Atlanta Braves Morning Chop: this was epic-level walking form

Saturday’s game against the Nationals was an aberration… we hope.  But it does rank as one of the worst pitching days in the rich history of Braves’ baseball.

In case you missed it… be glad you did.  The 6-game win streak is over and the hand-wringing over pitching begins anew.  There were 14 walks issues by Atlanta Braves pitching on Saturday – a number that defies adequate description.  But of course this led directly to the 7-1 loss.

The superlatives just don’t end:  of 7 pitchers run out to the mound, only one failed to walk a batter – Chad Sobotka, who should be happy that he only had to face a single batter (5 pitches, 4 strikes).

As for the rest… well, it was mostly Julio Teheran and Touki Toussaint contributing to the health and fitness of the Nationals hitters – allowing 6 and 4 of them (respectively) to stroll to first base without first having to endure that stinging impact of bat on ball.

It wasn’t even that these guys were getting hopelessly behind in the count, either:  Teheran got 1st pitch strikes on 15 of the 20 batters he faced; Toussaint in 5 of 9.  Only Sam Freeman failed to find the strike zone with any of his (3) first pitches, though he “only” walked one of the 3 he faced.

But it was the rest of the pitches that were the problem.

If you believe the strikezone map from the game, it wasn’t even like anybody was getting ‘squeezed’ on the pitch calls, either.  Right-handed batters could expect a very wide zone while lefties saw a slightly wider plate as well.

That chart also shows Atlanta pitching missing badly outside and low (some high as well) to LHH while just completely wild to RHH.

So you can’t blame umpire Manny Gonzalez.

Let the Record State…

How bad was this?  Historically so.

Baseball-reference’s database only goes back to 1925… which does leave out roughly 54-ish years of the franchise’s existence (founding date January 20, 1871 – the 3rd year that Ulysses S. Grant was President).

In addition, B-R.com admits that there are gaps in the record… roughly 3.6% of all plays are unaccounted for in the game’s historical lore.  Most of that came before 1950.

But in the game totals they do have, they show the following data for Braves’ games starting from 1925:

• Total games played: 12,816
• Total walks:  43,610 (4,546 intentional)
• Games with 16 batters walked:  1
• Games with 15 batters walked:  1
• Games with 14 batters walked:  1
• Games with 13 batters walked:  5
• Games with 12 batters walked:  18
• Games with 11 batters walked:  24

So yes… Saturday represents the 4th time out of 12,817 games in which Braves’ pitching failed so badly… tied for the 3rd worst that we know about.

Except that there’s more…

A Bit More History

It gets worse.  That 16 walk game?  That was a Braves loss (duh) to Cincinnati on October 1st, 1978.  That was unusual as it was the last day of the 1978 regular season and was completed in walk-off form after 2 outs in the 14th inning.

Turns out that ‘only’ 9 of those walks happened in regulation.

This game featured multiple Hall-of-Famers (Johnny Bench among them), Ken Griffey (Senior), Pete Rose, a future manager (Ray Knight), and a Braves catcher named Dale Murphy.

On that day, the 69-93 Braves battled – kinda – the 92-69 Reds into extras by sending 10 men to the plate and scoring 5 times in their half of the 9th inning after starter Tom Seaver was lifted for Pedro Bourbon.  Oops.

Neither team had anything to play for (the Reds finished 2nd that year), but I suppose both teams tried to extend the season via a game would never end… all 4 hours and 15 minutes worth:

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• Mickey Mahler:  walked 5 in 2.2 innings.  5 runs scored, too.
• Duane Theiss:  2 in 3.1 innings; 1 run allowed
• Rick Camp:  1 in a pair (2 runs)
• Gene Garber:  2 in 2
• Craig Skok:  4 in 2
• Dave Campbell:  2 in nearly 2… allowing the winning homer instead for a 10-8 final.

Another curious tidbit about that game:  Eric Gregg was the home plate umpire.

But here’s the bottom line:

The most walks in any Braves game since at least 1925 that only went 9 innings?  You just saw it… yesterday.  14 walks beats the prior record of 13 from May 6, 1938… a loss in a game shortened to 8 innings.

• The 15-walk game:  11 innings + 1 more out.
• The other 14-walk game:  12 innings (the Braves WON that, 11-4… go figure).
• 4 of the 13 walk games required extra innings.

The Worst of the Worst?

The major league record for strike zone avoidance is 19 walks in a game – “accomplished” once.

That came via the Washington Senators, courtesy of the pitchers of the Cleveland Indians (Sept. 14, 1971)…a game that required 20 innings to complete.

Twice have teams walked 18 in a 9 inning affair:  Red Sox vs. Indians (5/20/1948) and A’s vs. Tigers (5/9/1916).

So maybe there will be a meeting among the Braves’ pitching staff Sunday morning about how bad this was.  Let’s hope so, for history tends to repeat itself among those unaware of its impact.

(Thanks to Co-Editor Ben Chase for research assistance)