Braves Bounce Past Nats, 4-3
Raudy Read Drew Millas couldn’t handle a 58′ curve from Daison Acosta, which enabled Atlanta’s Patrick Clohisy to scamper in with the winning run as the Braves dealt the Nats their second straight loss last night, 4-3.
Jake Irvin pitched into the third in the longest outing thus far, allowing no runs on two walks and striking out one over two and 1/3rd innnings.
Dylan Crews returned to the starting lineup in right field and batted second. He had a single in three trips to the plate.
Robert Hassell shifted over to left and went 3-for-3 with a double to extend his hitting streak to five games.
Here’s how the rest of the watchlist players did:
- Andrew Pinckney spelled Crew in RF and was 1-for-2 with a strikeout.
- Yoyo Morales pinch-ran for Nathaniel Lowe at 1B and was then smoked by old friend Sandy León trying to steal second. He struck out and grounded into a double play.
- Daylen Lile walked and flew out in relief of Hassell in LF.
- Brady House pinch-ran for Paul DeJong and took over 3B, making a nifty catch in shallow LF in the 8th and singling with two outs in the 9th.
- Cayden Wallace subbed for Luis García at 2B but went hitless in two AB. His spring BA is the same as yours.
- Elijah Green followed Jacob Young in CF and did not strike out in his lone plate appearance (he walked!)
- Brad Lord was charged with a blown save as he let in an unearned run over two innings, with one hit, no walks, and two whiffs.
- Jack Sinclair showed some serious movement on his two-seamer, but the Braves got to him for a run on three hits and a walk over his two innings.
The Nats head back out on the road to face the Mets in Port St. Lucie this afternoon. Shinnosuke Ogasawara is expected to make his second start of the spring.
Morales not only GIDP’d, but did so with the bases loaded in a tie game in the bottom of the 8th. Not great.
Hassell keeps on hitting. This time against semi-big league quality arms.
With Garrett being DFA’d, as Pilchard pointed out, we now only have 5 OFs on the 40 man roster, and an unbelievable 12 infielders. This is not good roster building.
Presumably the Nats have enough confidence in Pinckney and Lile that they’re not too concerned about their OF deficit. I would think that they will carry Call as 4th OF plus an infielder who can stand in LF every now and then. No matter how well Hassell does in the spring, he needs to be in AAA playing every day.
Rosario had played 50 games in the OF in his career. He’ll definitely be the Ildemaro Vargas of ’25. But again, he’s only played 50 of nearly 900 career games in the OF, so he’s not exactly comfortable there.
Juan Yepez has also played corner OF in the past, but he was apparently pretty awful there. But I guess he provides a bit of a “break in case of emergency” option.
But we’re looking at some pretty bleak options if we lose any of our starting 3 to injury for any significant period of time.
Hope Garrett sees this and ends up sticking with the club, albeit off the 40 man.
I’m going to float a hot fudge sundae bet that Stone doesn’t get claimed
I’m curious to see how TJ White’s spring goes
if he gets traded do you win the bet?
I’m all for Millas getting the chance to be the #2 catcher but he messed up on that wild pitch in the ninth. the fact that he made a greater effort on a subsequent bouncer with no one on base means he knows it.