Awful, awful, awful. The Braves had another one of their Sunday “We have a plane to catch” offenses, getting only four hits and two walks against a starting pitcher who had an ERA over 5 coming in and hadn’t won since the first week of May. Their runs came on solo homers in the sixth by Drew and Chipper. Marrero had the other two hits, both singles. Andruw missed his second game in a row; maybe he’ll be back in Florida.
Ortiz dug a hole early, giving up two in the first and one in each of the next two innings. In the second, he actually gave up a solo homer to the pitcher — an American League pitcher, mind you. In the top of the seventh, with the Braves back to only two down, Ortiz was lifted after giving up a hit. Almanza (now the only lefty with the dismissal of CJ Nitkowski) got one but the Great Gryboski immediately allowed an inherited run to score. Again. Hey, no skin off his ERA.
After this interleague disaster the Braves travel to Florida. Yeah, they played the Marlins well earlier this year but I have little confidence they’ll do it again. Yes, I’m now verging on Despair.
Why do they put Grybowski in those situations. He’s a lock to allow at least one of the inherited runners in. A lock. Liek death and taxes. Ortiz allowed a hit in every inning. The only pitcher not to allow a hit? The Sucktopus.
Against one of the absolute worst bullpen in the major leagues, we managed one hit all series. Awful.
bullpens. One of the worst bullpens.
5.46, 5.58, 6.91. Those are the ERA’s of the pitchers the Braves didn’t hit today. Two homers and a couple of singles aren’t really enough to win with the kind of pitching we have this year. It also wouldn’t hurt to (for once) not follow up an encouraging victory by spotting the other team multiple runs in the first inning. If this is the game they plan on taking to Florida, the season could be over by Thursday.
I understand commiar Selig will be moving the Brewers to the East Division since they would only be 1/2 game out of 1st place. It’s only good for 4th in the Central (ahead of the suprisingly bad Astros). Next thing you know, the Devil Rays will win 11 games in a row and Kenny Rogers (not the singer) will be leading the AL in wins. Stranger things are happening.
Oh, and in spite of how pitiful the Braves have been all month, they are still only 4-1/2 games out. If the Marlins or Phillies don’t pull away after the next 9 days, they never will. The Mets play the Reds and Yanks, so they don’t have an easy week coming up.