The NL East standings coming into May 19, 2017, were weird. Sure, you had the Nationals, with the NL’s best record (and third-best in MLB, behind the Astros and Yankees) at the top, but then... the Braves were second? Yes, indeed, the Braves were 16-22, already eight games behind the Nats, and yet, better than every other team in the division. The Nationals were already making their second visit to Atlanta, before the Braves had a chance to play a game in Washington. They swept the first series, and were probably angling for the same result. But, the Braves game them a fairly good game, and actually pulled off a victory despite being clobbered early.
The gist: A very back-and-forth game settled into a 4-4 tie after five innings, as the offenses knocked around both Gio Gonzalez and R.A. Dickey. The Braves’ bullpen, however, was absolutely perfect, which allowed Nick Markakis and Kurt Suzuki to give them a three-run margin of victory in the eighth.
Box scores: Baseball-Reference, Fangraphs
How it happened: No unfamiliar names in this pitching matchup, which featured Gio Gonzalez for the Nationals, and R.A. Dickey for the Braves. To date, Gonzalez was having a weird year with bad peripherals (115 FIP-, 116 xFIP-) but good run prevention (56 ERA-), trends that would somewhat ameliorate over the rest of the year. Dickey was kind of in the same boat but worse: 96 ERA-, 148 FIP-, 121 xFIP-, but of course, FIP/xFIP don’t quite apply to knuckeballers like himself the way they do to other hurlers. One of Dickey’s better starts in 2017 so far had come against Washington, as he allowed three runs in seven innings but could not stave off the sweep.
This game had a lot of fireworks early, but none in the first. Dickey started his day with two groundouts and then caught Bryce Harper looking. The Braves got a couple of baserunners due to some poor infielding by the Nationals, as Ender Inciarte reached on a bunt try that Anthony Rendon threw away and Matt Kemp collected a two-out single on a high hopper that Trea Turner couldn’t barehand effectively. However, it was for naught, as Kurt Suzuki bounced out to Rendon. Thanks to a double play off Daniel Murphy’s bat, Dickey had a quick, nine-pitch second, and then the Braves went to work against Gonzalez.
Johan Camargo led off the second by poking a single into right, his second career hit in his first career start. (I don’t know if anyone remembers this, but Camargo’s first career hit was a pinch-hit RBI single off of former Brave non-pitching prospect Christian Bethancourt.) After Jace Peterson lined out to center, Dansby Swanson got a first-pitch two-seamer from Gonzalez that he liked a whole lot:
The inning took a brief turn into the baroquely bizarre thereafter. Dickey struck out on three pitches, but reached first base when Matt Wieters couldn’t handle a curveball and decided to make a weird sidearm-y throw to first base for no reason. After a forceout at second that put Inciarte on first, the Braves got the rare “steal attempt successful because the glove came off the fielder.” In other words, Inciarte technically got gunned down trying to steal second by Wieters, but Murphy’s glove somehow fell off his wrist when Inciarte slid into it with the ball intact, leading to a safe call. No matter, though — Brandon Phillips lined out to center to end the inning.
As Swanson giveth in the second, so he taketh away a bit in the third. Michael Taylor drove a one-out double into center, over Inciarte’s head. With two outs, Trea Turner bounced a ball to Swanson, who tried to made a barehand attempt in an effort to retire the speedy Turner. But, Swanson completely whiffed the attempt, letting the ball just bounce on past him into center. Turner scored easily as Phillips was not close enough to position to back Swanson up. Yet more ball-kicking happened by the Braves afterwards. Dickey walked Jayson Werth to bring up Harper, who rolled a ball down the first-base line. Peterson, playing first base because of the very unpopular Freddie Freeman-Aaron Loup incident happened just a couple of days earlier, slid to his left but couldn’t block the ball from bouncing between his glove and the rest of his body and rolling on down into right field for a two-run double. Dickey finally struck out Ryan Zimmerman to end the inning, but the Braves were now trailing due to their inability to convert grounders near them into outs.
But, hey, none of that matters if you can hit dingers, an ethos that Matt Kemp seemingly takes to heart. With one swing, he re-tied the game:
The Braves could have had more as Gonzalez walked Suzuki, but Camargo followed with a ball to Turner that became an easy double play.
The game... did not stay tied for long. Just three pitches, really, because Daniel Murphy did this on an 0-2 knuckler that just kind of wafted letter-high to lead off the fourth:
Dickey nearly gave up more runs, as Wieters doubled with one out into right-center and Taylor followed with a single, but got out of it thanks to a sacrifice bunt from Gonzalez and then a groundout to third from Turner. Actually, Camargo nearly booted Turner’s bouncer, but recovered to catch his own bobble and throw on to first in time.
