Show #497: Game 5 Wrap-Up

You're listening to Atlanta baseball talk. You're weekly podcast for all things at Atlanta Braves. Welcome to Atlanta baseball talk show number 497. Today is Friday, October 16, 2020. My name is Steve. Really. It's Saturday already. But don't remind us. It's a first. Yes. I am joined by both Hammy and Curtis and folks. Please help out the show by telling your friends. Sharing links and writing reviews.

If you do, Max goes seven tomorrow night and the Braves move on. Straighten to the point. Yeah. So the whole moving on thing did not happen so much in game five tonight. Really wanted that. Yeah. It would have been nice. It would have been nice. It would have been better. So we will break it all down. But first a quick break. All right. So a little

news before the game, right? The drama. Of today and the lineup was who would be the opener? I was really quite sure that Snitker was going to take somewhat of a very conservative approach and start Tomlin. I was hoping for Kyle right. And we got AJ minter, which I thought was actually awesome. Like really treating it like a true bullpen game using an opener. I was

pumped. Yeah. Did to have the gut. It's to go with someone who had never started a game before to make minter the first person ever who made his first career start in the postseason. I know. Really cool. Yeah. Cool. Staff there. So. Yeah. And then there is sort of unsnicker like. So you're right. I thought it was the right call to you. Yep. I liked it.

All right. So let's walk through the game. So my God, it could not have started better. One pitch, one out on Mookie, which you got to like. Seager strikeout. Turner did hit a double, but he worked around that months. He strike out 14 pitches and minter is through top one. So bottom one, Akunya grounds out. Freddie doubles goes to third on a pass ball. Ozuna walks.

Darno, sack fly. Whoa. I know. And Ozzy strikes out. So it is one nothing. After the first. So some interesting things already here, which look really great. May is not super sharp. Nope. And he does his body language is bad. He does not look comfortable like not great. Um, months he should have knocked down Freddie's ball, that ground ball. You know, at least sort of stopped

it. Let alone, he really should have just, you know, made the play. But instead. It's going to hit surprise that wasn't an error. I mean, he touched it with his glove. So it sort of should have been narrow. Whatever. You know, then the past ball that that allows Freddie to go to third, like not a lot of clean baseball. And it is delicious. The Dodgers not

looking good. No. Um, all the breaks going our way. Yeah, totally. And it's one nothing. We've got to lead. It is all good. So top two. Um, minters even better. Will Smith grounds out. Belinger strikes out. Pollock strikes out. It is a 10 pitch inning. And minter is just rolling. And I'm thinking that's the end of minter, you know, or maybe the first batter. Top third,

but we'll get there. Um, so more offense for the braves in the second. Dan's be walks, Riley strike out strikes out. Um, cakes is up. And there's a hit and run. And cakes, you know, drives the ball hits a single. Dan's be going. And it goes to third cakes. I don't know if you guys saw it, but cakes actually did them mix it up thing. Did

he? Yes, he did. He did. He did. I'm really subtle. Was it awkward? Do you go? It was, it was not big. Did he stir the wrong way? It was a little stir. But he definitely mixed it up. Um, Pache single. It's two zip. Acunia flies out. Freddie strikes out. Should have gotten more there. Like that was a real opportunity. That inning. Yeah. And a couple

places down the line could have gotten more, should have got more. Sure. We left a lot of. Yeah. And given up less. Yes. That would have also helped. It is true. I think you guys are onto something. So top three minter is still in. Um, but Peterson's up. Right. So he's facing a lefty. Um, he's got a lead strikes out Peterson, which is awesome. I'm sure

he's coming out then. But no. So minter stays in. He faces the righty Taylor. He's at 30 pitches. Right. And he's in the, you know, he's in the third inning, which he's never done. Um, and you know, he's, he starts to lose his commands on. Right. I mean, Taylor goes to three and O. And, but he battles back and strikes him out. And he strikes out

bets looking and minter is through three complete. And it's just amazing. Right. He's done a dry cast, five in a row. Yeah. Yeah. And. Right. The guy that maybe was gonna go to go three. The brazier up to zip with the rest of the bullpen. Doesn't have to cover as much. Very good. I'm very happy. And the guy that is basically a starter for them can't

