#10 5-1 Homestand, The Eli White game, Bryce Elder, Nick Allen and Daysbel

[00:00:02] How about that game? That made it worth getting up super early and having a quick turnaround from last night. Good comeback win for the Braves. That game started out really slowly, but a couple of really important things that happened in this one. First of all, let's start with Bryce Elder. Bryce Elder was great today. Really rough first inning, a couple of walks in there, but did a nice job of limiting the damage to just one run. Had to battle a little bit to get comfortable. I think it took him a couple innings and then once he did, he did exactly what we needed him to do today, and that was get deep in the game, save the bullpen. Six innings for Bryce Elder, Just the one run. He had three walks, I think two strikeouts in there. But it's more importantly inducing weak contact, getting that pitch count under control after we threw a lot in the first inning. He deserves a ton of credit. I know the Cardinals are not necessarily a good team, but remember they came in to the series with the second best batting average in baseball. Like they have some good hitters. We saw it throughout the series. So just an amazing job by Bryce Elder to keep that game close. Very quiet on the other side for the offense for a while. And then Nick Allen gets that double on a change of just kind of this lofty double down the line. Ultimately, he ends up coming around and scoring Michael Harris with an RBI base hit. He broke, I think I said three bats in his last two plate appearances, but two hits to show for it. It's not always going to be the big contact. So Michael did a great job today in that leadoff spot. I've talked about it. I kind of like him hitting a little bit lower in the lineup. But Verdugo gets the day off and so Michael back to the top spot and it ended up working out really well. Daysbell Hernandez has been really good, really good at home. As Brandon mentioned on the broadcast, got some swing and miss today. His strikeouts and his strikeout rate have been down so far this year, but he did a good job getting a couple strikeouts, finishing that one off. He's been the right man in the right place at the right time. We joked about it, but he's now 70 in his career in 31 games. We don't talk about reliever wins, they don't matter that much. But it's just a fun little side note that when he's coming, tie are behind, the Braves have come back and he's been credited with wins even though Bryce Elder did, of course, the bulk of the work on the pitching side. So he is really emerging the way we've needed him to. We talked about it from the very beginning of the season. So that was a really nice moment for him. But no bigger moment today than for Eli White. I found it interesting, quite honestly, that he got the start today because Miles Michaelis wasn't good against lefties, but they wanted to get Verdugo a day off. So Eli White is the guy that gets the start. And what a huge moment for him. Really cool to see. Even when he came up then I thought we would probably see Alex Rodugo didn't go that way. Now he was talking to Tim Hiers and so I don't know if they were just talking shop, maybe getting ready for another potential pinch hitter, if they were really just trying to give him that full day off. And then of course, tomorrow is off too. So you're looking at two off days there for Alex Verdugo. Now, I'm not exactly sure, but Eli White gets to stay in there. First pitch slide, I think it was first pitch, right slider and he crushes it. So that was awesome. Just a really good moment for him. He's so highly respected and everyone loves him and he just brings a lot to the team. So good for Eli White to hit that home run. It was a bomb into that second deck as I was sitting there questioning whether or not Alex Verdugo should be pinch hitting. So they got it right. Really cool moment, certainly for Eli. Again, just such a great guy. Easy guy to root for. The other part of this is that the Braves were able to come back, win this game, get Ricell Iglesias two days off. That was big, right? With the off day now and trying to get this bullpen reset going in Arizona. It's going to be a tough series. That was really important as well. That falls on Bryce Elder for me, gets a lot of credit for that. The fact that he goes six innings and takes some of that pressure off of the bullpen. So good job all the way around. The ancillary effects that you get there from Bryce Helter getting deeper in the game, I was really frustrated. I did say bull crap on the air because I don't know why major league baseball allows this to happen. Ali Marmal goes out. It's the second visit. There has to be a pitching change, but clearly he was not confident that his reliever was ready. So he slow walked it and then stood on the mountain and waited for the home plate umpire in Stu Shuwater to come out and tell him hey, it's time to make a change for me. It's always bothered me if it's second visit. As soon as you're top step and you indicate to the umpire that you're going to visit your pitcher, that reliever should be called in. At that moment. He tried to buy more time for Fernandez. Luckily it worked out for the Braves anyway and Eli White had the big home run, but I didn't like that at all. I feel like, you know, Major League Baseball works so hard to keep the games moving along. Every little second seems to matter, but yet somehow you can waste a good 30, 45 seconds, maybe even more in a spot where it is clear that you have to make a pitching change. So I got a little worked up about it, but I apologize for the half bad language. Don't like when that happens. But what a great series. What a great home stand. Day off. Traveled to Arizona, going to be a tough series. They're a good team. Colorado always kind of an adventure for those three games there as well. It's going to be chilly once we get there, but we look forward to it. This team is playing really well right now and different guys stepping up and that is going to have to continue, but really fun. It'll be a happy flight for the Braves and we are all looking forward to this next series. Enjoy the off day. I'm sticking around here for a day to watch a little high school baseball. The playoffs have started and let's hope it doesn't rain the rest of the day because my son is scheduled to pitch his first ever postseason game in high school. So I'm kind of a little bit of a nervous wreck. So anyway, we'll talk to you guys soon. Great series, great home stand, good atmosphere today.