Braves Bottom Out in June as All Goes Awry
PLUS: HOW A GOOD-HITTING PITCHER MADE HISTORY ON THIS DATE
Pregame Pepper
This is the first time the Mets have let a manager go in mid-season since Willie Randolph in May 2008, and less than two years after Carlos Mendoza led the club to the 2024 National League Championship Series . . .
Mendoza was released at two half-way points: half-way through the 2026 season (81 games) and half-way through the five-year contract of Mets president David Stearns . .
According to New York Post writer Jon Heyman, the Mets are on a pace that will result in their worst record in 23 years . . .
Getting Luis Robert Jr. back may help but the team just lost Marcus Semien for 4-6 weeks with a left hip flexor strain . . .
Retiring Mets radio voice Howie Rose is still the best in the big leagues . . .
Heyman suggests former Red Sox skipper Alex Cora as the best replacement: “He’s a managerial savant. He also has a World Series ring, which is something the Mets seem about a million miles from acquiring now.” . . .
Incoming Hall of Famer Carlos Beltran was Mets manager for 77 days in 2019 but lost the job after his exposure as part of Houston’s electronic sign-stealing scheme during the 2017 World Series . . .
Tigers trade bait Tarik Skubal is the first pitcher to win consecutive American League Cy Youngs since Pedro Martinez in 1999-2000 . . .
In that 22-1 White Sox win over the Royals last weekend, the eighth and ninth hitters in the Chicago lineup combined for five hits, six runs scored, and 11 runs batted in . . .
Hunter Goodman is the only Rockies player to hit three home runs in a game since Michael Toglia did it against the Mets at CitiField on July 14, 2024.
Leading Off
A June Swoon of Epic Proportions
By Dan Schlossberg
Hard to believe: as recently as Monday, June 1, the Atlanta Braves led both leagues with 40 wins and a nine-and-a-half-game lead over the Philadelphia Phillies and Washington Nationals, who were tied for second.
But that was before a June swoon with hurricane force turned a runaway race into a real nail-biter.
Talk about shrinkage: Atlanta melted faster in the 2026 standings than it did in the heat of General Sherman’s torch 161 years ago.
Whatever could go wrong did — a personification of Murphy’s Law (and we don’t mean Dale’s).
The offense went from best in baseball to Least of the East.
Leadoff man Ronald Acuña Jr., whose 2023 MVP award now seems a distant memory, went down with a strained left hamstring. Austin Riley, the highest-paid player in team history, let the extra pressure turn himself into a strikeout machine. Defending NL Rookie of the Year Drake Baldwin celebrated his return from an oblique pull with a mammoth home run, then proved remarkably mortal, spoiling an All-Star start.
Matt Olson’s power also evaporated, probably wiping out the second 50-homer season of his career. Ozzie Albies, who had also started well, began pressing — constantly swinging at first pitches and lunging for those wide of the strike zone.
Ha-seong Kim, signed for $20 million, never recovered from the winter fall that injured his thumb when he slipped on the ice in his native Korea. At last look, his batting average was — are you sitting down — .069.
Equally invisible were catcher Sean Murphy (broken finger) and pitchers Spencer Strider (elbow inflammation), Robert Suarez (forearm tightness), Joe Jimenez (knee), Spencer Schwellenbach (elbow fracture), and AJ Smith-Shawver (Tommy John elbow surgery).
The skid started when the Braves lost twice to the White Sox in a rain-shortened road series, followed by two out of three to the even-more-hapless Mets. Atlanta twice went 1-2 against the woeful Giants in home-and-home series and managed to lose all three games to the Padres, who had previously been struggling, in Petco Park.
In retrospect, maybe Jurickson Profar was fortunate to be suspended for the season with a second PED discovery.
Starting pitchers Bryce Elder and Grant Holmes imploded, leaving aging veterans Chris Sale and Martin Perez to carry the load alone. That placed a heavy burden on relievers Raisel Iglesias and Dylan Lee, especially after Suarez succumbed to injury.
Baseball history is filled with stories of amazing rises and falls, such as the collapse of the 2025 Mets. And it is filled with tales of standings that changed when one team got hot just as another cooled off (see 2026 Phillies and Braves).
Entering the season, experts predicted that the Phillies would have to fend off the Mets to retain their 2025 NL East title. The Braves, a perennial power that fell from grace last summer, were not even expected to contend.
While the Mets evolved into the Mess, the Braves were suddenly not much better. If they can’t start playing like the backs of their baseball cards, Atlanta fans will be hot under the collar for reasons other than the Georgia heat.
Players feed off each other, with hitting contagious whether it is good or bad. For the Braves, whose 307 home runs tied a major-league mark just three years ago, they’re great when they’re good but putrid when they’re bad. Like now.
At least new manager Walt Weiss is doing his best to utilize his entire roster in an effort to right the ship.
Without some clever maneuvering between now and the Aug. 3 trade deadline, however, the flowers of May may not survive much beyond the All-Star break.
