ESPN.com – MLB – Recap – Braves at Mets – 07/07/2003
Hey, a complete game! Unfortunately, it involved the rookie Horacio Ramirez throwing 110 pitches, but it still gives me a warm feeling. (Hey, I’ve got my traditionalist leanings too.) Ramirez allowed only four hits and two walks, striking out seven, 75 of his pitches were strikes, and only one of the runs was earned.
Meanwhile, Chipper had two home runs again, and suddenly is looking like Chipper Jones again. Fick hit a three-run homer and Sheffield had three hits. The Braves had ten hits, but no walks. When you score seven runs, you don’t mind so much, but you aren’t going to score seven runs without walks unless you hit three homers again.
The Phillies lost to the Expos, and the Braves lead the former by 8 1/2, the latter by 9. The Marlins lost and are 11 1/2 out. Suddenly the Braves have a four-game winning streak, the Phillies a four-game losing streak, and all the ground the Phillies had made up is gone. They’ll have a chance to get closer again today, almost certainly, because Shane Reynolds is pitching.
I hate to say it, but compared to Sutcliff and O’Brien, I really enjoyed listening to Bill Murray do the play by play. His analysis of the defensive misgivings of the entire Braves infield during the 3 run inning by the Mets was especially nice.
That was, by the way, one of the ugliest defensive play I’ve seen in MLB in a while.
Ditto. Strange half inning. Braves score 7 runs, get good pitching, and play 8 innings of solid defense. But for whatever reason, for those 2 minutes in the bottom of the 6th, they just forgot how to play baseball.
I don’t have a problem with 110 pitches for Ramirez in a CG; i feel less worried about that than when he threw, say, 101 pitches in 5 innings against the Mets.
He has gone 108-108-109-110 in his last four starts, but I think overall his workload has been reasonable. No 140 pitch outings.
And just to follow up, the one upside of Cox’s Reynolds fetish has been additional rest for Ramirez from time to time. So, for instance, the first 108 pitch outing in his string of four 100+ pitch outings came after a 10 day layoff; then he had 6 days before his next start, and the next two were on standard rest. He’ll likely get one more game before the AS break, then extra rest there too.
Btw, ESPN.com lists him as first in the NL in winning %.
Doh, just one more point worth mentioning – while the Braves may have drawn no walks in this game, they did draw 7 in their previous game.