Monthly Archives: April 2021

Braves Diary (24/162 & 25/162)

Well, you can’t win ’em all, but if you win 2/3 or 3/4 then you’re probably in good shape.

That’s what I’m taking away from the last two games of this series. Wednesday night was a bit of a laugher, anyway, a blowout that felt completely appropriate for 3 positions players to pitch in. Thursday wasn’t great. Wilson didn’t have much of a chance, and the back end of the bullpen kept the game mostly out of reach.

That said, we’re still tied for first in the NL East (which may say more about the NL East than anything else), so it’s on to Florida to play Toronto.

Braves Diary (22/162 & 23/162)

That’s a bit more like it.

Monday’s game still didn’t feature effective pitching, but the offense started showing signs of life. I missed most of the game due to meetings, but I saw it on mute and definitely got the gist of it.

Tuesday’s game featured Acuña waking from a relative cold streak to make the difference in the 5th, putting the Braves up 1-0. That would be all they’d need thanks to a second consecutive excellent start from Ian Anderson, who looks like he’s started to figure something out. Just for good measure, though, the rest of the offense got on and got ’em in to win 5-0. An especially nice sequence was in the 8th. Ozzie led off with a rocket of a double to left-center (from the left hand batter’s box, especially encouraging). d’Arnaud did something useful for once, as while he still made an out he moved Albies over to third. Dansby then got ’em in, hitting a solid single to right.

The Braves are now 11-12. We’re almost 15% of the way through the season.

Braves Diary (19/162)

Well, I think the Braves could use some more blowouts, but I’ll take it.

Ynoa pitched six solid innings, and the usual suspects came out of the bullpen to hold on to the lead, though thankfully Ozzie’s homer in the bottom of the 7th added what proved to be the decisive insurance run.

After the shortened 2020 sprint, I have to remind myself it’s still April. There’s a long way to go and the NL East is still wide open. Freddie Freeman probably won’t hit .220 on the year. Hopefully it won’t take me another month to internalize that.

Braves Diary (17/162 and 18/162)

It was a split in the Bronx.

Both games still featured some mostly disappointing offense with Acuña out to rest his abdominal muscles. But! There was definitely more to like on today’s game. Ian Anderson pitched into the 7th (a first for any Braves starter this season), and the bullpen didn’t leak too badly. Austin Riley had a good game, walking twice, and adding a base hit and a homer, taking advantage of the short porch in right at Yankee Stadium.

Thursday’s another much needed off-day for this beat up team, where they’ll attempt to keep it rolling against the Diamondbacks over the weekend.