Atlanta Braves Morning Chop: A Lousy Kicking Game?

The Braves and Marlins played their own brand of Monday Night Football last night, racking up 2280 combined yards of offense while scoring on multiple possessions.

There were lots of strange stats around last night, and it seemed like the Atlanta Braves were in the thick of all of them:

• 14 of those (12.5%) appeared in Atlanta last night… 2X the rate of the other games.
• There were 34 hits (17 apiece).  Three other games saw a team get 16… but not both… in the same game.
• The 19 runs scored were matched in Oakland’s 16-3 victory and exceeded in Arizona’s 12-9 win… so hey: maybe the extra pitching kept that scoring down!
• The Braves extended their our major league record with 26 pitchers having a Win… with none having more than 8.  Last night it was Chaz Roe getting into the act.

Want to know just how strange that last bullet is?

More from Tomahawk Take

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• Notable Atlanta Braves Reunions Since 2003: Pitcher Edition
• Braves News: Braves re-sign Jackson Stephens
• Braves News: Braves prospect rankings, Correa deal with Mets at risk, more
• Why the Atlanta Braves won’t extend Max Fried

• The Cardinals have only used 21 pitchers… period.
• The Mets – for all their rotation troubles – have used just 22.
• The Nationals – for all of their own rotation and bullpen issues – just 24.
• The Cubs?  26 exactly.

The Dodgers – who can’t seem to have any pitcher go more than 5 or six starts is a row and have had 15 different pitchers start a game this year – did indeed exceed that 26 threshold.  They’ve used 31 pitchers with 21 getting W’s.

The Braves are up to 34 different pitchers…and 15 different starters.

So with all of that bullpen activity and mound visits and injured players and whacked players… and the game took 3 hours, 35 minutes to play… just 17 minutes longer than the Phillies’ 6-2 win over the Pirates.

In summary, Atlanta put up an touchdown and led 7-0 early in the second quarter, but by halftime, Miami managed to tie the score with a drive of their own that literally knocked out starting QB Mike Foltynewicz.  He’s be okay, although…

After the tie, the Atlanta squad fought back with a safety in the third quarter and field goal late.  Thus the final looked like the Braves had trouble kicking the extra points, but it was a relentless attach that allowed them to circle 120 yards of bases… twelve times…1,440 yards.

5 doubles, a triple (Inciarte) and a homer (Markakis).  4 RBI by Tyler Flowers via a pair of bases-loaded hits, 2 by Markakis, and additional contributions from virtually everyone.

Next: Reviewing the GCL Braves

The Braves are now 3 games “behind” the Twins in the hunt for Draft Pick #1 and 3½ clear of the Diamondbacks, who now hold the 3rd pick.