In the bottom of the fourth, Gonzalez finally kept the Braves off the board. He issued a one-out walk to Swanson, but stranded him on second after a bunt thanks to a nice backhanded play by Turner to retire Inciarte.
Dickey had a nightmare fifth, but at least it started with this cool play from Swanson:
With two outs, Dickey walked Zimmerman, and then gave up a ringing double into right-center to Murphy. The ball was hit too hard to facilitate the slothful Zimmerman scoring, and Dickey ended up walking Rendon to load the bases. But, fortunately, that meant it was Matt Wieters due up, and Wieters meekly popped out to Camargo. So, it was as nightmarish of an inning as possible without allowing any runs, I guess.
Nor were the Braves done with Gonzalez, now coming up for a third time. Phillips started the fifth with a single into center. Nick Markakis beat out the relay throw on a bouncer to second that could have been a 4-6-3 double play, and moved to second when Kemp walked. That set up Suzuki, who made Gonzalez pay on a full-count fastball that he really could’ve just taken for ball four:
The Braves were set up to take the lead once again, with Kemp on third and one out, but Gonzalez carved up both Camargo and Peterson on just seven pitches, throwing six straight strikes after ball one to Camargo, and getting both guys to whiff on fastballs at the zone’s upper edge.
After that, the game got real quiet, in large part due to the Atlanta bullpen. Dickey was lifted after allowing a one-out single to Gonzalez, ending his day having allowed four runs in 5 1⁄3 innings, with nine hits, three walks, one homer, and four strikeouts on his ledger. It was one of his poorer starts as a Brave up to that point, and was the start of a very poor four-start stretch for him. It took him 117 pitches to get those 16 outs. Jason Motte, part of the ever-present carousel of ineffective relievers during the Atlanta rebuild years, came out of the bullpen and did just fine, getting two groundouts to end the inning. He actually had a decent chance to get out of the inning with just one pitch, but surprise surprise, Swanson kicked around a ball at short, leading to a forceout-only result.
In the bottom of the sixth, the Braves chased Gonzalez. Swanson started the frame with a hustle double. It should have been a routine single on a liner into left, but Werth took his time both getting to the ball and throwing it in. Once Swanson saw that Werth was doing a lazy throw to the infield rather than a direct strike to second, he took off and slid in safely. The next batter was (for some reason) pinch-hitter Emilio Bonifacio, who grounded out inconsequentially. That brought up Inciarte for a fourth time, and he knocked a solid single to center, but his defensive counterpart decided to take advantage of Swanson’s aggressiveness and thwart the Braves with a good play:
That was the final batter and result for Gonzalez, who departed with one of his weaker starts of the season to date. (It wasn’t however, as ridiculous as a game earlier in May, in which he walked seven in five innings but allowed just a single run.) Southpaw Matt Grace came on, intentionally walked Phillips, allowed a double steal, but then got a groundout from Markakis (featuring a wholly unnecessary Trea Turner jumping throw to first) to keep the game tied.
Jose Ramirez came on for the seventh and worked a perfect inning on 12 pitches, retiring Harper, Zimmerman, and Murphy in order. The Nats countered with Shawn Kelley, who had an adventure on the mound and in the box score. Kelley started the inning by allowing a single to Kemp, but then struck out both Suzuki and Camargo. Then he completely lost control, walking both Peterson and Swanson on five pitches each, including four straight balls to both of them. With the bases loaded and the pitcher’s spot due up, the Braves gave a chance to Rio Ruiz, who took one strike and then missed two others, all fastballs, to end the inning. Hot on Ramirez’ heels, Arodys Vizcaino took over and threw a perfect inning of his own, striking out two while throwing just 13 pitches.
That turned the game over to Enny Romero. a high-strikeout southpaw. Fortunately for the Braves, the span of effective relief work for both teams ended right here. Romero struck out Inciarte on three pitches, but then walked Phillips on five. Phillips stole second, and Markakis followed with a Markakis thing:
Two batters later, Suzuki did additional damage:
Jim Johnson finished out Atlanta’s perfect roll of bullpen work by getting three straight groundouts on 12 pitches. Swanson helped (this time) by making a nice snag to retire Adam Lind for the first out.
Game MVP: In the end, Dansby Swanson. He was everywhere, and had a perfect day at the plate: 2-for-2 with two walks, He hit a homer, he had a hustle double, and he had a chance to score the go-ahead run earlier, before he was gunned down. If only the defense was up to the level of the hitting in this game, it may have been an even bigger, easier win, given that his miscue allowed the Nationals to have their one big inning.
