<img alt="Los Angeles Dodgers v Atlanta Braves" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/VzXHrg85iSle2ADT0wrkO5nS9Jk=/0x0:5851x3901/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73590501/2171728502.0.jpg">
Photo by Matthew Grimes Jr./Atlanta Braves/Getty Images
Look, I’m just sayin’ — the Braves out-xBAed the Dodgers by .070 and had the only four barrels in the game, and lost 9-0 The Braves played a baseball game on Monday night, which they lost 9-0, to once again drop them out of a playoff spot (for the time being?). The flow of the game itself is, at this point, largely irrelevant. I’ll be honest, I watched the Mets walk off the Nationals in lieu of actually watching this game for large chunks of it (until the Mets game ended and I was forced to watch this one). So, rather than actually describe the events as they happened, let’s just talk about some stuff.
Objectively, this game was hilarious. The Braves had four barrels, the Dodgers had none. Yet, the Dodgers hit the only homer; the Braves scored zero runs to the Dodgers’ nine. Yes, Braves pitching had a bad 9/7 K/BB ratio, but the Dodgers managed just a 5/3 K/BB ratio at the same time. To put it a different way, the Braves had a 9.00 ERA, a 5.28 FIP, and a 4.85 xFIP, none of which are good. But the Dodgers had a 0.00 ERA, a 3.39 FIP, and a 5.07 xFIP. Sure, stuff happens in the span of a single game where results are totally dissociated from performance, but nine runs of dissociation? Mamma mia, that’s a lot of dissociation.
Here are the ways in which the Braves did not score runs in this game:
In the first, after a leadoff walk and a throwing error on a steal attempt put Michael Harris II on third with one out, Marcell Ozuna hit a hard grounder... right at the third baseman, and then Ramon Laureano later also hit a grounder to the third baseman for the third out.
In the second, Sean Murphy destroyed a Yoshinobu Yamamoto pitch to center for a double (108 mph, 400 feet, but not a homer). He advanced to third on a groundout, but a strikeout and a groundout followed.
In the third, Harris blooped a single, and then it was Jorge Soler’s turn to crush a ball to center (112 mph, 388 feet)... only for Harris to get thrown out at the plate. Two more grounders ended that frame.
But wait, none of those are even the funniest one!
In the fourth, Laureano hit a leadoff triple (another barrel, smacking hard off the right-field wall). The Braves then went strikeout, roller to short with the infield in, and wounded duck sub-80 mph liner that of course went right at a fielder. By the way, this sequence meant that the Braves sent Harris with none out and Ozuna/Matt Olson due up. But then they didn’t send Laureano home on a contact play with one out and Gio Urshela due up. That’s a shocking level of distrust of Ozuna/Olson slash a shocking level of belief in Urshela.
Meanwhile, here’s how the Dodgers scored runs:
A walk, a bouncer to first that ended up moving the runner to second because Olson dropped the ball and couldn’t nab the runner with his throw to second, a steal of third, and a wild pitch.
A ground rule double, and then a 70 mph bloop single that happened while the batter, Miguel Rojas, fell down as a result of the swing. Just to be clear: hitting balls incredibly hard to center = no runs; hitting balls 70 mph while falling down = some runs.
A grounder from Shohei Ohtani that was hit in such a way where neither Orlando Arcia at short nor Whit Merrifield were in a position to turn a double play.
Then, later, after Max Fried departed, Daysbel Hernandez came in and walked three batters. This was then made immediately funnier by Aaron Bummer being summoned in medium (at least it wasn’t low!) leverage, and getting a weak grounder from Ohtani to Whit Merrifield at second... which Merrifield fielded awkwardly and threw awkwardly home for some reason, resulting in a no-outs-recorded fielder’s choice and another run. A seeing-eye grounder plated a fifth run, and then the coup de grace: Freddie Freeman hitting a routine fly ball that happened to loft its way down into the left-field corner and just over the fence. It was the 11th-hardest hit ball of the game and travelled less far than five balls the Braves put in play, yet was the only homer. If that doesn’t summarize 2024 for you, I don’t know what will.
Max Fried was quite good, though his time on the mound reminded me of that article I read about ten years ago about how Nolan Ryan was really good at the pitching stuff but really bad at everything else, so over his career, the runs charged to him consistently went up and over his actual pitching performance. Not that I’m saying this was the case with Fried tonight, not directly — just that this is now two starts in a row where Fried pitched more than fine, but basically got killed by stuff that usually doesn’t kill anyone.
Meanwhile, the Mets won their game in part because the Nationals decided to bunt in extra innings as the visiting team, and then hit two straight grounders to short. So, the Braves will now head to Cincinnati and hope that maybe 2024 starts being a little different from here on out, though with about two weeks to play, we all know it won’t. Stay tuned for the final wOBA-xwOBA tallies for this game, which are probably going to be even funnier than the stuff we can surmise from the Baseball Savant gamefeed.
