Atlanta Braves’ Morning Chop: Just one pitch… or was it?
The Braves were 7 outs away from a sweep of the Marlins in Miami. And then one knuckleball… didn’t.
This game on Sunday was actually shaping up to be R.A. Dickey‘s best in an Atlanta Braves uniform… nearly through the 7th inning with a 4-hit shutout working.
One more ‘working’ knuckleball might have ended the inning and turned the rest of the game over to the bullpen for a potentially happy plane ride to Toronto… if there’s such a thing.
It’s easy to point to that single pitch resulting in 3-run homer by pinch hitter (P.S. – there’s a phrase Atlanta is unfamiliar with) Tyler Moore as the downfall for the Braves yesterday, but don’t ignore this:
The Braves got 6 hits and 4 walks in 6 innings against a AAA pitcher with a 4.46 ERA (Justin Nicolino) and only managed to get one run.
One for thirteen with runners in scoring position.
The same guy that got the “one” (Nick Markakis) also hit the first pitch he saw from Nicolino right back to him… resulting in a 1-2-3 double play that killed a bases-loaded, 1 out opportunity in the first inning.
Maybe it was facing a lefty, which hasn’t happened much this season. Almost all of them had seen Nicolino before, at least for a few ABs. Only Brandon Phillips had been an “oh-fer” against him, and Phillips got the day off.
Something more needs to kick in with the offense. Fortunately, the pitching did this weekend… giving up only a total of 8 runs for the series. That at least gave Atlanta 2 desperately needed wins.
That kind of contribution normally should be enough. But if you have to expect perfection from a knuckleballer, then that’s expecting too much.
But he almost delivered anyway.
Here’s the box…
| Batting | AB | R | H | RBI | BB | SO | PA | BA | OBP | SLG | OPS | Pit | Str | Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ender Inciarte CF | 4 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 5 | .253 | .310 | .411 | .721 | 13 | 8 | |
| Adonis Garcia 3B | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 5 | .229 | .266 | .344 | .610 | 19 | 8 | HBP |
| Freddie Freeman 1B | 5 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 5 | .344 | .461 | .736 | 1.197 | 17 | 14 | |
| Matt Kemp LF | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 5 | .320 | .352 | .583 | .934 | 20 | 12 | |
| Nick Markakis RF | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 4 | .302 | .385 | .403 | .788 | 7 | 5 | GDP,IW |
| Kurt Suzuki C | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | .204 | .339 | .286 | .624 | 11 | 8 | 2B |
| Danny Santana 2B | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 4 | .147 | .194 | .265 | .459 | 12 | 9 | |
| Dansby Swanson SS | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 4 | .174 | .257 | .231 | .489 | 9 | 7 | IW |
| R.A. Dickey P | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | .133 | .133 | .133 | .267 | 8 | 8 | SH |
| Emilio Bonifacio PH | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | .179 | .207 | .286 | .493 | 3 | 3 | |
| Sam Freeman P | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||||||
| Jason Motte P | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||||||
| Team Totals | 32 | 1 | 8 | 1 | 6 | 8 | 40 | .250 | .385 | .281 | .666 | 119 | 82 |
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
| Pitching | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR | ERA | BF | Pit | Str |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| R.A. Dickey, L (3-3) | 7 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 4.22 | 28 | 96 | 59 |
| Sam Freeman | 0.2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0.00 | 3 | 15 | 7 |
| Jason Motte | 0.1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2.84 | 1 | 3 | 2 |
| Team Totals | 8 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 3.38 | 32 | 114 | 68 |
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table