Atlanta Braves Morning Chop: solar eclipse edition

It’s starting to happen… teams are now starting to be eliminated from divisional competition as the MLB elites start to eclipse their rivals – one at a time.

The San Francisco Giants cannot win the NL West.  The Phillies eliminated them on Sunday with a 5-2 win despite a (gasp!) Dodgers loss.  The Atlanta Braves still have a bit before that indignity happens:  they are currently 55-67, 19 games out of 1st, with an elimination number of 22.

Prepare to be inundated today with pics of today’s solar eclipse… which does bring up a topic:  baseball and the eclipse…

Here’s today’s Atlanta Braves affiliate schedule for Solar eclipse day:

• AAA Gwinnett:  in Durham, NC for a 7:05 start.  Eclipse coverage:  93.6% with maximum at 2:43pm EDT.
• AA Mississippi:  at Chattanooga for a 6:15pm start.  Eclipse coverage:  99.3% with maximum at 2:32pm EDT
• A+ Florida:  Got the day off, heading to Dunedin to open a series on Tuesday.  Eclipse coverage in Kissimmee, FL is 87% at 2:51pm EDT.
• A Rome:  at the Columbia (SC) Fireflies for a 1:05pm start.  In the area of totality, peaking at 2:43pm EDT.  Once totality begins, it will last for 2 minutes and 30 seconds.  There’s a strong likelihood that this game will still be in progress at that time.  Look for interesting pictures tonight as this game begins in full daylight before being plunged into darkness.
• R+ Danville Braves:  vs. Princeton (WV) Rays, 7:00pm EDT.  Eclipse coverage:  93% with maximum at 2:37pm EDT.
• GCL Braves at GCL Phillies, 10:00am start time at Clearwater, FL.  Eclipse coverage:  84%, peaking at 2:49pm EDT.

Overall, seven minor league contests will be impacted by the eclipse nationwide, with the first being the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes (Keizer, Oregon).  They are embracing the event in a big way, including a special start time (gates opening at 5am!) and custom eclipse jerseys.

Their game will be delayed 40 minutes after it starts so that everybody in attendance can look to the sky for their turn at totality.

These may not be the first professional games ever impacted by such an event, as the last total eclipse covering the US (June 8, 1918) followed a path from Washington state to Florida.  At the time, there were several minor leagues whose teams could have been in that area, too.

Eclipse Safety

Since a LOT of Braves Country is going to see a lot of this event (the Atlanta metro area sees a maximum of 97% moon coverage at 2:36pm EDT, the centerpoint of a 2 hour 56 minute event), this eye warning (from milb.com) is vital:

"To that end, it is important to note that it is never OK to look directly at the sun, and that eclipse-viewing sunglasses are mandatory (NASA notes that ordinary sunglasses “transmit thousands of times too much sunlight.”) As such, eclipse-viewing sunglasses will be distributed to fans attending each of the Minor League ballpark events. The only portion of the eclipse in which viewing glasses are not needed is during totality, when the moon completely blocks out the sun."

So don’t screw this up, people:  you will experience blindness from looking at the sun… every day.  But just because it seems to be safer tomorrow (since it’s so dark), it’s not.  Get some ISO 12312-2 glasses if you want to witness this yourself.  Do it.

Back to Baseball

The Atlanta Braves will be playing tonight as well – a usual 7:35pm start against Seattle.  Scheduled to pitch are Andrew Albers and Mike Foltynewicz.

Yes, this is the same Andrew Albers that was just given to Seattle last week.  Hey Coppy… think you could have held off on that trade thing another week?  Maybe tell Albers to hop on the Mariners’ plane after they leave town on Wednesday?

TRIPLES.  You remember last season in which the Braves were the last team in the majors to record a triple (Mallex Smith, 35th game of the year)?  They finished with 27 triples on the year… actually good enough for 18th overall.

Well today the Braves got 2 of them:  Ozzie Albies and Dansby Swanson – the 2nd for both of them.

• That same pair also tripled in the same game in the 10-4 win over Colorado on Thursday.
• That makes five triples this week (Ender Inciarte in the Chad Bettis game)

Gotta love the strangeness of baseball.  Here’s your box from Sunday’s happy result:

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table

Next: The full game recap

Hopefully you’ll all be able to see the game tonight – be safe out there!  Jorge Soler could not be reached for comment.