<img alt="Washington Nationals v Atlanta Braves" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/vdfL3XUTAOZ8QVc028uV4YBZqyc=/0x0:6000x4000/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73559314/2167287980.0.jpg">
Photo by Kevin D. Liles/Atlanta Braves/Getty Images
It was the Braves’ best month since April, but they actually lost ground anyway I like doing monthly recaps because a month feels like the right unit of time to talk about a team’s ever-evolving arc during the course of the season. A game is a game, a series is a series, and a week is really just two series. A month? Yeah, you can get some narratives going.
That said, August 2024 was not a very cohesive month for Atlanta, in multiple senses. Not only did it have multiple inflection points where the team’s fortunes changed, but there is also the fact that while the Braves actually had their best calendar month since April, they were outpaced by other clubs while doing so, creating a situation where they actually sunk to a pretty precarious place in the standings despite the month looking pretty good on paper.
On July 31, the Braves had just taken a series from Milwaukee against the Brewers. They were 6.5 games back in the NL East, and the NL Wild Card race was crazily bunched, with five teams within 3.5 games of one another. Still, the Braves had the fourth-best record in the NL, and tenth-best record in baseball, and were in line for some playoff home games. Fast-forward a month, and, well... the division lead has only been lessened by half a game, and more critically at this point, the Braves are two games ahead of the Mets for the last Wild Card spot, having been leapfrogged by the Padres and Diamondbacks, each of whom they now trail by those same two games.
Yes, the Braves went 16-13 in August, but the Padres went 18-10 and the Diamondbacks went 18-9; the Mets and Phillies went 15-13. Before August, the Braves were treading water; in August, the Braves looked like they were treading water relative to the other contenders.
The offense rebounded, sorta. The Braves had spent each of the last three months in the bottom ten in position player output; they crept up to 14th in August. However, it wasn’t really because of anything they did directly: the team’s .322 xwOBA in August was within .004 of their monthly xwOBAs from May, June, and July. Rather, the team simply outhit its xwOBA for a calendar month for the first time all season, and voila, the appearance of semi-competent offense. (Ameliorating this somewhat: the defense has been horrific for two months now.)
The pitching continued to be fantastic, trailing only the Astros in fWAR and FIP- for the month, and leading the pack in xFIP-. That sort of “elite pitching plus decent position player performance” thing should’ve probably meant that the Braves finished better than 16-13 in August, but there was also that whole thing where the Braves somehow managed to out-wOBA their opponents repeatedly and lose the game anyway in the span of about two weeks, which really messed up their month and ability to roll through it.
So, in the end, the month stuttered rather than smoothly flowing. It started with two wins against the Marlins, which capped a resurgent, win-six-of-seven-after-losing-six-in-a-row stretch that began in July. But then, everything halted, as the Braves lost six in a row again, and then after a single victory, blew a gigantic lead in Colorado. In that stretch, they actually fell out of a playoff spot for the first time in pretty much forever. But then, they got on a real roll, winning five series in a row; they still have a chance to split with the Phillies at the time of writing, meaning they could go lossless in their last six series of the month if they win on September 1. That 12-4 stretch redeemed the month, but there’s still a long way to go.
<img alt=" " data-mask-text="false" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/fJybnVSI-rYwxQnwBJiQZBNc_f8=/400x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25598234/Screenshot_2024_09_01_084029.png">
Somewhat amusingly, based on the pre-game odds, going 16-13 in month is about right. The Braves are still horribly off their pace by this measure, as they should have 3-4 more wins for the season at this point, but at least August was reasonable.
In any case, this team has its work cut out for it in September. They have to stay two games ahead of the Mets and, ideally, get two-plus games ahead of the Padres and Diamondbacks. Sure, they might chase the Phillies down, but they probably won’t, especially given that they didn’t even bother showing any level of urgency in the four-game set against them to conclude the month. They’re just going to coast, and we just have to hope that their coasting has enough good luck and none of the “lose games you outplayed” stuff, so that they can actually get somewhere when September ends.
Totally Meaningless Ivan Award for August 2024 Performance - Position Players
Did you expect this to be Matt Olson? You probably did. Does Olson deserve it? Probably. His .392 xwOBA was not only his highest for a given month this year, it was also the highest on the team for August. But, instead, I’m going back to Marcell Ozuna, because he was emblematic of this offense in August — productive by outhitting his xwOBA, for once.
