My God, I hate Chris Reitsma right now. The Braves took a 3-1 lead into the eighth, but Reitsma, with a little help from Furcal’s bad fielding, turned it into a tie. The two runs were scored “unearned”, but seriously most of it was the pitcher’s fault. Reitsma has given up two or three runs in three of his last four appearances, all Braves losses.
Jaret Wright gave them seven good, if somewhat wild, innings, but to no avail. He struck out five, walked three, and allowed five hits… Alfonseca wound up getting the loss, pitching to two batters in the tenth. McConnell and Gryboski finished it. Why one of these men wasn’t brought in while Reitsma was busy losing the lead, I’ll never know.
The Braves took a 2-0 lead in the first on Marcus’ homer, and a 3-1 lead in the seventh on Andruw’s. In between, they did very little. After, they did little, until the bottom of the tenth when they had the bases loaded with one out. But Marcus grounded out to third (the runner out at the plate) and Drew lined out, game over, and the Braves fall back into a tie.
The Braves now play two games out of the division with the Pirates, then hit the road for a series with the Mets. The Phillies host the Marlins for two, then the Cubs.
At what point last season did Bobby finally stop trusting Hernandez, putting him on the DL with some pseudo-injury? I hope Reitsma meets the same fate soon, before he blows too many more games. He’s utterly useless at this point.
However, I can’t help but put some of the blame on Giles as well. That 3-1 pitch he swung at with the bases loaded was quite likely ball four, definitely not a good pitch to hit. Giles does this a lot, swinging at bad pitches with the count in his favor, which is one of the few flaws remaining in his game. And in this case, it may have cost us a win.
Bobby is trying to reestablish Reitsma’s confidence and was really hoping that the performance in the previous Phillies series was an aberation. I can’t believe that Reitsma blew another one. Why not Smoltz in the 8th again? Big series playoff atmosphere and all that.
Had they used Smoltz is the 8th, they would have encountered the same problem in the ninth. I can’t really blame them for not using him for two innings in consecutive games. He probably should have been brought in after Reitsma walked Burrell with two outs in the 8th, but I’m willing to give Bobby the benefit of the doubt on this one.
Furcal’s error was a killer too. Reitsma might have gotten out of it had Furcal made the play.
anybody else notice that a double play should have been called on abreu’s 3-6 forceout in the top of the 8th? no way utley can touch 2nd base on his slide to break it up, and the call was made against marcus just last night!
i heard that smoltz was available for only one inning last night. given that constraint, it’s beyond me why you don’t use him in the 8th, and bring cruz (or alfonseca, if you still believe in magic closer power) in for the 9th.
managers just don’t seem to get the fact that there’s no lead tomorrow if you can’t get past today.
Utley should have been called out at second base for the automatic double play on Abreu’s 3-6 FC in the 8th.
The same call was made against Giles in game 1, but for some reason, was ignored in last night’s game.
I think it’s easy for us to complain about the situation last night, but if we were in the situation would we have acted differently? (Such as Giles swing with a 3-1 count). And don’t forget that the infield moved in on a play that required them back. Many things went wrong in the final innings. However, they have won 16 out of 21, and there are many more wins on the way. GO BRAVES!
Last night’s game was the most exciting I’ve gotten to watch this season. It stinks that anyone outside of the local broadcast area is getting denied the chance to watch these important series.
Yeah, Giles made the wrong decision to swing on a 3-1 pitch with the bases loaded. If he doesn’t swing he’s got about a 50/50 chance of driving in the tying run with walk. At worst the count goes to 3-2 and the bases are still loaded. But hey, things aren’t going to go right all the time. It’s not as if there’s any doubt in my mind that the Braves won’t pull away in the coming weeks. It’s easier to win a three game series than a two-gamer no matter who you’re playing.
Braves get to conclude their four-game Pennsylvania series against the Pirates.
I was at this game, and I don’t blame Reitsma. The Braves lost this in the first when JD Drew, after a double with no one out, didn’t score. I knew the 2-run headstart was a fluke then, and I knew — considering Milton’s record against the Braves this season and despite Wright on the mound — that it would be a tough game. I was right.
But I caught a batting practice home run off Andruw’s bat, so I didn’t care.