The Braves lost to the Padres on Tuesday night. That in and of itself isn’t weird, especially considering that it came at home. Did you know that the Braves haven’t won a home series from the Padres since 2018? That’s a lot of really good years (including 2022 and 2023, where the team won 100-plus games), but… the Padres in Atlanta have been an issue. (The Braves have also lost a bunch of series to the Padres going back to mid-2024, including a playoff series… but they did actually win a road series against them in 2024.)
Anyway, here’s some random weird stuff about last night:
The Braves set a season-high in walk rate at 20.5 percent. They tied their season high in walks with eight. In the other three games they had eight walks, they scored eight, 10, and 17 runs. Yet, they scored just three runs.
Despite all the walks, the team had its second-worst quality of contact of the season (.224 xwOBACON). It was shut out in its only game with a worse xwOBACON on the season. In essence, the Braves did nothing on swings, but did a lot when not swinging.
Two of their runs scored on a not-that-well struck ball that perfectly split the defense and looked awesome. Jim Jarvis’ triple had a .163 xBA and .214 xwOBA, and came off the bat at 94 mph. Then, Jarvis had a nearly-perfect bloop single off Mason Miller of all people. Speaking of…
The Padres used Mason Miller in a five-run game for some reason. Talk about a bazooka to kill a fly. They had a five-run lead. Miller ended up having to throw a lot of pitches because of Jarvis’ bloop and a walk to Drake Baldwin, not that he had any real issues in the inning. Imagine using the best reliever in baseball in a situation where the other team could’ve been justified in pitching Elieser Hernandez in the top half of the inning.
The Braves scored a run on a balk. I don’t even have anything to add. I don’t know the last time the Braves scored a run on a balk. To add to the weirdness: when the home plate umpire spoke to the crowd about the balk, his words said that the batter at the time (Austin Riley) was to take first base, maybe because the pitch-on-which-there-was-a-balk was taken outside the zone. (The words were, “run scores, second and first” or something along those lines.) Yet, per the rules, Riley did not take first base, and actually struck out instead of making more of a game of it. So the umpire called a balk, and then goofed the verbal (not applied) explanation of what was to happen.
Bonus: the Phillies didn’t gain a game in the standings because of an Eli White-level baserunning mistake. In case you missed it, they had the tying run on third with one out in the ninth, and the go-ahead run on second in the form of JT Realmuto. Brandon Marsh hit a sliced dribbler to third. The runner on third was cut down in a rundown, prolonged enough to allow Realmuto to reach third. But, for some reason, Realmuto started running back to second base, which allowed the Dodgers to easily throw in that direction and tag him out, ending the game.
So, how weird does all this rate?