Ozuna’s .344 xwOBA wasn’t bad, by any stretch, but his .396 wOBA (154 wRC+) led the team for the month. In a month where the Braves’ offensive fortunes turned because they finally stopped egregiously underhitting their inputs, it’s only fitting that the guy who prompted so many discussions about habitual xwOBA in years past lead the charge.
Ozuna also went on multiple mini-tears in August, results-wise. From August 10-12, he had six hits, including three extra-base hits, in three games, with most of those hits either driving in or putting on base a key run. He then busted out consecutive three-hit games against the Angels, and had a couple of huge games against the Twins.
Totally Meaningless Ivan Award for August 2024 Performance - Starting Pitchers
Look, when your season is largely video game numbers, like Chris Sale’s season has been, you’re going to get this meaningless award. I want you to consider this: Sale was harmed to the tune of a .430 BABIP in August, yet still ended up being saddled with just eight runs in five starts. He had a game with a negative FIP! He didn’t allow a homer all month. Oh, and the Braves actually won four of his five starts.
At this point, Sale’s season is just bonkers. His 5.7 fWAR is more than half a win ahead of the next-closest pitcher (Tarik Skubal, at 5.0); he’s almost two full wins ahead of the tenth-ranked guy. His line is elite reliever level (61/52/63), but he’s doing it as a starter that generally faces the lineup three times an outing. Yet, somehow, he improved on it in August, going 49/27/51 in those five starts, after coming into the month at 64/59/66.
Totally Meaningless Ivan Award for August 2024 Performance - Relief Pitchers
As good as Sale was, he was not the standout pitching performer I most want to highlight. Simply put, Raisel Iglesias was so good in August that even if he were injured the other five months of the year, he’d still be one of the team’s better relievers just for this sole month of work.
The funny thing about Iglesias is that he was actually kind of blah for the first three months of the year, especially in May. But those blahs have given way to something for which “dominant” isn’t even an apt descriptor. Of the 42 batters to face Iglesias in August, only three reached base: two singles, and a hit-by-pitch. That plunking actually snapped his streak of 38 straight batters retired. A line of 0/33/69 for a month, with seven shutdowns and a meltdown that resulted from a bloop, where Iglesias worked in meaningful leverage nine times in 11 tries? Yeah, that’ll play.
Oh, but that’s not all. In three of those games, he pitched more than an inning. In three of those games, he prevented the ghost runner slash Manfred man from scoring in extra innings. Going on a pure WPA basis, no one was even remotely as relevant to the Braves going 16-13 in August as Iglesias. Going on a pure fWAR basis, he finished just outside the top 30 among all pitchers, despite throwing just 13 1⁄3 innings — the MLB leader for fWAR for August among hurlers, Chris Sale, managed the same rate basis of fWAR as Iglesias did. What a month.
Best “Offensive” Play - A summary of the month, offensively
In the ol’ memory banks, I remember the Braves losing a handful of games like this over the past few years. I don’t remember them winning one like this, but that’s exactly what happened on August 23. Basically, the Braves and Nationals looked like they were going to be headed for an eleventh inning with a 2-2 tie, until... oops.
Did the Braves deserve this? After their May-July, sure.
Best Run-Stopping Play - Routine but useful double play
Pierce Johnson came in with a one-run lead and immediately had a bad time, giving up a double that someone other than Jorge Soler could have maybe caught, and then coaxing a routine grounder that didn’t result in an out. But, no worries:
The fact that this happened with an opposite-handed batter on a pitch down the middle is probably a reason why the Braves really like Pierce Johnson.
Or, at least, there wouldn’t be any worries, except the tying run ended up scoring on a wild pitch to the next batter. Oops...
Most Dominant Single Game Offensive Performance
As noted, Matt Olson raked in August, and perhaps no game more than August 10 at Coors Field. He hit a grand slam to turn a 3-1 deficit into a 5-3 lead in the third, and though the Rockies later tied the game at eight apiece, he then hit a second homer, this time a two-run shot, to put the Braves ahead for good.
Both pitches were non-fastballs towards the shoetops, which is one of the two things Olson generally looks for (the other is fastballs up and away), and the Rockies really played into his hands here by making it happen. Olson walked, flew out, and struck out in his other three PAs.