even make it through two. Right. Right. There's that whole thing that our reliever pitched longer than their starter. Right. Yes. She got it like. So it's bottom third. You know, we we spoiler there. Um, made is not come back out. Joe Kelly comes in, which I was surprised at. Like, Joe Kelly has not been trustworthy for the Dodgers. They have avoided him. Um, this is a

must win game from our surprise to see Joe Kelly. And it does not start well. Ozuna singles. Dar no singles. Um, Ozzy fielders choice. Right. So it's now first and third. And then Dan's B is about to dump one into right field. But Betz runs in, makes an amazing catch. And Ozuna comes home and is safe tagging up, except he leaves early. And it is blatantly

obvious once we see the replay. And the innings over. And this is like a massive turning point in the game. Which Joe Buck never let us forget. Well, because it was, I mean, it really was like there was so much momentum. To on no out. You're about to add on to your two old lead. And boy, it does not go the braves way this inning. Well,

and it was, you know, I know they talked about all the traffic between Ozuna and Betz trying to see if he had caught that ball. But it was weird because like he had gotten back to the bag and then sort of hopped off right as Betz was making that catch. And I guess maybe he thought he trapped it or something. But why wouldn't you wait there

if he trapped the ball? I mean, I understand that he's trying to get the best jumpie. Ken, it was just a weird. I think it was bad execution on Ozuna's part. I mean, to your point, Kurt, like he's got him, he's got to make sure that that Betz has done what he thinks he's done. And you got to keep your foot on the bag and knowing

that there's, I guess there was, there was one out. Is that right? Yep. Right. It was one out. So then it, so that became a double play. You're inning the inning. Yeah. So that's the end of the inning and the end of a lot for the braves. But we don't know that yet. So top four, Matt six in. Seager Homer. And this was an interesting one.

Right. That Pache backs himself up. Up against the wall and has literally leaves himself no room to jump. I mean, he can jump, but it's not a good one. Like I'm not 100% sure that had he given himself a foot. He could have jumped up and caught it. It was a little hard to tell on the replay. But it was, you know, it was not perfect

execution. I think it, yeah, I think it surprised him how far carried. Yeah. Yeah. It might have been closer. Had he been able to sort of use the wall to propel him so far. Oh, it is Nixon or why he did later in the game when he gave himself a little gap. Exactly. No. And that was actually great. Right. That like he 100% learned from that

moment and incorporated it into the next time that flyball happened. Yeah. Cause I mean, honestly, the wall, like when you're, if you push your body against it, it will, it will work to force you down. Even it's, yeah. So I mean, and it's obviously he played last night, but he has not played a lot this year and has not played in that park much. It all.

So, so then Matt's excettles down, Turner flies to left, Muncie fly. And then he looks really good and strikes out Smith. So it's two to one. And then Trinon comes in and boy, the braves can do nothing. The clothes are there. I mean, seriously, and Trinon did not look good earlier in the season. And, you know, we had talked about that earlier. And sorry, in the

series, that Trinon got knocked around. When he was really the best guy in the bullpen, but he looked like it tonight. Yeah. It was sort of a parade of guys coming out of their bullpen that we had done quite a bit of damage of in the first four games. That we can do nothing against tonight. Yeah. I mean, Riley pop up, cake strikeout, Pache, ground out.

It's the first one, two, three for the Dodgers in the game. So more magic in the top of the fifth. He strikes out Belinger. God Belinger looks so bad in this series. And I just could not love it more. Yeah. And we need it. I mean, they have found, they have found that hole in his swing, sort of up and in. And they just keep exploiting

it. And he keeps swinging at it. And he keeps not hitting it. Too bad they think that the same hole exists in Seager swing, which it does not know. He handles those. Yeah. So Matt's it gets Belinger. And then he's gone. Shane Green comes in third day in a row. I mean, nothing doing. So top of the sixth and I have, I think it was you

who had texted you were like, I'm really scared about this inning. Turner ground ball, which turns into Mookie being caught in a run down and Turner ends up at second. So right. I mean, it's just an out. They trade guys at second base. So it is two outs. And you think is actually better because obviously Turner is much slower than Mookie Betts is. Yeah. It seemed

like a good trade off at the time. And so it is two outs. With Muncie coming up, lefty, Muncie. And Snicker brings in Will Smith to get the lefty with two outs and then the inning. Except that really doesn't happen so much because he walks Muncie. And then of course you can't take him out because of the three batter rule. And we finally get the Will

Smith on Will Smith matchup that nobody wanted. And he goes to a full count. No swings. And then hits a three run homer. And it is four to two. So don't you. Yeah. Go ahead. If you're Snicker, don't you consider maybe just walking Muncie and then bringing in Webb or Martin then and after what Smith looked like last night. Well, you're only at two batters then.

