ESPN.com – MLB – Recap – Giants at Braves – 05/09/2003
A pitcher’s duel turned ugly late, and the Braves couldn’t muster any sort of sequential offense, and a once-close game turned into a blowout. Greg Maddux started and got a quality start to go with his loss, seven innings, five hits, three runs. His control is still off, with three walks. He left with the game 3-2.
But Jung Bong and Joey Dawley put up almost identical lines, and they weren’t good lines at all; an inning each, two hits, three runs each coming on three-run homers. Maybe Bobby was right to use Smoltz with a three-run lead yesterday after all.
The Braves’ only runs came on solo homers by Chipper and Giles. They had plenty of baserunners — six hits and four walks — but couldn’t get the hits they needed when the runners were on. They couldn’t even get the runners into scoring position for the most part. Every Brave reached base except for — you guessed it — Vinny and the Personal Catcher. But nobody had more than one hit.
Night game, Rueter vs. Ramirez, tonight. It will probably still be plenty hot then.
I still cannot fathom what the heck Dawley is doing back on this roster.
Free Buddy Hernandez!
Colin
Maybe the Braves don’t want to remove Dawley from the 40-man?
But how likely is it that some other team would claim him, really? He’s what, 31 years old, so he’s not a prospect, and his numbers this year would likely allow him to be removed without being lost *shrug*
Colin
Maddux really got my goat last night.
He made a not so subtle comment to the effect “i pitched just well enough to lose” “The offense didn’t come through for me…yadayada”
Maddux is the one that insists on having an offensive zero behind the plate when he takes the mound. If he wants more offense in the game he ought to let Javy catch him.
This sort of thing and other glib comments from Maddux have always rubbed me the wrong way. His apparent disdain for conditioning late in his career also t’s me off.
When you look at the workouts guys like Clemens, Johnson, Schilling, and others put themselves through to stay at the top of the game, you have to start questioning Maddux’s commitment to winning.
I firmly believe that Maddux is one of the to 10-20 pitchers in the game’s history.
I just don’t see the fire and drive he displayed in his first five years with the Braves manifesting itself game in game out like it used to.
Then to blame other parts of the team for his shortcomings is ridiculous and narrcasistic, especially considering he gets anything he wants from Bobby and management.
Jim, I tend to agree with you about Maddux; he does break down in more ways (non-armwise at least) than you would think he should.
Let’s remember, though, he’s a good deal smaller and thus less likely to hold up physically than guys like Clemens, Schilling and Johnson, all of whom are the size of NBA forwards.
Still, while Clemens is jamming his arm into a barrel of rice during the offseason, Maddux is making the turn toward the back nine…
I did not hear Maddux’s comments but that is very unlike him. He almost always blames himself. Even the first half of the comment is taking blame. When you say you pitched just well enough to lose you mean that while you pitched well you needed to do better.
Please also consider that in the regular season he is doing the team a favor having Blanco catch him so that Javy can get the rest that almost all catchers need to be effective. Post season is another story. And for what it’s worth it’s not like Javy has been all that much better with the bat since Blanco has been around.
As for conditioning it would seem well within Maddux’s character to not want to talk about/brag about what he does to keep himself in shape. He has always been an aw-shucks kind of guy. I also think he does not want to reveal trade secrets to the enemy.
But that’s just me, a big Maddux fan.
Marty
Eating popcorn from Ingles and reading romance novels is the only conditioning Maddux does. Haven’t you seen the commercial? No secrets there.