Most Dominant Single Game Starting Pitching Performance
In a game that surely had Rob Manfred, Goose Gossage, and a bunch of other guys salivating while reminiscing about the good ol’ days, Chris Sale and Blake Snell made things a nightmare for opposing hitters. Snell lasted 6 1/3, while Sale went seven. The Braves’ southpaw struck out 12, walked none, and did it in a game with no real margin for error. He escaped a jam in the first with two straight strikeouts and then a groundout, and then allowed basically nothing else.
In this game, Sale had a negative FIP and an xFIP of 0.40. Awesome, in a season full of it. Oh, and the Braves eventually won this game.
Most Dominant Single Game Relief Pitching Performance
In the same game that Chris Sale did what he did, Raisel Iglesias also did what he did. You get what I’m saying.
First, Iglesias got the Giants in order in the bottom of the ninth in a scoreless tie, striking out two. Then, after the Braves had taken a 1-0 lead, with the free runner on second, he went strikeout-strikeout-flyout to slam the door. Iglesias repeatedly worked multiple frames in August and was generally just awesome, but this was maybe his most awesome effort of all.
Most Crushed Dinger
Sure, let’s get Ramon Laureano up in this monthly recap:
Apparently this was the furthest homer he’s ever hit? Go figure, especially with 2024’s de-juiced ball.
And now, the bad stuff.
Worst Offensive Result - Comebacks are for other teams
A day after Olson crushed the Rockies with his two dingers, he couldn’t do it again. With the Braves having a ridiculous BABIP-inflamed meltdown after toting a huge lead, and getting the first guy on in the ninth, Olson... hit into a double play.
The Braves suffered a bad loss in a season full of ‘em shortly thereafter.
Worst Pitching Result - Ultra-meltdown in Coors
A bit before Olson’s double play ball, the Braves suffered a seven-run inning where no one could stop the BABIP-laden flaying of their win expectancy. The worst was Brendan Rodgers splitting the defense on this Joe Jimenez pitch to complete the comeback, especially because this wasn’t even some kind of super-well-hit fly ball — like others that have straight-up killed the Braves this year, it just happened to be hit perfectly between the outfielders despite hanging up long enough to be a likely out if hit somewhere that wasn’t in a pseudo-blind spot.
Worst Single-Game Hitting Performance
Amusingly, by WPA, it was still Olson on August 11, even though he had an RBI double and a walk in the game. That double play was just really, really bad.
Worst Single-Game Starting Pitching Performance
There’s this weird thing that’s happened this season where Charlie Morton isn’t always bad, but he tends to be particularly bad at some really brutal times. The Braves lost Ronald Acuña Jr., and Morton gets BABIPed to death by the Nationals. The Braves have that horrible miscue-laden game against the Mets, and Morton gets annihilated by them the next day. The Braves have lost five in a row and have a chance to salvage a game against the Brewers? Nope, Morton has one of the worst starts of his career, allowing four homers with a 3/1 K/BB ratio in just 2 2⁄3 innings of work. The only saving grace here is that the Braves weren’t even fighting back — but that also kind of puts a thick underline on the fact that Morton managed over -.400 WPA without the Braves giving him a single run.
Worst Single-Game Relief Pitching Performance
It’s the whole bullpen meltdown on August 11, as you probably surmised. But Joe Jimenez, in particular, gets special attention for just how badly he was victimized here.
Jimenez came on with a four-run lead, two outs, and runners on second and third. Charlie Blackmon swung at a changeup below the zone and hit a relatively soft liner into center. Jimenez made a good pitch, got the swing he wanted, and things went poorly. A 1-0 fastball over the heart of the plate to Ezequiel Tovar ended up being just a hard-hit grounder single. Jimenez then threw a fastball away and off the plate to Ryan McMahon, who tried to pull it and ended up hitting a soft flare that was just far enough away from Orlando Arcia to score a run and not be the third out. Again, Jimenez made a good pitch and even got the swing he wanted, but no dice as far as results. And then there was the Rodgers double.
No huge knock on Jimenez, here, but that’s how it goes.
Most Crushed Dinger Allowed
This pitch from Max Fried was just absolutely destroyed by Edmundo Sosa. Like, kudos for Sosa for looking for a breaking pitch over the plate, which he got. Blam.
See you next month! Maybe. I didn’t even do a monthly recap last year because everything happened so fast, and chances are, if I do one for September 2024, it’s to recount how things went really south. The Braves still have a bit of a shot to prove that they didn’t 2014 it, but it kinda seems like they are 2014ing it.
