ESPN.com – MLB – Recap – Braves at Reds – 05/20/2003
I think that the most frustrating games are those when you rally from way down only to lose. It happened that way last night. Greg Maddux had nothing — I really am worried about him now — and the Braves trailed 7-2 after four and as late as the sixth.
But behind the red-hot Vinny Castilla — who hit two more homers, including one to tie it — the Braves rallied to make it 7-7 in the eighth, only to give up two runs in the bottom of the inning. They got one back in the ninth, but not the second.
Trey Hodges helped get the Braves back into it with two sensational innings, no hits, no runs, no walks, four strikeouts and 20 strikes in 27 pitches. Andruw and Furcal each hit solo homers. Marcus Giles had to leave the game after fouling a pitch off his leg. Hopefully he’ll be okay, but with his luck he’ll miss two games, DeRosa will go 3-8, and Bobby will start splitting time again.
Ex-Brave of the series: Kent Mercker, who pitched a third of an inning last night. He seems to be the Reds’ LOOGY, having pitched in 23 games but for only 15 2/3 innings. He has a 1.72 ERA but his peripherals aren’t nearly that good.
Hampton pitches tonight. I guess he’s the ace of the staff, him or Ortiz.
Runs that Hernandez has given up:
Jason LaRue: 2run HR (BB scored)
Keith Lockhart: Solo HR
Larry Walker: RBI Double (BB scored)
Chris Stynes: RBI Groundout
Endy Chavez: 2run HR
Alex Gonzalez: 2run HR (BB scored)
Ron Calloway: Bases-loaded BB
My feeling is that he is too careful with “better” hitters and pitches to guys lower in the batting order as if he was facing the pitcher- “See what you can do with this!….. Oh.”
I was at the reds-braves game last night and it was such a disappointment. I live in Cincinnati, so i have somewhat of a respect for the Reds, but not when the Braves are in town. :)
I was just glad that Chipper didn’t get the last out of the game like he might have foreshadowed the entire game. Overall, i think i’m going to blame the loss on jet lag or something that obviously has nothing to do with the actual skills of the team. Let’s just hope the Braves win tonight and tomorrow to take the series…
As frustrating as this loss is, I gotta say this – in years past, this game would have been all but over with them down by 5 runs. But with this team you just feel that they can make the comebacks. They managed it once in this game, and that kept it interesting, even if they couldn’t pull it off the second time also. Still more fun than last year’s offense.
Colin
It seems like it’s time for another mysterious non-specific leg injury for Maddux. Like Mac said, he had absolutely nothing last night and against that team in that ballpark he was lucky to have done as well as he did.
The Phillies are starting to get things together, and even as well as we are playing, I think it’s going to be a race. It would help the Braves chances considerably if they didn’t have to start every fifth game down seven runs. Hodges was absolutely overpowering again last night.
Free Trey Hodges!
I thought Castilla couldn’t do worse than drag down my favorite team, but now he’s hitting clutch homers and undermining my HACKING MASS team as well. When will the horror end?
What is a HACKING MASS team anyway? I must have been asleep…
I wonder if the QuesTec (or however you spell it) system is having a negative impact on Maddux. Maybe the umpires really are calling a tighter zone this year. I’m not saying this is accounting for all of Maddux’s troubles, as he really did have absolutely nothing against Cincy. But maybe it explains a little bit of it.