After falling asleep at the wheel yesterday, the Braves will now try to dig out of the hole they made for themselves
At this point, we’re running out of ways to describe the Braves’ 2024 season as progressively more and more doomed. With the team showing the same sense of urgency in trying to win last night’s game against the Marlins as they did through the rest of the season, there’s pretty much no margin for error anymore… but there was no real margin for error yesterday either, and the team still let Charlie Morton stick around to bleed four runs while the bullpen (yet again, and again, and again) threw up goose eggs while the team still lost.
So, today, it’ll be about whether Max Fried can either pitch well enough that the Braves don’t have to worry about removing him, or whether they actually do remove him before the season is pretty much well and truly over for good. Fried is on a small run that’s been incredibly frustrating for both him and the team, as he has a 13/3 K/BB ratio with just a single homer allowed in his last two games, but the Braves have lost them both. If that sort of thing happens to him and the team again, well, his peripherals being good won’t be anything but a moral victory.
The Marlins will start Adam Oller, who has been below-replacement so far this year, with a 127/134/130 line (ERA-/FIP-/xFIP-) across six starts. One of those six was a really good effort against the Giants, but he’s been pretty blah otherwise. But, the Braves keep hitting barreled outs, so you know how it goes at this point.
Game Info
Game Date/Time: Saturday, September 21, 4:10 p.m. ET
Location: Stupid Capitalization Park, Miami, FL
TV: Bally Sports Southeast
Streaming: MLB.tv
Radio: 680 AM / 93.7 FM The Fan