<img alt="Washington Nationals v Atlanta Braves" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/vdfL3XUTAOZ8QVc028uV4YBZqyc=/0x0:6000x4000/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73559314/2167287980.0.jpg">
Photo by Kevin D. Liles/Atlanta Braves/Getty Images
It was the Braves’ best month since April, but they actually lost ground anyway I like doing monthly recaps because a month feels like the right unit of time to talk about a team’s ever-evolving arc during the course of the season. A game is a game, a series is a series, and a week is really just two series. A month? Yeah, you can get some narratives going.
That said, August 2024 was not a very cohesive month for Atlanta, in multiple senses. Not only did it have multiple inflection points where the team’s fortunes changed, but there is also the fact that while the Braves actually had their best calendar month since April, they were outpaced by other clubs while doing so, creating a situation where they actually sunk to a pretty precarious place in the standings despite the month looking pretty good on paper.
On July 31, the Braves had just taken a series from Milwaukee against the Brewers. They were 6.5 games back in the NL East, and the NL Wild Card race was crazily bunched, with five teams within 3.5 games of one another. Still, the Braves had the fourth-best record in the NL, and tenth-best record in baseball, and were in line for some playoff home games. Fast-forward a month, and, well... the division lead has only been lessened by half a game, and more critically at this point, the Braves are two games ahead of the Mets for the last Wild Card spot, having been leapfrogged by the Padres and Diamondbacks, each of whom they now trail by those same two games.
Yes, the Braves went 16-13 in August, but the Padres went 18-10 and the Diamondbacks went 18-9; the Mets and Phillies went 15-13. Before August, the Braves were treading water; in August, the Braves looked like they were treading water relative to the other contenders.
The offense rebounded, sorta. The Braves had spent each of the last three months in the bottom ten in position player output; they crept up to 14th in August. However, it wasn’t really because of anything they did directly: the team’s .322 xwOBA in August was within .004 of their monthly xwOBAs from May, June, and July. Rather, the team simply outhit its xwOBA for a calendar month for the first time all season, and voila, the appearance of semi-competent offense. (Ameliorating this somewhat: the defense has been horrific for two months now.)
The pitching continued to be fantastic, trailing only the Astros in fWAR and FIP- for the month, and leading the pack in xFIP-. That sort of “elite pitching plus decent position player performance” thing should’ve probably meant that the Braves finished better than 16-13 in August, but there was also that whole thing where the Braves somehow managed to out-wOBA their opponents repeatedly and lose the game anyway in the span of about two weeks, which really messed up their month and ability to roll through it.
So, in the end, the month stuttered rather than smoothly flowing. It started with two wins against the Marlins, which capped a resurgent, win-six-of-seven-after-losing-six-in-a-row stretch that began in July. But then, everything halted, as the Braves lost six in a row again, and then after a single victory, blew a gigantic lead in Colorado. In that stretch, they actually fell out of a playoff spot for the first time in pretty much forever. But then, they got on a real roll, winning five series in a row; they still have a chance to split with the Phillies at the time of writing, meaning they could go lossless in their last six series of the month if they win on September 1. That 12-4 stretch redeemed the month, but there’s still a long way to go.
<img alt=" " data-mask-text="false" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/fJybnVSI-rYwxQnwBJiQZBNc_f8=/400x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25598234/Screenshot_2024_09_01_084029.png">
Somewhat amusingly, based on the pre-game odds, going 16-13 in month is about right. The Braves are still horribly off their pace by this measure, as they should have 3-4 more wins for the season at this point, but at least August was reasonable.
In any case, this team has its work cut out for it in September. They have to stay two games ahead of the Mets and, ideally, get two-plus games ahead of the Padres and Diamondbacks. Sure, they might chase the Phillies down, but they probably won’t, especially given that they didn’t even bother showing any level of urgency in the four-game set against them to conclude the month. They’re just going to coast, and we just have to hope that their coasting has enough good luck and none of the “lose games you outplayed” stuff, so that they can actually get somewhere when September ends.
Totally Meaningless Ivan Award for August 2024 Performance - Position Players
Did you expect this to be Matt Olson? You probably did. Does Olson deserve it? Probably. His .392 xwOBA was not only his highest for a given month this year, it was also the highest on the team for August. But, instead, I’m going back to Marcell Ozuna, because he was emblematic of this offense in August — productive by outhitting his xwOBA, for once.
