What an odd day. The Braves trailed 7-0 heading into the seventh, and 7-1 in the eighth. And then they put together an unlikely seven-run eighth to take the lead, and with one out and a runner on third in the bottom of the ninth Smoltz struck out Javy (that just seems weird) and then got a groundout to end it.
The Braves couldn’t do anything with Matt Riley, predictably, even with his ERA coming in at well over eight. And Jaret Wright, who had been the Braves’ most consistently good starter coming in, couldn’t get out of the sixth (though he wasn’t getting a lot of defensive support). But they smacked around the middle relief but good. The key play was probably when Mike Hessman actually managed to hit the ball — almost all the way to the pitcher! — but the pitcher threw the ball away. And the Braves scored five more runs in the inning and finally got a series win. The big blows in the inning were a two-run shot by Drew and a two-run double by Green, who eventually scored the winning run.
As has been noted in comments, the White Sox traded for Freddy Garcia yesterday. That doesn’t necessarily kill an Ortiz trade, because none of the players involved was supposedly involved in the deal with the Braves. It certainly doesn’t kill the possibility of Andruw for Magglio.
The Braves, amazingly, are still only 4 1/2 out, and now host the Marlins for four.
As bad as they played the 1st 7 innings, they certainly redeemed themselves and showed a lot of intestinal fortitude. Derosion was talking about the clubhouse and planeride mood this morning and said it was very upbeat. He believes it may be the shot in the arm they needed, but he is still whining about not playing everyday (Direct quote from Derosion: “I understand but I don’t understand.” when talking about his benching in favor of Chipper). He also said that maybe his bad play figured into it. You think so? Was it his bad play in the field or on the basepaths?
You know that DeRosa still has more PAs than anyone on the team than Andruw and JD? That’s largely because of all the time Furcal and Chipper missed, but he’s had more than Estrada, who plays four of five games.
Who does DeRosa want benched? Marrero’s been one of the better hitters on the team since he started playing every game; Thomas, in his brief callup, has hit .300, played good defense, and hustled every minute. Green has slacked off somewhat but has still been better than DeRosa in every phase of the game, and Marcus should be back in a couple of weeks anyway.
Chipper’s defense has looked a lot better than DeRosa’s, so by shifting him back to left you would:
1. Increase his chances of injury;
2. Hurt the team defensively at two positions;
3. Hurt the team offensively as well.
It’s amazing the sense of entitlement this guy has.
Derosion has more PAs than Estrada because Estrada hits lower in the lineup and has been getting days off. He’s shown as appearing in only 61 games as opposed to Derosion’s 68. On the radio, Derosion’s New Joisey accent comes out. He as much said he was entitled to it right before it happened. “I paid my dues, I worked hard.” were his exact words.
My take is no moves will be made until Ramirez, Giles and LaRoche all get back. You have to assess the needs after you see how much they will be able to contribute. They may change slightly -getting an power hitting outfielder instead of one with speed is one consideration. If Giles is hitting 2nd, you would want an outfielder who could fill the 4-6 hole instead of the 1-2 hole. You could put Estrada back in the #7 spot, where he has done the most damage.
Speaking of Estrada, his stats are overwhelming. He hits .240 with nobody on base, and .478 with guys on base with an OPS of 1.259. The Braves would be way out of it without him. That’s much better than Derosion’s .150 BA w/RISP. I will give you one bright spot for Derosion; he hits .333 when batting #8.