Game LVP: Enny Romero. Can’t walk dudes, can’t give up homers. Sorry.
Biggest play: Harper’s go-ahead double in the third. If that doesn’t happen, or if Peterson is able to flag it down, this game might have been much less hard-fought than it ended up being.
The game, in context of the season: The Braves won this game, and won the next one, to take the series. Weirdly enough, given that they finished with 72 wins and the Nationals finished with 97, the Braves didn’t lose a single series to Washington between their first and last meetings of the year. They finished 9-10 against a strong opponent while going 6-13 against the Phillies and 7-12 against the Mets, the two teams that finished behind the Braves in the East.
Gio Gonzalez didn’t have a good outing, but still finished the year with 3.8 fWAR, his highest total since 2012. R.A. Dickey finished 2017 with a fine 1.5 fWAR/2.2 RA9-WAR and then retired.
Dansby Swanson had a cool game, but 2017 was his toughest season to date. He finished with -0.2 fWAR as his season was plagued by both offensive problems (not on display in this game) and defensive issues (very much on display in this game). Interestingly, this was not his first perfect (no outs) game; even more curiously, Swanson had one of those games in 2016, two within a month of each other in 2017, and that’s it. With that said, this was probably his best offensive game to date; he’s had a couple of multihomer games in his career, but they featured more outs than this one.
Despite this bad game, Enny Romero was actually a fine reliever for the 2017 Nats, finishing with 0.5 fWAR. He completely imploded afterwards, able to last just 10 total innings across three teams in 2018, and hasn’t appeared in the majors since. (He most recently pitched in Japan.)
Bryce Harper had his second-best year in 2017, despite missing some of it with injury. His 155 wRC+ and 4.8 fWAR are topped only by his ridiculous 2015.
Video?
Condensed game:
Recap:
Whole buncha highlights: https://www.mlb.com/video/search?q=contenttags%20%3D%20[%22gamepk-490732%22]%20order%20by%20timestamp%20desc
TC Game Recap: https://www.talkingchop.com/2017/5/19/15668620/kurt-suzuki-atlanta-braves-washington-nationals-final-score-may-19
TC Game Thread: https://www.talkingchop.com/2017/5/19/15667608/game-thread-5-19-braves-vs-nationals
TC Commentariat Zeitgeist: Winning is fun, the Nationals’ bullpen is awful (rinse and repeat seemingly every season, is this a blindspot for Mike Rizzo or just baseball baseballing?), Matt Kemp is unstoppable (spoiler alert: false), Dansby Swanson might be coming around.
Anything else? In terms of the zeitgeist above —
(1) The Nationals finished 2017 with an okay bullpen. However, it was literally the worst bullpen in baseball through the All-Star Break. Over the last three years, the Nationals haven’t finished in the top half of bullpen fWAR in either end-of-season or first-half cutoffs.
(2) Dansby Swanson had a 36 wRC+ coming into this game. This game didn’t really spark much, as he put up just a 62 wRC+ over his next 49 PAs. Swanson hit okay in June (94 wRC+), but then completely collapsed, got demoted if only for a tiny bit, and finished the season without any great strides offensively.
(3) Through this game, Matt Kemp had a 160 wRC+. For the rest of the season, he had a 74 wRC+, enough to plunge him to -0.6 fWAR for the year. Through June 2, Kemp had a 158 wRC+ and 1.1 fWAR. He bled all of it and then some over the rest of the year. It’s still not clear why the Braves acquired him.
Nick Markakis deserves a special shoutout for driving in the go-ahead run off a lefty.
Dusty Baker was still managing the Nationals at this point. Do you believe that Brian Snitker managing the Braves overlapped with Baker managing the Nationals? Because it happened.
The Braves had four steals in this game, with Inciarte and Phillips getting two each. While four steals isn’t super-rare for the Braves (they’ve done it three times since this game), a game with two players getting multiple steals is far rarer. Before this game, the last time it happened was in August 2011, when Jose Constanza and Michael Bourn had two each (in a game the Braves lost).
Jace Peterson started three games at first base after Freeman was drilled by Loup. That’s not the weird part. The weird part is that even after the Braves acquired Matt Adams, Peterson still made two more starts at first the rest of the way. The Braves really couldn’t find anyone better? Peterson’s 2017 was his worst season to date, as he finished with -0.5 fWAR in just 215 PAs.
Baseball is dead to me, tell me something cool about May 19: This was the date of “New England’s Dark Day” in 1780. While the explanation for the phenomenon makes sense (a forest fire), there’s something about the sparseness of that Wikipedia article that I find profoundly unsettling.
Per special request, we’ll do things a little bit differently tomorrow.