Yeah, he couldn't do that. Couldn't do it. I don't know. No, you don't you don't you don't even bring in Smith. You bring in Webb and just walk. Muncie and then pitch. Oh, I got you Webb on Smith, right? And you've got the force out there and you're avoiding that whole situation. I mean, look, here's the thing. Smith looked dreadful last night, right? Before last night

and we talked about it a bunch from his first appearance back in the red series. He looked like the guy that we signed a three year contract to and was just like devastating. You know, but boy, he looked bad last night. Did you feel good about coming in tonight? No, no, no. And it was it's the pitch that down an in pitch to the right handers

away, obviously, to the left handers that he, it wasn't even close. No, he just he could not locate it. They clearly went up there with a mindset that they weren't even going to offer at it. And they didn't. I mean, they, you know, to these the Muncie, the Muncie at bat was just a huge moment in the game because you know, Muncie is not, he said

at home run, maybe he said a couple of home runs, but he's done virtually nothing. Right. And to not make him even really work that hard. Well, he didn't swing either. Muncie did not swing. Yeah. Um, and you know, if you, if that pitch is not working, we saw the, the sequence that he had against Belinger after he went after Will Smith at that home run

that he was, you know, going in and up to Belinger, which is obviously the hole that we just mentioned. But I mean, with two strikes on Will Smith, throw a fastball away. You go in, in, in, down, and in, down, and in, down, and in, down, and in. I mean, the guy was so sitting on a fastball, down, and in. And that's what they provided to

him. I mean, you know, you got to sort of make them look something different after you've thrown five straight pitches down and in. Go away, at least one away. And if you walk him, you walk him. But it was just a terrible sequence of pitch. I mean, especially for him that he was struggling to get over the, the plate anyway. Yeah. Um, and then he, and

then Belinger comes in and he throws 95 on the inside corner and, you know, gets him to pop out. I just, it was so befuddling the way that they handled that Will Smith at bat. And it was obviously the, the game winner. Yeah. So, so right. So Belinger's next, he gets him to pop out. And we are to the bottom of the six Pedro Baez. And,

and still nothing from the braze. Darn, no strikes out. Aussie flies out. Dan's be strikes out. Just nothing doing. Top seven, Jacob Webb is in. And another strange moment in the game that turns into sort of a big deal. So Pollock strikes out. Peterson strikes out. Taylor is hit by a pitch. He starts to take first. Webb is yelling at the home plate on par. Faul

ball. Faul ball. And we see in the first replay, and we see him. And then he's like, I'm gonna go back to the top. That clearly it just hit the nub of the bat and did not touch his hand. Right. You hear the umpire say, he does and yeah. Um, so you see Taylor act like it hit us. Yeah. Can we just pause for seconds here

here and say how horrible the ump's have been just. Oh my God. It's rocious. Yeah. So get my wife asked if the box there looks like why do you have the box there? If it's always so outside of it and they get it wrong. It's an excellent question. Yes. Yeah. So the ump's review it and they make the right call. They bring him back. And the

at back continues. And he gets a frigging double. But clearly Webb had like lost his mind. Yeah. And then lost his ability to pitch. I mean, he had Taylor down one and two. Taylor's got like one hit this entire postseason, maybe. And unable to put a guy away. And it just like he just amped himself up so much. And you have the ninth batter. So now

you flip the lineup back to the top, which is just. The murder's row for the Dodgers. I mean, it's the top three or four guys. And you know, you just can't let your emotions get that ahead of you when you're got the guy down one and two and you've struck out the first two guys. I know it's easier for me to say that sitting in this