Ozuna’s .344 xwOBA wasn’t bad, by any stretch, but his .396 wOBA (154 wRC+) led the team for the month. In a month where the Braves’ offensive fortunes turned because they finally stopped egregiously underhitting their inputs, it’s only fitting that the guy who prompted so many discussions about habitual xwOBA in years past lead the charge.
Ozuna also went on multiple mini-tears in August, results-wise. From August 10-12, he had six hits, including three extra-base hits, in three games, with most of those hits either driving in or putting on base a key run. He then busted out consecutive three-hit games against the Angels, and had a couple of huge games against the Twins.
Totally Meaningless Ivan Award for August 2024 Performance - Starting Pitchers
Look, when your season is largely video game numbers, like Chris Sale’s season has been, you’re going to get this meaningless award. I want you to consider this: Sale was harmed to the tune of a .430 BABIP in August, yet still ended up being saddled with just eight runs in five starts. He had a game with a negative FIP! He didn’t allow a homer all month. Oh, and the Braves actually won four of his five starts.
At this point, Sale’s season is just bonkers. His 5.7 fWAR is more than half a win ahead of the next-closest pitcher (Tarik Skubal, at 5.0); he’s almost two full wins ahead of the tenth-ranked guy. His line is elite reliever level (61/52/63), but he’s doing it as a starter that generally faces the lineup three times an outing. Yet, somehow, he improved on it in August, going 49/27/51 in those five starts, after coming into the month at 64/59/66.
Totally Meaningless Ivan Award for August 2024 Performance - Relief Pitchers
As good as Sale was, he was not the standout pitching performer I most want to highlight. Simply put, Raisel Iglesias was so good in August that even if he were injured the other five months of the year, he’d still be one of the team’s better relievers just for this sole month of work.
The funny thing about Iglesias is that he was actually kind of blah for the first three months of the year, especially in May. But those blahs have given way to something for which “dominant” isn’t even an apt descriptor. Of the 42 batters to face Iglesias in August, only three reached base: two singles, and a hit-by-pitch. That plunking actually snapped his streak of 38 straight batters retired. A line of 0/33/69 for a month, with seven shutdowns and a meltdown that resulted from a bloop, where Iglesias worked in meaningful leverage nine times in 11 tries? Yeah, that’ll play.
Oh, but that’s not all. In three of those games, he pitched more than an inning. In three of those games, he prevented the ghost runner slash Manfred man from scoring in extra innings. Going on a pure WPA basis, no one was even remotely as relevant to the Braves going 16-13 in August as Iglesias. Going on a pure fWAR basis, he finished just outside the top 30 among all pitchers, despite throwing just 13 1⁄3 innings — the MLB leader for fWAR for August among hurlers, Chris Sale, managed the same rate basis of fWAR as Iglesias did. What a month.
Best “Offensive” Play - A summary of the month, offensively
In the ol’ memory banks, I remember the Braves losing a handful of games like this over the past few years. I don’t remember them winning one like this, but that’s exactly what happened on August 23. Basically, the Braves and Nationals looked like they were going to be headed for an eleventh inning with a 2-2 tie, until... oops.
Did the Braves deserve this? After their May-July, sure.
Best Run-Stopping Play - Routine but useful double play
Pierce Johnson came in with a one-run lead and immediately had a bad time, giving up a double that someone other than Jorge Soler could have maybe caught, and then coaxing a routine grounder that didn’t result in an out. But, no worries:
The fact that this happened with an opposite-handed batter on a pitch down the middle is probably a reason why the Braves really like Pierce Johnson.
Or, at least, there wouldn’t be any worries, except the tying run ended up scoring on a wild pitch to the next batter. Oops...
Most Dominant Single Game Offensive Performance
As noted, Matt Olson raked in August, and perhaps no game more than August 10 at Coors Field. He hit a grand slam to turn a 3-1 deficit into a 5-3 lead in the third, and though the Rockies later tied the game at eight apiece, he then hit a second homer, this time a two-run shot, to put the Braves ahead for good.
Both pitches were non-fastballs towards the shoetops, which is one of the two things Olson generally looks for (the other is fastballs up and away), and the Rockies really played into his hands here by making it happen. Olson walked, flew out, and struck out in his other three PAs.
