Atlanta Braves: 3 takeaways from a Friday night loss in New York

Are we having fun yet?  Atlanta Braves can’t follow through on early success while other concerns emerge.

The outings of each Atlanta Braves starting pitcher in these last few games can be characterized as “tune ups”, though one has to wonder if the pitchers themselves are coming in with their best game faces on.

That’s just one of the concerns about Dallas Keuchel in particular as of late, and without further ado, let’s jump right into today’s takeaways:

3. Is Dallas Keuchel the right guy?

That’s a loaded question, but there’s growing reasons for asking it.

Friday night’s line for Keuchel went something like this:

• 98 pitches over 5 innings, 4K
• 7 hits, 4 walks, 1 hit batsman for a total of 12 base-runners (a WHIP of 2.20 since that stat doesn’t include the HBP)
• 2 homers allowed, 4 earned runs

“Okay, that’s just one game.”

Well, no… actually it isn’t.  Here’s his prior 2 outings (vs. Giants, Phillies):

• 6 IP, 6 hits, 3 runs (2 earned), 2 walks, 4K
• 5 IP, 8 hits, 5 runs (all earned), 2 homers, 1 BB, 2K

He also had a stretch from July 17 to August 8 in which he allowed 4, 2, 4, 3, 8 earned runs.

Despite all of that, his ERA sits a 3.75 now… but it’s the Julio Teheran Syndrome that we’re seeing here:  the Strange Case of Dr. Dallas and Mr. Keuchel – a coin flip between one who is good and the other bad.  Not much middle ground.

Keuchel spent a bit of quality time with home plate umpire Mark Wegner to lobby for better pitch calls, last night, but frankly, catcher Tyler Flowers should have been lobbying his battery-mate for better pitches.

I can’t post the graphics of last night’s pitch charts, but you can see them at this link.  These are the called pitches.

Now the disclaimers on these charts are as follows:

• Pitches in the strike zone would tend to be hit most often (duh), so they won’t appear in the graphic
• This includes results from all pitchers last night – not just Keuchel.

That said, focus on the Triangles and just how many of them are nowhere near the strike zone.  Regardless of whether the hitter was a lefty or righty, Keuchel (most of these are probably his pitches) was missing down and toward his arm-side a lot.

There was one pitch clearly missed by Wegner, but it appears that he called a good game otherwise.

Basically, Keuchel’s command was off… and that leads to a dilemma for the Atlanta Braves for next week.

St. Louis – if they are indeed the opponent – will start Jack Flaherty.  He isn’t suffering from any Jekyll/Hyde maladies:  his last several outings have yielded 0,1,3,0,0,2,0,1,0,0,0,2,0,1,1 earned runs dating back to July 7.

This is not a matchup that favors the Atlanta Braves right now… especially when there’s stats like this out there (h/t to co-editor Jake for saving me the lookup time):

Snitker isn’t going to express any concerns publicly – he’s from the Bobby Cox School of Management which teaches that such things are taboo.

I will bet that the discussion is definitely going on internally, though.

2. Don’t Get Hurt!

That’s the bottom line, but it came about when Hamilton stole second base and then came out of the game… which placed Rafael Ortega – the Braves 3rd center fielder – into action to finish the game.

Ender Inciarte is done – at least for the first playoff round.  Ronald Acuna Jr. is shut down with the hope that he’s back next Thursday.

You’ve got to play somebody for each of these remaining games, but … wow, can we possibly get through the weekend without something else bad happening?

1. The Better News?

Dansby Swanson picked up right where he left off in Kansas City:  leading off and going 3 for 5 – also stealing a base and scoring.

True – 2 of those hits never left the infield, but we still take those – particularly when Swanson himself has scorched multiple line drive this year that were roped right at someone.

It would be nice to pack him in ice and then thaw him out in time for next Thursday’s game… anything to maintain his current approach (up the middle or to right field) which was the hallmark of his hitting successes from earlier in the season.

Beyond that, Josh Donaldson was 2 for 3 with a walk, maintaining his own recent hitting binge.

Ozzie Albies had a single – bringing his season total to 188 to claim sole possession of the NL lead for hits.  Ketel Marte had that perch, but is shut down for the rest of the year.  Nolan Arenado (185) is now Albies’ closest active pursuer.

Now we just need Freddie Freeman to hit a bit… last night demonstrated what happens to this lineup when he isn’t hitting.