much else while only occasionally focusing on mashing the fastball. That tie game ended up setting the stage for Luke Jackson’s Ghosts II: The Return.
Leaving aside why the Braves used Luke Jackson in a tie game, things got silly pretty quickly. Keibert Ruiz started the inning by hitting a grounder to Merrifield, which Merrifield promptly booted. After a strikeout, the Nationals called a hit-and-run on a 2-1 pitch to Drew Millas. Millas swung at a pitch around his neck and somehow hit a soft grounder up the middle that split the defense even though Orlando Arcia was already ranging over to cover second base. Jackson jumped ahead of Jacob Young with two straight whiffs on a slider, though the first one got away from Sean Murphy, leading to Millas moving up to second. Jackson then threw a third slider that clearly caught the bottom of the zone, but it was ruled a ball for some reason, and Jackson’s next pitch was an uncorked curveball that Murphy had little chance to corral, scoring the go-ahead run. Jackson then threw Young a fastball so far inside that it could have hit him had he not pulled his hands in and yanked it down the left-field line for an RBI double.
That was it for Jackson, but the spectral emanations lingered. Aaron Bummer came on and elicited another grounder to Merrifield... which Merrifield again booted, leading to a fourth run. The ghosts got in a final parting shot against Jesse Chavez in the ninth, as after two strikeouts, a bloop into right was followed by a bloop into no-man’s-land that Merrifield A) didn’t catch, B) didn’t corral on the bounce, and, C) bounced out of Murphy’s glove despite the throw beating the runner to the plate. At that point, it was 5-1 Nationals.
Other than the Olson homer, the Braves mustered nothing at all. Eduardo Salazar threw a perfect seventh, and struck out both Kelenic and Marcell Ozuna, sandwiched around a walk to Soler. The Nationals then asked Kyle Finnegan to get four outs, which he did relatively easily. The Braves did manage to put two on against him in the ninth, thanks to another error by C.J. Abrams and a hit by Murphy, but Finnegan struck out Arcia on three borderline-ish pitches taken towards the top of the zone.
The Braves will now hope that the Royals can beat the Phillies and that a meteor descends upon San Diego, to avoid losing ground as a result of Luke Jackson’s supernatural entourage. They are still without a sweep since June.
<img alt="Milwaukee Brewers v Atlanta Braves" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/-AbisQ5mrmOsmJ7VnTg8rq6Mopg=/0x0:6036x4024/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73543355/2165395080.0.jpg">
They’re not up there, Luke. They’re in the infield. | Photo by Kevin D. Liles/Atlanta Braves/Getty Images
I missed our little spectral buddies Hey, do y’all remember the halcyon evenings of mid-2019, when Luke Jackson spent much of the season being the only non-disastrous reliever for the Braves, but as a cosmic punishment, he and the Braves had to endure wacky poltergeist-esque hijinks when he pitched? Well, depending on how you felt about those salad days, today was either really funny or really annoying, and probably nothing in between. Basically, the short of it was that the Braves used Luke Jackson in a tie game, the ghosts returned, and the Braves ended up losing 5-1, with little blame to be laid at the feet of Jackson or anyone else on the Atlanta pitching staff.
The extra-early start time to this game led to some pretty soporific offensive performance, a lazy Sunday affair. The Nationals scored a run off Reynaldo Lopez in the first in very weird fashion; with runners on the corners and one out, Andres Chaparro hit a comebacker that glanced off Lopez’ leg and to Whit Merrifield at second base. There was no chance for a double play, but with the runner at first retreating to force Merrifield to throw on to first before a rundown, the runner at third ended up scoring. That was the only run the Nationals would score until the ghosts appeared, as Lopez shut them down despite looking off here and there. Overall, Lopez posted a 7/3 K/BB ratio in six frames; while he missed the zone a bunch and got into deep counts, he also had the fortune of being bailed out by Nationals batters chasing his breaking stuff horribly with two strikes, and the fact that both of balls the Nationals barreled off of him went for harmless flyouts.
The Braves were, largely, even worse against DJ Herz. They actually loaded the bases in the first, thanks to Michael Harris II getting hit on the hand, and two walks, before Merrifield bounced out to second to end the threat, but that was really about all they could muster. (Harris initially stayed in, but later departed in favor of Jarred Kelenic for precautionary reasons.) The Braves got only a couple more baserunners on against Herz; when the third time through rolled around in the fifth, Herz struck out the side, finishing with an 8/3 K/BB ratio.
Jacob Barnes (why doesn’t he go by Jake, dangit?) came on to relieve Herz in the sixth, and promptly gave up a massive dead-center dinger to Matt Olson. As this series has shown, Olson’s issue isn’t that he can’t hit fastballs — it’s that he can’t really put it together to do much else while only occasionally focusing on mashing the fastball. That tie game ended up setting the stage for Luke Jackson’s Ghosts II: The Return.
Leaving aside why the Braves used Luke Jackson in a tie game, things got silly pretty quickly. Keibert Ruiz started the inning by hitting a grounder to Merrifield, which Merrifield promptly booted. After a strikeout, the Nationals called a hit-and-run on a 2-1 pitch to Drew Millas. Millas swung at a pitch around his neck and somehow hit a soft grounder up the middle that split the defense even though Orlando Arcia was already ranging over to cover second base. Jackson jumped ahead of Jacob Young with two straight whiffs on a slider, though the first one got away from Sean Murphy, leading to Millas moving up to second. Jackson then threw a third slider that clearly caught the bottom of the zone, but it was ruled a ball for some reason, and Jackson’s next pitch was an uncorked curveball that Murphy had little chance to corral, scoring the go-ahead run. Jackson then threw Young a fastball so far inside that it could have hit him had he not pulled his hands in and yanked it down the left-field line for an RBI double.
That was it for Jackson, but the spectral emanations lingered. Aaron Bummer came on and elicited another grounder to Merrifield... which Merrifield again booted, leading to a fourth run. The ghosts got in a final parting shot against Jesse Chavez in the ninth, as after two strikeouts, a bloop into right was followed by a bloop into no-man’s-land that Merrifield A) didn’t catch, B) didn’t corral on the bounce, and, C) bounced out of Murphy’s glove despite the throw beating the runner to the plate. At that point, it was 5-1 Nationals.
Other than the Olson homer, the Braves mustered nothing at all. Eduardo Salazar threw a perfect seventh, and struck out both Kelenic and Marcell Ozuna, sandwiched around a walk to Soler. The Nationals then asked Kyle Finnegan to get four outs, which he did relatively easily. The Braves did manage to put two on against him in the ninth, thanks to another error by C.J. Abrams and a hit by Murphy, but Finnegan struck out Arcia on three borderline-ish pitches taken towards the top of the zone.
The Braves will now hope that the Royals can beat the Phillies and that a meteor descends upon San Diego, to avoid losing ground as a result of Luke Jackson’s supernatural entourage. They are still without a sweep since June.
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