Most Dominant Single Game Starting Pitching Performance
In a game that surely had Rob Manfred, Goose Gossage, and a bunch of other guys salivating while reminiscing about the good ol’ days, Chris Sale and Blake Snell made things a nightmare for opposing hitters. Snell lasted 6 1/3, while Sale went seven. The Braves’ southpaw struck out 12, walked none, and did it in a game with no real margin for error. He escaped a jam in the first with two straight strikeouts and then a groundout, and then allowed basically nothing else.
In this game, Sale had a negative FIP and an xFIP of 0.40. Awesome, in a season full of it. Oh, and the Braves eventually won this game.
Most Dominant Single Game Relief Pitching Performance
In the same game that Chris Sale did what he did, Raisel Iglesias also did what he did. You get what I’m saying.
First, Iglesias got the Giants in order in the bottom of the ninth in a scoreless tie, striking out two. Then, after the Braves had taken a 1-0 lead, with the free runner on second, he went strikeout-strikeout-flyout to slam the door. Iglesias repeatedly worked multiple frames in August and was generally just awesome, but this was maybe his most awesome effort of all.
Most Crushed Dinger
Sure, let’s get Ramon Laureano up in this monthly recap:
Apparently this was the furthest homer he’s ever hit? Go figure, especially with 2024’s de-juiced ball.
And now, the bad stuff.
Worst Offensive Result - Comebacks are for other teams
A day after Olson crushed the Rockies with his two dingers, he couldn’t do it again. With the Braves having a ridiculous BABIP-inflamed meltdown after toting a huge lead, and getting the first guy on in the ninth, Olson... hit into a double play.
The Braves suffered a bad loss in a season full of ‘em shortly thereafter.
Worst Pitching Result - Ultra-meltdown in Coors
A bit before Olson’s double play ball, the Braves suffered a seven-run inning where no one could stop the BABIP-laden flaying of their win expectancy. The worst was Brendan Rodgers splitting the defense on this Joe Jimenez pitch to complete the comeback, especially because this wasn’t even some kind of super-well-hit fly ball — like others that have straight-up killed the Braves this year, it just happened to be hit perfectly between the outfielders despite hanging up long enough to be a likely out if hit somewhere that wasn’t in a pseudo-blind spot.
Worst Single-Game Hitting Performance
Amusingly, by WPA, it was still Olson on August 11, even though he had an RBI double and a walk in the game. That double play was just really, really bad.
Worst Single-Game Starting Pitching Performance
There’s this weird thing that’s happened this season where Charlie Morton isn’t always bad, but he tends to be particularly bad at some really brutal times. The Braves lost Ronald Acuña Jr., and Morton gets BABIPed to death by the Nationals. The Braves have that horrible miscue-laden game against the Mets, and Morton gets annihilated by them the next day. The Braves have lost five in a row and have a chance to salvage a game against the Brewers? Nope, Morton has one of the worst starts of his career, allowing four homers with a 3/1 K/BB ratio in just 2 2⁄3 innings of work. The only saving grace here is that the Braves weren’t even fighting back — but that also kind of puts a thick underline on the fact that Morton managed over -.400 WPA without the Braves giving him a single run.
Worst Single-Game Relief Pitching Performance
It’s the whole bullpen meltdown on August 11, as you probably surmised. But Joe Jimenez, in particular, gets special attention for just how badly he was victimized here.
Jimenez came on with a four-run lead, two outs, and runners on second and third. Charlie Blackmon swung at a changeup below the zone and hit a relatively soft liner into center. Jimenez made a good pitch, got the swing he wanted, and things went poorly. A 1-0 fastball over the heart of the plate to Ezequiel Tovar ended up being just a hard-hit grounder single. Jimenez then threw a fastball away and off the plate to Ryan McMahon, who tried to pull it and ended up hitting a soft flare that was just far enough away from Orlando Arcia to score a run and not be the third out. Again, Jimenez made a good pitch and even got the swing he wanted, but no dice as far as results. And then there was the Rodgers double.
No huge knock on Jimenez, here, but that’s how it goes.
Most Crushed Dinger Allowed
This pitch from Max Fried was just absolutely destroyed by Edmundo Sosa. Like, kudos for Sosa for looking for a breaking pitch over the plate, which he got. Blam.
See you next month! Maybe. I didn’t even do a monthly recap last year because everything happened so fast, and chances are, if I do one for September 2024, it’s to recount how things went really south. The Braves still have a bit of a shot to prove that they didn’t 2014 it, but it kinda seems like they are 2014ing it.
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