Owen Lystrup / UnsplashThe Grand Slam That Changed Nothing
Drake Baldwin hit a grand slam in the 9th to make it 10-9. The Braves still lost to the worst team in the division. Same conviction, different disease.
I'm still at 55%.
Same number as yesterday. Different reason. That's the problem.
Twenty-four hours ago, 55% was about the offense. Could this lineup score without leaving the yard? They answered that. Then they answered it again today — six runs in the bottom of the 9th, including a Drake Baldwin grand slam that shook Truist Park on a Sunday afternoon.
Six runs. From 10-3 down. Against the last-place Mets.
And they still lost.
The offense isn't the question anymore. Baldwin went 2-for-4 with four RBI. The lineup produced the most electric inning of the season. That chapter closed.
The new chapter is Carlos Carrasco.
Carrasco is 39. He's on his sixth roster selection from the minors this season. He is the human definition of a shuttle reliever. The Braves handed him a 5-3 game in the top of the 9th and he gave up five runs.
Five runs. To a 37-53 team.
The offense answered every question I asked yesterday. Then the bullpen invented a new question that made the answer irrelevant.
55% stays. The receipt is the same number for a different disease. Yesterday it was the bat. Today it's the arm. The net result: 52-36, a loss to the worst team in the NL East, and a roster spot being burned on a 39-year-old who shouldn't be in a game that matters.
Baldwin's grand slam deserved to mean something. Tell me I'm wrong.
The Tilt
A 39-year-old shuttle reliever on his sixth roster selection gave up five runs to create the deficit that the most dramatic inning of the Braves' season couldn't erase.
— Dex Ponce
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