ESPN.com – MLB – Recap – Braves at Athletics – 06/12/2003
Bobby finally did go get Reynolds, and the bullpen held on for a victory. But, once again, I’d like to say that if you leave a starter out there hoping to save your bullpen, you’re most likely going to wind up giving up runs and having to go to the pen.
Reynolds was hit-lucky today. He didn’t strike anyone out, but the A’s didn’t draw many walks and they hit the ball at the fielders. In the seventh, his luck ran out with two outs as four straight A’s reached base and Bobby left him out there to give up two runs. King got out of it with the tying run on third and the go-ahead run on first, getting Scott Hatteberg again. Holmes and Smoltz finished the job.
The Braves didn’t get a lot of baserunners, but they got solo shots from Sheffield in the first and Andruw in the sixth, and Blanco squeezed home Franco in the seventh. Javy added an insurance run on a single in the eighth. Darren Bragg, of course, was 0-4 with a strikeout and is now hitting a remarkable .113. What does it take to get cut from this team, anyway? Lockhart would be ashamed of that. Belliard would be ashamed. And Bragg’s an outfielder.
Tomorrow, the Braves start three at Seattle. The Mariners have been struggling with the Expos, losing the first two games of the series with a game tonight, but still have the second-best record in baseball behind the Braves.
The Bragg situation is just insane. He’s on pace to appear in 105 games and get 21 hits this season. What on earth is the possible justification for keeping him over some spare part from Richmond?
Took a long “lunch” yesterday to watch this game.
Observations:
The fact the Reynolds didn’t get lit up yesterday is just short of a miracle. In the first four innings he fell behind almost every hitter 2-0 or 3-1 and then “got” the hitter to hit a rocket right at somebody.
The second inning was typical. Durazo leads off and Shane wants no part of him. Durazo walks. Dye is next and after getting ahead in the count, Jermaine hits a rocket towards left field. Except DeRosa dives and appears to make the catch. However the ball rolls free when he hits the ground, and since Dye didn’t run, they turn the 6-4-3 DP. Chavez ends the inning with a laser beam to right that Sheffield caught. 1-2-3 nothing doing.
Shane actually seemed to be finding a groove later on, breezing through the fifth and sixth before running into trouble in the seventh. Under the catagory of all things even out, the Byrnes two run single that ended his night was just a flare to right. I have no idea why Sheffield was playing so deep for Byrnes. The ball really should have been caught.
With the rest of the setup men floundering, Ray King has picked a really good time to not suck.
And I’ve got to give credit to the old men at the bottom of the order for getting the third run. Julio doubles off Zito to open the inning. Vinny grounds to third, but Julio’s good, agressive baserunning gets him to third. Then Blanco somehow gets the squeeze bunt down off a nasty Zito curveball to score the run. Well done, Personal Catcher, well done.
Like I said, Reynolds was hit-lucky. And that won’t happen every time. Sooner or later, those drives will fall, and he’ll get wiped out in the third. I don’t know if anyone is paying attention to it or not.
I agree with Robert’s assessment. Reynolds was getting rocked early, real hard hit balls, but right at somebody. But he did seem to settle down a little later on.
BTW Mac, the Braves are halfway towards the 4 win goal for the roadtrip that you set.