Is it weird to say he painted corners, considering it’s a different medium?
At some point, there are just too many good hitters on the Atlanta Braves roster to continue to do this over-and-over.
But today is not that day.
Bryce Elder had a rough start to the day. After getting an immediate ground ball to start the game, Rafael Devers lined a double right off the top of the outfield wall, and after a single and a walk, the bases were loaded for … Trevor Story. Story can’t hit against anyone else, but he can hit against Atlanta. Story then cleared the bases to give Boston its only 3 runs in the game.
It didn’t matter, though, because Garrett Crochet was on the mound for Boston, and he only gave up one run over 7 strong innings. Throwing 112 pitches (which seems like an insane number if you measure by today’s standards along with Crochet’s injury history but is welcome if you like things like starting pitchers pitching deeper into games), the lefty struck out 12 while walking two. The only run he gave up was a one-run shot off the bat of Marcell Ozuna in the bottom of the first.
That doesn’t mean the Braves didn’t threaten at times.
A walk and a single put two on in the third before Ozuna struck out to end the threat.
An inning later, Atlanta got two on with a Matt Olson double and a Ozzie Albies single, but the threat was ended with a strikeout, pop-out, and (yes) another strikeout. Ozzie even stole second in the middle of all of that, so they left two in scoring position that time.
A Nick Allen walk and an infield single by *checks notes* Marcell Ozuna got yet another two on in the fifth, but they weren’t able to score. At least this time, no one struck out in the inning. Didn’t matter.
Crochet struck out 5 of the next 6 batters he faced.
Elder’s run for the rest of the day wasn’t exactly the same, but it was kind of the same. After a rough first inning, he was able to calm the Boston Red Sox hitters. He struck out 4 over 5.1 innings while walking 3 and giving up 6 hits. It’s about as good as you can expect from him, and it is generally enough to keep the team in the game.
Elder kept them contained without much of a threat after the first, but after giving up a couple of singles in the 6th, Enyel de los Santos came in to pitch. He quickly ended the threat with a pop-up and a strikeout.
Aaron Bummer would come on for two innings of Garret Crochet-like pitching. The lefty reliever faced all of 7 batters during those two innings, and he struck out 5 of them.
In the bottom of the 8th, Boston brought in (and I had to look him up) Greg Weissert. Apparently, Greg Weissert is a perfectly acceptable middle reliever, and he pitched like one, striking out one batter and retiring all 3.
Raisel Iglesias came on in the top of the 9th, and he looked really good, retiring the side in the order and striking out 2. It probably helps when you only pitch like twice a week these days.
Aroldis Chapman, who I always think of when I think of Iglesias (and vice-versa), momentarily had an injury scare while pitching to Sean Murphy. Murphy would walk to bring the tying run to the plate, but Eli White flew out to right and Michael Harris struck out to go down without much of a whimper.
Atlanta went down quietly, moving to 27-31 on the season.
They’ll try to regroup on Tuesday at home against the Arizona Diamondbacks.