chair. But you know, I mean, that was just two winnings in a row. A pivotal combat that just proved to be crushing. Well, and we just could not we could get. It take us two pitches to get people to two strikes. And then we could not put them away. Yeah. A lot of that. It's the Will Smith story, right. And Webb was the same way and

green even. Right. Just really nasty looking dominant to get them to and credit to the Dodgers. Right. Good hitter is very patient. You know, a really good small zone. But um, God, it was so frustrating. Yeah. And it goes from frustrating to words. Because like you said, Kurt, they turn over the lineup. Mookey comes up. Actually gets an RBI. Uh, it's now five two. And then

seeker hits a two run homer, which is really the final nails and the coffin. It is seven to two. Jacob Webb finally gets. Uh, Justin Turner to end the inning. And then a little life from the braves in the bottom of the seventh. So bias is still in Riley single that takes care of bias. Victor Gonzalez comes in. Camargo, as you know, Gonzalez is a lefty

Camargo pinch hits for Marcages. Kind of bold, giving up the defense in left field. But, you know, we need offense down five runs. Um, Camargo walks and does a bat flip, which I thought, okay, man, I liked it too. Um, it's pretty funny. And so now it's first and second. No out. Pesh is up. And. It's full count, I believe. Yes. And God, Pesh is, I

want to say again, his plate discipline. Amazing. So, so impressive. Like really, he's scared. He's going to be great. He's here. She's going to be so great. But he hits a ground ball to third and it's a double play. Uh, I mean, you know, truly a rally killer and then Akunya flies out. And, uh, and Akunya, nothing. Yeah. Nothing. Tonight really. Um, so top eight Josh

Tomlin in. Um, once he goes dead center, and this is that play where Pesh does not back himself up against the wall. And he jumps up and catches it. Uh, gray play, gray play by Pesh will Smith flies out, Belinger strikes out. Tomlin goes one, two, three. Um, bottom eight Freddy tries to do a little too much and gets lucky. Uh, right. I mean, he goes

the other way. Um, down the third base line goes into second is dead to rights. Yeah. I mean, he's out by a foot. Uh, but Turner could not hold on to that perfect throw from Taylor. Uh, so that, that, um, that boots Gonzalez. Gratterall comes in. Uh, Ozzoon hits a sack fly. Freddy to third. RBI ground out by Darnell. Uh, it is 73, uh, sorry, 72,

three and then nothing else doing. So Tomlin back out there, top of the ninth and, uh, so Kiki is in. Um, he hits a single. Then gets a double play from Peterson. Rio strikes out. I mean, Tom, you know, this is, this is the good Tomlin. I mean, Tomlin look good, you know, for those two innings. And then, uh, I can't imagine technically he didn't look

good. My son, he looks, he looks like a deadwood reject. He did. That's, yeah, that's pretty good. Oh my God, speaking of facial hair, how about Markega shaving and just leaving the soul patch. It's good stuff. He's crazy with the stirring it up. So taxes, a different person. So, um, Kenley Jansen in bottom of the ninth and I'm hoping let's get a little drama here at

least, you know, let's not help Jansen's confidence to come back. But, um, he just moses down. Yeah. Oh, and like nine pitches. Yeah. I mean, Dan's be strike out. Riley's tracker. Who was the last batter? I think it was comargo right from the left side, which was never going to go well. Um, yeah, ballgame. Yep. Yeah. You know, we, um, we weren't supposed to win this

game. This was always, I mean, this was always a throwaway game. The last night's victory, which was amazing. And we didn't get to talk about. But, um, was the one we needed. And now we've got two shots on goal with, um, Fried and Anderson. And certainly you, you hate to squander that opportunity when you're up to nothing and you get that amazing start from mentor. Yeah.

