Atlanta Braves Spring Game 1 recap

The first game is probably the most meaningless of all the meaningless Spring tilts, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t anything worthy of note.

The Atlanta Braves – or some semblance thereof – played the Mets at Port St. Lucie on Friday afternoon in the first Grapefruit League game for both clubs.

Of some note, the Mets are only on the schedule twice this Spring, with both contests being very early (Feb 28 is the next one).  Likewise, the Nationals are set up for Sunday, Monday, next Thursday… and that’s all. The Phillies?  Twice in mid-March.  The Marlins?  Just once next weekend.

So the ‘regulars’ for each of these division rivals will not see much of one another until the regular season hits… which is probably not a bad thing, especially since the early part of the 2018 season is absolutely loaded with Philly match-ups.

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One other thing going on here:  supposedly, the pitchers are way ahead of the hitters at this point, especially since the latter group has been in camp only a very few days (aside from those arriving early).  Live Batting practice was only happening since Tuesday or Wednesday for most teams.

So timing is expected to be a bit off, and while there were a few hits, no player on either squad got more than 1 yesterday.

The final score was 6-2 Mets, but as is often the case, the score indicated very little.  So let’s do a little plus/minus on some details:

Plus Side

• Ozzie Albies was looking for a first pitch strike – the very first Spring pitch – and he laced it up the middle for a single.  That was his only hit in 3 plate appearances, but it got his Spring off to a good start – along with a steal that inning.
• Despite players playing at positions sometimes unfamiliar to them (Rio Ruiz at first base being the most notable), the Braves committed zero errors.
• There were a couple of hitters putting good swings on the ball:  Cristian Pache and Alex Jackson among them.
• Matt Wisler:  2 hits in 2 innings, 1 strikeout.
• A series of relievers gave up zero hits:  Chase Whitley, Sam Freeman, Anyelo Gomez, Kolby Allard, and Rex Brothers… all going 1 inning apiece.  Brothers takes the prize with 2 strikeouts.  Allard walked the first batter he faced, but then settled in and went 1-2-3 after that.
• Danny Santana +1 in trying to make the club:  1 for 3 with a run scored.

Minus Side

• Two players that we want to see good work from had poor starts at the plate:  Dansby Swanson (0-3, 2 punchouts) and Rio Ruiz (0-3 with three strikeouts).  Ouch.
• Miguel Socolovich… 31 year old reliever trying to make an impression for the bullpen… and did not make a good one:  faced 8 hitters.  got 2 outs, walked 3, yielded 3 hits.  He was charged with all six runs in the Mets’ 8th inning, because…
• Akeel Morris came in and walked in 2 of those runs while getting only one batter out.
• The comical part… hey, it’s Spring:

https://twitter.com/amymccann/status/967139432624111616

In the end, Xavier Avery struck out, Isranel Wilson struck out, and Sean Kazmar popped out.  But the book, Wilson should have led off with Avery following.

And nobody cared except twitter.  But hey – it was something to talk about in an otherwise inconsequential game… though you might rightly wonder just how well the coaching staff was paying attention at that point.

Next: A day that brings out the personality in everybody

We’ll see if we can get all of our ducks in a (proper) row as Sean newcomb will plan to go 2 innings against the Astros this afternoon.