Thanks to Andruw, we won’t be talking about the Braves’ poor hitting with runners in scoring position again. Oh, they did hit poorly with runners on (10 left on base), but Andruw made up for it with his one hit, a grand slam in the fourth that basically chased Kevin Millwood.
The Braves got two runs off of Millwood before he’d gotten more than one out, Drew and Estrada singling home runs in the first. But they left the bases loaded in each of the first two innings, and a further runner on in the third, allowing Millwood to stick around. Then Andruw hit his homer, and the Braves were comfortably on top. All the Braves’ regulars reached except Green, again. He might need a day off. Chipper was 2-2 with two walks and a HBP.
Jaret Wright was sharp for the first five innings — in fact, pitching as well as any Braves pitcher has this year, allowing one hit (by Millwood!) and two walks. He tired after that and his control started to desert him. The final line is still very good, 7 1/3, 6 H, 3 BB, 6 K, 1 ER that really shouldn’t have scored — Furcal and Chipper screwing up on a popup. The Phllies had one chance to get back in it, Thome hitting with two on, two out in the eighth when a homer would have cut it to 6-4, but he hit a sharp grounder off of Reitsma right to Green.
Lefties tonight, Hampton and Wolf. I think. Wolf’s had a touchy elbow.
As I mentioned in a different thread, I had tickets right behind home plate for the Greenville Braves for this series. A few notes:
Andy Marte was very good. He hit a homer that was a rocket shot to dead center and a mile high. He also had a pair of doubles and a single. One of the doubles was a blooper into short RCF that was misplayed. The other was a moderately hard hit ball down the LF line. His approach at the plate seemed non-descript. Bat moderately upright, feet moderately spread and neither opened nor closed stance. He did look a little heavier to me than I was expecting. I don’t know how much of it was the uniform, but he seems to have an Andruw Jones’ like build – strong, compact, but perhaps a touch squishy. In the field, he was smooth handling quite a number of plays including two very close plays on little choppers by Joey Gathright, an Otis Nixon type player for the opposition.
Dan Meyer pitched for Greenville and was excellent. A small lefty, he throws with a stiff front leg and his arm crosses over his chest on his follow-through. He went 7 innings, allowing only 2 hits and very few hard hit balls. I was at the game with my children, so I didn’t check every pitch, but he seemed to be in the 84-86 range with most of his fastballs. He got 8 Ks against 0 walks with the Ks seemingly split about equally on curves and fastballs. He had Montgomery batters fishing for the curve all night.
Scott Sturkie came into the game in relief of Meyer. He’s the guy we got for Russ Branyan. My daughters were tired by that point, so I barely got to watch Sturkie, but he seemed to fare well, going 2 innings with nothing but 3 Ks to show for it.
Scott Thorman looked horrible. 0 for 5 with 2 ks and never making good contact.
Kelly Johnson played CF. He’s done as a prospect. Gosh, wasn’t it just yesterday when we were debating whether Johnson was going to force Betemit off Short since both were such sure things coming up in our system?
Aaron Herr made some very nice defensive plays at second. He flashed more range in that one game than I saw Tommy exhibit in an entire major league career. Now if we can get the offense (relative to his time) from Aaron that the Cards got from his Daddy …
I’ll be at tonights game too and will try to update when possible. Brian Moehler will start for the Braves. Old Scuffy has fallen a long way from being a top starter on a major league team.
Bamadan. I missed this along the way, but I’m curious to know why Montgomery called their team the Biscuits. That has to be one of the funniest mascots ever. I had to drop the Lansing Lugnuts to #2 on my list. A butter tongue? O my.
The Biscuits are owned by the same folks who own the Lugnuts. These folks want to sell merchandise … and are successful at it. Last time I checked, the Lugnuts trailed only the Alberquerque Isotopes in hat, shirt, etc sales. Biscuits were named for that very reason: only the hard core fan cares about a Greenville Braves cap or a Birminham Barons one or Memphis Redbird … but folks across the country are buying the Biscuit’s Butter & Blue.
I think its goofy, but my two daughters (ages 3 and 7) love it.
And damn, I just read that Joey Gathright, the best prospect on the Biscuits, was promoted to AAA. Now I have hope for Chris Seddon and wait for Delmon Young. Tampa Bay has certainly not stocked its AA club with any talent.
Mark Hauser went bonkers on the call of Marte’s HR. He made it sound as though it would put NORAD on alert.
Having actually gotten to see Tommy Herr play for half a season up here in Minnesota, if Aaron can move one step in either direction on a moderately struck baseball, he exceeds his father’s range. For all his huzzah as a member of some pretty good Cardinal teams, Herr the elder seemed to me to be one of the most disinterested players I have ever had the privilege to watch.
Well, the Air War College on Maxwell AFB is only a few miles away … if Marte had just pulled the ball a wee bit more 😉
I wouldn’t count Johnson out yet. He’s still young (22), and fairly young for his level. He’s hitting .252, sure, but his OBP/SLG are .345/.444, so he’s still drawing walks and hitting for fair power. He might still be the second-best hitting prospect at Greenville, if not the whole organization. The question is if he can hit enough to make it as a right fielder or if he’s going to wind up in a fourth outfielder role. (Personally, I never thought he’d be a major league shortstop.)
And Thorman just got called up; it was his third game in AA. Takes awhile to get situated; A to AA is probably about as big of a jump in level as AAA to the majors. For some players, especially take-and-rake types, it might be more. If Johnson’s not the second-best hitting prospect in Greenville it’s probably Thorman.