To answer my question below: Well, it’s happened now.
There’s not much else I can say, really. It’s ironic, but true greatness — like a Hall of Famer throwing a perfect game with 13 strikeouts, including the last two batters, really speaks for itself, and superlatives can only detract from the accomplishment. Randy Johnson was awesome, and the Braves weren’t. They had a couple of hard hit balls, only one three-ball count, and one near-infield single.
Mike Hampton was plenty good, throwing a complete game himself — the Braves’ first this year — and allowing only two runs, both runs scoring with two out, and honestly he almost got out of the first run. He chose the wrong night for having his best start of the year.
Tomorrow night, Brandon Webb. Just dandy. What’s the record for consecutive innings without a baserunner?
Well, if you gotta go down, that’s a hell of way to go. As much as it’s against my nature I was rooting against Eddie there at the end.
What’s the record for strikeouts by a team in 2 consecutive games?
If we weren’t going to win, I thought we might as well get perfected. Losing sucks regardless.
I was hoping Eddie would hit one out. Johnson was dominant. That slider that finishes on the right handed batters back heel has to be one of the scariest things to experience in baseball. The hard hit balls (all 3 of them) were at em balls. The Braves were doing a lot of first pitch swinging. Great recipe for a perfecto.
Hampton pitched a great game, to start his revitalization. JS is scouring the league looking for a bat. Marcus will heal amazingly fast. Chipper will regain his stroke. Andruw will get hot. Estrada and Drew will continue thier good work. And I’m trying my ass off to be optimistic.
What’s the record for most swings-and-misses in consecutive games on the same pitch? I mean seriously, somebody please teach the Braves’ hitters how to recognize a slider. How can a team swing at the same pitch over and over again, all night long, on all counts? I’m not taking anything away from Randy. And I can handle a loss if I get to witness history. However, the way our guys are swinging the bats right now is worrisome to say the least. Not just the inability to score runs or even get a hit. I don’t fault them for that against a pitcher of Johnson’s caliber. But the complete lack of plate discipline or a game plan. Most of our hitters took the Vlad Guerrero approach to hitting, without the talent. Not good.
Some observations after watching the game:
1. The entire lineup is pressing to an unbelievable degree. Everyone is trying to hit the first pitch really, really, really hard. Until they relax, the offense will continue to stink. Eventually they will break out of it.
2. Terry Pendleton’s job has to be in jeopardy. The Braves have been absolutely Cubbsian in their hacktasticness in the last few weeks. At some point Cox is going to have to do something to shake this team up, and changing the batting order every night isn’t getting it done.
3. My wife came downstairs right after the game ended, and I said to her, “you know how they say alcoholics have to hit rock bottom before they can recover? The Braves just had a perfect game thrown at them”. I hope this is rock bottom.
If nothing else, they have to get Furcal back soon. Playing without one all-star middle infielder is bad enough. Playing without two, and replacing them with Jesse Garcia and Nick Green? Ugh.
I don’t want to get down on Garcia. It’s his first game back from bereavement leave and all, but right before he left, he was starting to wear down a bit. He looks absolutely shot.
I was thinking about 100 ABs for the season out of Jesse and he’s already at 81.
Rock bottom is not a weekend retreat!
I dunno, but the record for whiffs in a doubleheader was set last year by the Mets facing Webb in Game 1 (in his major league debut) and Johnson in Game 2.
the bad news — the braves last 18 “offensive” innings have resulted in 3hits, 1 walk, 31 strikouts. we’re now in fourth place, and still suffering through a morass of injuries.
the good news — somehow after about as dismal a start as anyone could have predicted for the club, we’re still only 3.5 games out of first place in the division. That is astounding. Considering there’s something like 120 games left, and all of us expect this is a better team then they have played, i take some solace in the apparent mediocrity of the rest of our division.
Remember how the Twins season went last year? The division was so weak that they were able to hang around with a single-digit “games back” deficit for most of the year, and then make an August/Sept. run to the playoffs.
$550.00!!!!?????? WWWWWWWHHHHHHAAAAT?????