before heading back over there. Quick turnaround. The Braves do this sometimes with a 7:05p start on a weeknight, followed by a noon start the next day on get-away day. Kinda neat to leave the park and know you'll be right back in less than 12 hours (at least in our case here in Athens).
-The story obviously was Robert Tyler. Far and away the best he's pitched this year and I think that was definitely his best outing since Ole Miss his freshman year. Here was a guy in total control. His fastball was really good, had a lot of life to it.... The Alabama hitters just didn't have much of a chance up there....
THAT was the Robert Tyler I'd been waiting to see, a number of others too I'm sure. And the thing is, he wasn't great last weekend in Starkville, but he still allowed 0 hits in that one through, I think, 6 innings....
-When Georgie Salem pinch hit, I said to Ms RedRain the same thing, basically, that I wrote here on Thursday. "Gotta be careful. This guy has a lot of ability, even though his numbers are [not good]." I'm glad that it at least wasn't a cheap HR. Only question was whether it would go over the scoreboard. Two things happened thereafter. 1) Salem rounded the bases and didn't show much emotion at all, and didn't even seem interested in high fiving anyone in the dugout. One Alabama player afterward, when asked by a fan who hit the HR, said "Number 22. He was pissed off about not starting. He shouldn't have sat...." I thought that was a very interesting comment to be made by a player to a complete stranger who is a fan of the other team. And it'll be interesting to see if Salem is back out there today. Secondly, we quickly got the third out and wrapped up a 7-1 win, easily the best played game that we've had all year.... and you still felt a little empty. I did anyway. None of that detracts from Tyler's performance at all though. Just super good.... Really fun to sit back and watch that. I started talking to a former player last night and we reminisced somewhat about the mid 2000s and some of the players and teams back then. Guys like Landon Powell and Matt LaPorta that you'd see on a weekend. You remember how good those guys were and how easy they made it look sometimes, almost like they didn't really belong at this level. That's what Robert Tyler was last night. I think any baseball fan had to appreciate that.
-Let me end with this, due to time constraints. LJ Talley is really swinging a good bat right now. I said after Ga Southern that he had the best 0-9 weekend that a guy could have. He seemed to lose some of his confidence in the weeks after that and, to me, it looked like he gave away some ABs and started getting himself out.... And I think you can understand that, it's got to be hard as a freshman to really believe that your approach is good when you are 0 for a weekend and it seems to take forever just to get above .200.... But here lately, going back to Starkville, Talley is giving you some really good ABs and is finally starting to get the hits to show for it.
-Trevor Kieboom too. He's still more a singles hitter at the end of the day, with some power, but ever since he's been back it seems like he's hitting everything hard. I honestly cannot say that I expected to see this. Really nice job for Kieboom the last couple of weeks.
Man it feels good to head back over with a chance to win the series.....
-The story obviously was Robert Tyler. Far and away the best he's pitched this year and I think that was definitely his best outing since Ole Miss his freshman year. Here was a guy in total control. His fastball was really good, had a lot of life to it.... The Alabama hitters just didn't have much of a chance up there....
THAT was the Robert Tyler I'd been waiting to see, a number of others too I'm sure. And the thing is, he wasn't great last weekend in Starkville, but he still allowed 0 hits in that one through, I think, 6 innings....
-When Georgie Salem pinch hit, I said to Ms RedRain the same thing, basically, that I wrote here on Thursday. "Gotta be careful. This guy has a lot of ability, even though his numbers are [not good]." I'm glad that it at least wasn't a cheap HR. Only question was whether it would go over the scoreboard. Two things happened thereafter. 1) Salem rounded the bases and didn't show much emotion at all, and didn't even seem interested in high fiving anyone in the dugout. One Alabama player afterward, when asked by a fan who hit the HR, said "Number 22. He was pissed off about not starting. He shouldn't have sat...." I thought that was a very interesting comment to be made by a player to a complete stranger who is a fan of the other team. And it'll be interesting to see if Salem is back out there today. Secondly, we quickly got the third out and wrapped up a 7-1 win, easily the best played game that we've had all year.... and you still felt a little empty. I did anyway. None of that detracts from Tyler's performance at all though. Just super good.... Really fun to sit back and watch that. I started talking to a former player last night and we reminisced somewhat about the mid 2000s and some of the players and teams back then. Guys like Landon Powell and Matt LaPorta that you'd see on a weekend. You remember how good those guys were and how easy they made it look sometimes, almost like they didn't really belong at this level. That's what Robert Tyler was last night. I think any baseball fan had to appreciate that.
-Let me end with this, due to time constraints. LJ Talley is really swinging a good bat right now. I said after Ga Southern that he had the best 0-9 weekend that a guy could have. He seemed to lose some of his confidence in the weeks after that and, to me, it looked like he gave away some ABs and started getting himself out.... And I think you can understand that, it's got to be hard as a freshman to really believe that your approach is good when you are 0 for a weekend and it seems to take forever just to get above .200.... But here lately, going back to Starkville, Talley is giving you some really good ABs and is finally starting to get the hits to show for it.
-Trevor Kieboom too. He's still more a singles hitter at the end of the day, with some power, but ever since he's been back it seems like he's hitting everything hard. I honestly cannot say that I expected to see this. Really nice job for Kieboom the last couple of weeks.
Man it feels good to head back over with a chance to win the series.....