HtP weekend editor Dan Schlossberg of Fair Lawn, NJ has witnessed numerous epic collapses, including the 1969 Chicago Cubs, 1978 Boston Red Sox, 2004 New York Yankees, and 2017 and 2025 New York Mets. His email is ballauthor@gmail.com.
Cleaning Up
Braves Pitcher Produces Pair of Grand Slams
By Dan Schlossberg
July 3, 2026 is a very significant date.
First, it is Erev Independence Day — the nation’s 250th birthday is tomorrow.
In baseball circles, it is Tony Cloninger’s 60th anniversary.
Say what?
On July 3, 1966, the star pitcher of the newly-minted Atlanta Braves did something never before accomplished in the National League.
He hit two grand-slams in one game.
Hank Aaron never did that. Neither did Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, Frank Robinson, Mike Schmidt, Ralph Kiner, or Stan Musial.
Cloninger, who also had an RBI single during that 17-3 laugher against the San Francisco Giants, was also the first and only pitcher to perform that feat.
Yes, pitchers could hit then.
After he launched his first grand-slam during a seven-run first, Cloninger found himself hitting with the bases loaded again in the fourth.
“He’s gonna hit another one — I can feel it,” said Joe Torre, the runner at third, to coach Grover Resinger.
The right-handed batter delivered just as his battery-mate prophesized.
Cloninger, who had an earlier two-homer game that season, finished the 1966 season with five home runs — a prodigious total compared to the current zero by Braves catchers Sandy Leon, Austin Wynns, and Chadwick Tromp.
That day, the brisk breezes of Candlestick Point must have been blowing out; Hank Aaron, Joe Torre, and Rico Carty also homered.
The Braves plated seven in the first, when Cloninger hit the first of his bases-filled homers, and five more in the fourth, when he hit his second.
Atlanta bombarded San Francisco pitchers Joe Gibbon, who never escaped the initial frame, plus Bob Priddy and Ray Sadecki. As an added oddity, Sadecki also homered in the game — a one-in-a-million contest in which pitchers from both teams connected.
Neither Willie Mays nor Willie McCovey, future Hall of Famers who started for San Francisco, had as many hits as Sadecki, who went 1-for-3.
Long-time Braves star Eddie Mathews, who was then in his final year with the team, never even cracked the lineup; Denis Menke and Mike de la Hoz shared third base.
As a pitcher, Cloninger went all the way, yielding seven hits and two walks while fanning five. He threw two gopher balls, to battery-mates Sadecki and Tom Haller.
The Braves had expected good things from Cloninger, who had won a club-record 24 games for the Milwaukee Braves in their lame-duck 1965 season. But his good fortune on the mound was coming to end.
On a cold, rainy Opening Night in Atlanta, Braves manager Bobby Bragan left Cloninger in for the entire 13-inning game, a 3-2 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates. He was never the same.
HtP weekend editor Dan Schlossberg of Fair Lawn, NJ covers baseball for USA TODAY Sports Weekly, Sports Collectors Digest, Memories & Dreams, Lucas Communications outlets, and others. His email is ballauthor@gmail.com.
Timeless Trivia: Observations from Doug Lyons on “the Good Old Days” of Baseball
Thanks to friend, colleague, and trivia expert Doug Lyons for sending the following:
“I recently watched an old Yankee game on television. Aside from recent changes in the game, such as the designated hitter, the ABS system, the ghost runner, and the pitch clock, I noticed these facets you don’t see any more:
1. No body armor. No shin guards, elbow guards, arm guards, and the helmets did not have chin guards.
2. All the players wore high socks and sanitaries.
3. All the gloves were monochromatic black, brown, or tan. So were the bats.
4. There was no pointless blaring music forced on the stadium crowd between every pitch.
5. At the start of the game, the broadcasters identified the first and third-base coaches.
6. Occasionally, the camera would show the third-base coach flashing signs to the batter or base-runner. Maybe it’s just me, but I haven’t seen that shot on TV in a long time.
7. Every twitch of the nose is not sponsored by somebody.
8. All players wore identical black cleats with a flap that covered the laces.
9. Very few players (and virtually no Yankees) had facial hair.
10. During mound conferences with pitchers, pitching coaches, catchers, or managers, players did not cover their mouths.
11. Very few players in the old days wore necklaces or pendants.”
Know Your Editors
Here’s the Pitch is published daily except Sundays and holidays. Benjamin Chase [gopherben@gmail.com] handles the Monday issue with Dan Freedman [dfreedman@lionsgate.com] editing Tuesday and Jeff Kallman [easyace1955@outlook.com] at the helm Wednesday and Thursday. Original editor Dan Schlossberg [ballauthor@gmail.com], does the weekend editions on Friday and Saturday. Former editor Elizabeth Muratore [nymfan97@gmail.com] is now co-director [with Benjamin Chase and Jonathan Becker] of the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America, which publishes this newsletter and the annual ACTA book of the same name. Readers are encouraged to contribute comments, articles, and letters to the editor. HtP reserves the right to edit for brevity, clarity, and good taste.