I'd say "stop me if you heard this one before," but you can't stop me, because I have a recap to write. The Braves fell behind early, and didn't hit any homers, losing a close-ish game on the margins to the Twins. When you don't hit homers, you need BABIP, and when you don't get BABIP, chances are you're going to lose. That's pretty much what happened on Monday night at Target Field.
This game was a weird one in many ways. After a 45-minute rain delay, the Braves grinded Bailey Ober for 26 pitches, but ultimately came up short. Both Drake Baldwin and Michael Harris II singled, but Mauricio Dubon fouled out weakly to right on the eighth pitch he saw from Ober. Then, the Twins pulled off some high-wire only-in-baseball garbage, aided by Martin Perez' inability to keep the ball in the zone. Look, I'll just post the snip from the Baseball Savant gamefeed:
Basically, a soft double, two walks, a bloop double that basically kissed the chalk that no one was able to run down, a very soft bloop, and then a perfectly-placed slow roller. Put that together, and it's four runs. Yeah, Perez shouldn't be walking two guys in an inning if he's not going to strike anyone out, but… help us out a bit, BABIP gods, eh?
They would not. The funny thing is, the Twins didn't manage to get much of anything going the rest of the way, but neither did the Braves. Perez basically cruised until the fourth, when the Twins managed two hard liners, but Ryan Jeffers had a weak flyout to strand them. Perez completed five innings with a 3/2 K/BB ratio — no walks after those two to the second and third batters he faced. Victor Mederos had a 1-2-3 sixth, and then Tyler Kinley came on (white flag?), hit a batter, walked another, and gave way to Ray Kerr, making his first MLB appearance since June 15, 2024. Kerr threw literally one pitch, a down-the-middle sinker to Kody Clemens, which turned into a groundout. For the eighth, the Braves left Kerr in the game, and somehow, the Twins loaded the bases with none out again (somehow equals a hit-by-pitch, a single, and a bunt that Kerr threw too high for Ozzie Albies to flag down at first and still touch the base). But, despite me looking very askance at the Braves for deciding to throw Kerr in for an up-down in a close game while still recovering from Tommy John Surgery, he somehow got out of it with no runs scoring, thanks to two pop-outs and a groundout.
That was the pitching slate for Atlanta; the hitting slate was a lot more frustrating. The Braves made Ober throw a ton of pitches, a la the first inning, but to little avail the first two times through the order. After that first inning, they got a leadoff single in the second and a two-out walk in the third, but didn't do anything with either. They finally broke through in the fifth: Austin Riley singled to start the frame, and Drake Baldwin pulled a double down the right-field line. Ronald Acuña Jr. got a fastball down the pipe on 2-1 at a sad 85.6 mph and yanked it down the left-fiel
This game was a weird one in many ways. After a 45-minute rain delay, the Braves grinded Bailey Ober for 26 pitches, but ultimately came up short. Both Drake Baldwin and Michael Harris II singled, but Mauricio Dubon fouled out weakly to right on the eighth pitch he saw from Ober. Then, the Twins pulled off some high-wire only-in-baseball garbage, aided by Martin Perez' inability to keep the ball in the zone. Look, I'll just post the snip from the Baseball Savant gamefeed:
Basically, a soft double, two walks, a bloop double that basically kissed the chalk that no one was able to run down, a very soft bloop, and then a perfectly-placed slow roller. Put that together, and it's four runs. Yeah, Perez shouldn't be walking two guys in an inning if he's not going to strike anyone out, but… help us out a bit, BABIP gods, eh?
They would not. The funny thing is, the Twins didn't manage to get much of anything going the rest of the way, but neither did the Braves. Perez basically cruised until the fourth, when the Twins managed two hard liners, but Ryan Jeffers had a weak flyout to strand them. Perez completed five innings with a 3/2 K/BB ratio — no walks after those two to the second and third batters he faced. Victor Mederos had a 1-2-3 sixth, and then Tyler Kinley came on (white flag?), hit a batter, walked another, and gave way to Ray Kerr, making his first MLB appearance since June 15, 2024. Kerr threw literally one pitch, a down-the-middle sinker to Kody Clemens, which turned into a groundout. For the eighth, the Braves left Kerr in the game, and somehow, the Twins loaded the bases with none out again (somehow equals a hit-by-pitch, a single, and a bunt that Kerr threw too high for Ozzie Albies to flag down at first and still touch the base). But, despite me looking very askance at the Braves for deciding to throw Kerr in for an up-down in a close game while still recovering from Tommy John Surgery, he somehow got out of it with no runs scoring, thanks to two pop-outs and a groundout.
That was the pitching slate for Atlanta; the hitting slate was a lot more frustrating. The Braves made Ober throw a ton of pitches, a la the first inning, but to little avail the first two times through the order. After that first inning, they got a leadoff single in the second and a two-out walk in the third, but didn't do anything with either. They finally broke through in the fifth: Austin Riley singled to start the frame, and Drake Baldwin pulled a double down the right-field line. Ronald Acuña Jr. got a fastball down the pipe on 2-1 at a sad 85.6 mph and yanked it down the left-fiel
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