Um, the Dodgers are good. It was a tall order. Um, we certainly shot ourselves in the foot a little bit. And they're if, you know, a couple pitches or situations here and they're going to go on differently. But, um, I don't know. I still like our chances. And I bet the Dodgers. I someone said it. The break, you know, the Dodgers would rather be the Braves

than the Dodgers right now. Yeah, they wouldn't trade places with us. It's true. So. All right, guys, we will wrap up tonight's game and then look to game six right after this quick break. So yeah, this wasn't never going to be easy. I mean, I predicted seven games. I don't know. How am I think you did two? Nope. I said Braves in six. I called it

so far. I said Braves won the first two Dodgers and then we swap off Dodgers win game three. We win game four Dodgers. One game five. We win tomorrow. That's what I mean. That's perfect. Stick into it. Yeah. Curtis, how many games did you call? I said, Freddie would be MVP. And he is. Yeah. And if the Braves win, I mean, he will be. Yeah. Curtis,

did you have him? Did you have it go in seven? No, I had Dodgers in six. So. I'm glad we got to bring that up again. That out loud. I will go and I. You challenged us on our picks. I stood by it. I believe that there was a conversation that we had later where we won't get into it. Um, um, it's all the homers. I

mean, you know, it's, it's, it's very basic. Uh, it, the Dodgers, it's like all they do is hit homers. They're hardly scoring any other way. Um, I mean, you can look at the run down today. Corey, see your home or we'll Smith home or for three runs. But you bet it's a single. That's the only RBI. They got not via the home or Corey, see your

home. So they're going to hit home runs. You just can't have guys on in front of them, particularly via walk. Yeah. And you got to put guys away. You know, when you got the ninth batter down one and two, you got to put that guy away. When you've got months, they're just with a bat on a shoulder. You got to make him hurt it. You know,

I mean, and those, again, those are the two big at bats in this game, because both of those you had two outs, you walk, months, you with two outs, you let Taylor on with two outs. And, you know, there's six runs right there. So. Well, look, we've got our ace going tomorrow. We've got exactly Walker Bueller and his two blisters on the other side. You know,

and look, Bueller was not great in game one. You know, I mean, you know, he could mo guys down, but he did not have his command. I assume because of the blisters he walked five. I certainly like the matchup. And like Ham said, we've got two to, you know, two to play. Just got a win one. And we and their guys are gas too. I mean,

if Bueller goes four, or does what he did in game one, I mean, that's a, I mean, there's no way to go to, right? You can't go to Urias, because he's your game seven guy. Right. Right. And less Roberts is like whatever kitchen sink. We started. Graderon went with shoe bias went, I mean, they did talk about it. All today. Yeah. And so. Yeah, it was

good to get to Grader. All. Yeah. So I mean, I don't know. Yeah. So going through a game, regardless of what you got out of men are, I mean, just still have to go through six more innings after that with sort of patching together, whatever you could to get through it. It was, you know, I mean, it, you're right. It was going to be a tall

task. Yeah. Yeah. So we always were too. So Melanson did not pitch tonight. Chris Martin did not pitch tonight. Oh, day did not pitch tonight, which was weird. I, he was up early. Yeah, he was. He was. I mean, look, we're not going to see Will Smith tonight. I'm sorry. Tomorrow night. Well, it is tonight. But we're not going to see Will Smith in game six.

We won't see mentor. Don't think we see Jacob. Have one see green. Well, see Tomlin won't see green. We'll see Tomlin. Yeah. I mean, he didn't, he didn't, he did not like his sharp tonight as he has been. Maybe right. I mean, I mean, I hope, I mean, obviously the, you hope you get seven from freed and then Martin, Melanson, right? But who is that? Yeah.

I mean, it's, I think it's, yeah, I mean, Cal writes a really good call. We may see him tomorrow. So, but look, let's get those seven out of max. Okay. Yeah. That'll work. I mean, guys, look, I still firmly believe we're going to the world series. It would have been nice to win tonight. But, you know, we're up, we're up three, two, got to win one.

How crazy that the rays have blown a three nothing lead. Oh my God. Yeah. All right. So early game tomorrow, right? Four 30 or something. So now to wait as long. But you still do the show at one 30 in the morning. Oh my God. No, we are out of best. Tonight, you can hear the energy. All right, guys, that is the show. We will be

back Saturday night with a wrap up of game six. Remember, you can find us at Speaker, iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play and Spotify. As always, you can find us at Atlanta baseball talk.com. Be sure to follow us on Twitter at ATL baseball talk and to like us on Facebook. Thanks again for listening and go braves. Thanks for listening to Atlanta baseball talk. You're a weekly podcast for

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