<img alt="Los Angeles Dodgers v Atlanta Braves" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/VzXHrg85iSle2ADT0wrkO5nS9Jk=/0x0:5851x3901/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73590501/2171728502.0.jpg">
Photo by Matthew Grimes Jr./Atlanta Braves/Getty Images
Look, I’m just sayin’ — the Braves out-xBAed the Dodgers by .070 and had the only four barrels in the game, and lost 9-0 The Braves played a baseball game on Monday night, which they lost 9-0, to once again drop them out of a playoff spot (for the time being?). The flow of the game itself is, at this point, largely irrelevant. I’ll be honest, I watched the Mets walk off the Nationals in lieu of actually watching this game for large chunks of it (until the Mets game ended and I was forced to watch this one). So, rather than actually describe the events as they happened, let’s just talk about some stuff.
Objectively, this game was hilarious. The Braves had four barrels, the Dodgers had none. Yet, the Dodgers hit the only homer; the Braves scored zero runs to the Dodgers’ nine. Yes, Braves pitching had a bad 9/7 K/BB ratio, but the Dodgers managed just a 5/3 K/BB ratio at the same time. To put it a different way, the Braves had a 9.00 ERA, a 5.28 FIP, and a 4.85 xFIP, none of which are good. But the Dodgers had a 0.00 ERA, a 3.39 FIP, and a 5.07 xFIP. Sure, stuff happens in the span of a single game where results are totally dissociated from performance, but nine runs of dissociation? Mamma mia, that’s a lot of dissociation.
Here are the ways in which the Braves did not score runs in this game:
In the first, after a leadoff walk and a throwing error on a steal attempt put Michael Harris II on third with one out, Marcell Ozuna hit a hard grounder... right at the third baseman, and then Ramon Laureano later also hit a grounder to the third baseman for the third out.
In the second, Sean Murphy destroyed a Yoshinobu Yamamoto pitch to center for a double (108 mph, 400 feet, but not a homer). He advanced to third on a groundout, but a strikeout and a groundout followed.
In the third, Harris blooped a single, and then it was Jorge Soler’s turn to crush a ball to center (112 mph, 388 feet)... only for Harris to get thrown out at the plate. Two more grounders ended that frame.
But wait, none of those are even the funniest one!
In the fourth, Laureano hit a leadoff triple (another barrel, smacking hard off the right-field wall). The Braves then went strikeout, roller to short with the infield in, and wounded duck sub-80 mph liner that of course went right at a fielder. By the way, this sequence meant that the Braves sent Harris with none out and Ozuna/Matt Olson due up. But then they didn’t send Laureano home on a contact play with one out and Gio Urshela due up. That’s a shocking level of distrust of Ozuna/Olson slash a shocking level of belief in Urshela.
Meanwhile, here’s how the Dodgers scored runs:
A walk, a bouncer to first that ended up moving the runner to second because Olson dropped the ball and couldn’t nab the runner with his throw to second, a steal of third, and a wild pitch.
A ground rule double, and then a 70 mph bloop single that happened while the batter, Miguel Rojas, fell down as a result of the swing. Just to be clear: hitting balls incredibly hard to center = no runs; hitting balls 70 mph while falling down = some runs.
A grounder from Shohei Ohtani that was hit in such a way where neither Orlando Arcia at short nor Whit Merrifield were in a position to turn a double play.
Then, later, after Max Fried departed, Daysbel Hernandez came in and walked three batters. This was then made immediately funnier by Aaron Bummer being summoned in medium (at least it wasn’t low!) leverage, and getting a weak grounder from Ohtani to Whit Merrifield at second... which Merrifield fielded awkwardly and threw awkwardly home for some reason, resulting in a no-outs-recorded fielder’s choice and another run. A seeing-eye grounder plated a fifth run, and then the coup de grace: Freddie Freeman hitting a routine fly ball that happened to loft its way down into the left-field corner and just over the fence. It was the 11th-hardest hit ball of the game and travelled less far than five balls the Braves put in play, yet was the only homer. If that doesn’t summarize 2024 for you, I don’t know what will.
Max Fried was quite good, though his time on the mound reminded me of that article I read about ten years ago about how Nolan Ryan was really good at the pitching stuff but really bad at everything else, so over his career, the runs charged to him consistently went up and over his actual pitching performance. Not that I’m saying this was the case with Fried tonight, not directly — just that this is now two starts in a row where Fried pitched more than fine, but basically got killed by stuff that usually doesn’t kill anyone.
Meanwhile, the Mets won their game in part because the Nationals decided to bunt in extra innings as the visiting team, and then hit two straight grounders to short. So, the Braves will now head to Cincinnati and hope that maybe 2024 starts being a little different from here on out, though with about two weeks to play, we all know it won’t. Stay tuned for the final wOBA-xwOBA tallies for this game, which are probably going to be even funnier than the stuff we can surmise from the Baseball Savant gamefeed.
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