Last night was blah. We haven’t seen a “total failure of run prevention” from this team yet, but that’s what it was nearly was last night: two homers, some poor defensive positioning that helped lead to a .452 Marlins BABIP, counterbalanced “only” by a 9/3 K/BB ratio where the strikeouts were mostly accrued when the game was getting progressively out of reach. The Braves’ wOBA-against was .425, their highest mark of the season so far, and the only time it’s gotten above .345. The xwOBA-against was .343
(third-highest of the season). Basically, the Braves have both pitched well this season and been fortunate to not have teams unload a massive wOBA-xwOBA gap on them, but the .081 gap for the Marlins last night was the biggest in a game against the Braves this season, more than double the prior high to date of .034. The Marlins came into this game with the league’s biggest positive wOBA-xwOBA gap, and it only got (notably) larger after last night.
While the Braves haven’t had to lean on their “main” relievers very much — Robert Suarez and Raisel Iglesias haven’t pitched in about a week — their backend is direly in need of reshuffle due to usage, once again. Dylan Dodd threw three innings in lieu of Martin Perez’ roster spot, but was promptly shuffled back down. Rolddy Munoz was a sacrificial lamb-ish guy last night, and Jose Suarez also pitched. My question is twofold: whether the Braves make another shuffle ahead of tonight’s game, and if so, whether it’s just Munoz, or perhaps whether Suarez goes too.
