Can we put David Wells on the enemies list? He annoys me.
The Braves played with a similar shorthanded lineup to last night (with Julio at first and Hessman in the outfield for Wise) but didn’t manage to get the hits when needed. Of course, they only had five hits in all. They were frustrated by Wells for most of the game, but had several opportunities late, including a golden one — Furcal (who pinch-hit) on third, one out — but DeRosa struck out. Marcus Giles was then hit by a pitch (when Wells lost control of his hat and it fell over his face in mid-pitch) and wound up leaving the game; Andruw then struck out. Furcal stayed in playing second. They had other opportunities than that to drive in a run with a single, but couldn’t capitalize.
Jaret Wright gave up only one run but wound up with a loss he didn’t really deserve, though he didn’t actually pitch that well. He threw 106 pitches — 64 strikes — in only six innings and was generally wild, but only walked one (against five strikeouts). But he was lucky to avoid giving up more runs.
Any chance the Braves had of tying the game up (Trevor Hoffman is back in the Padres’ bullpen now) went away in the top of the ninth when Cunnane gave up a couple of hits and Nitkowski was unable to strand them. Miraculously, Base12 managed to give up two hits in two innings of work, but no runs.
Daily Chipper update: he hopes to play a rehab game in Rome tomorrow and be with the big club Friday. Hopefully Drew will play tomorrow, but who knows. He’ll probably come down with gout like Wells did that time. The game tomorrow will be at 1:05.
He might be pitching ugly, but I’m impressed with Wright’s performance so far. That’s one less problem to worry about.
Isn’t the top of the ninth of a 1-0 game a situation that practically screams for Smoltz? One run is hard enough to get off Hoffman in the bottom of the inning, let alone two. The Braves all but gave up when they ran Cunnane and S**tkowshi out there …
Read the game log. Very frustrating. Gosh its hard enough to win against a pitcher who is on much less with the Richmond Braves.
I’m starting to wonder if Drew is the Braves version of Chris ‘Crystal’ Chandler.
Does .500 win the NL East?
We will be fine. Can the Phillies win without Thome, Burrell, and Rollins? Aside from their current struggles, when you have your two best hitters and your lead-off hitter out for the majority of this early season, regardless of your bullpen and the bottom half of your order, it’s hard to win. Losing the good half of your offense is tough to deal. When they get back, we won’t have to worry about being .500. Ortiz and Hampton will get better, and if Ramirez, Thomson and Wright stay about where they are, everything will be fine. Now getting Base12 out of high-leverage is another thing altogether.
Just read on ESPN that Marcus is out as well with his bruised ellbow after the HBP. BTW, you’ve got to give Wells credit for not stopping his motion and balking in the tying run. I just wonder Who’s gonna be on second tonight…
Rob, I agree. To be where we are with Furcal, Drew and Chipper missing a big chunk of time is good. And in reality the bench hasn’t played that bad.
Garcia at second, DeRosa at Short, Hessman at 3rd tonight?
Today, actually. I’m guessing Furcal will play second.
Wright has looked good. Not efficient, but good.
I hope they find a way to keep him around. He’s got that great arm and if he ever gets a more firm grip on his command (which I don’t think he’s ever had), he could contribute big-time in a number of different roles.
There going to have to think about putting Drew in an isolation chamber between games.
The comment about the Phillies not winning without their big guys makes no sense. They can’t win with them. They can win without Bowa though. If Cox was coaching that roster, they’d only have a couple of losses (those would be the ones Boom-Boom pitched in).