Chipper hit a pair of homers, one a two-run shot to give the team an early lead in the first, the second a three-run shot to break the game open in the sixth — and the Braves cruised to a much easier win this time. (And he wasn’t decked when he came back up; the bases were loaded. Unfortunately, he popped up, because a grand slam there would definitely have looked nice on the boxscore.)
The Braves collected 13 hits in all, with every member of the starting lineup but John Thomson reaching base. (Estrada was 0-2 but walked twice.) Marrero homered to give the Braves a little cushion in the fifth after the Rockies had cut it to 2-1, and Julio had two hits, an RBI, and scored a run. The righthanded platoon players continue to shine.
Overshadowed a bit was Thomson’s performance, going seven innings and allowing one run on five hits, one walk, and striking out five. He gave up the run in the third but wasn’t challenged much after that, and allowed only one extra-base hit, a double. Alfonseca and Colon finished it.
The Marlins lost to the Giants in extras, so the Braves’ lead is now 8 1/2. In fact, the whole rest of the division lost; the Phillies are now 11 back, the Mets 13, and the Expos 19. Oh, and the magic number is 30… Jamey (Not Quite Jaret) Wright goes for the Rockies tomorrow against Hampton. They’re still paying him, so I assume they expect him to give them something good to hit. Wright’s looked nearly as good as his namesake for the Rockies, putting up a 3.58 ERA in six starts.
The Eastern Division looked as if it was a very competitive division earlier in the season when the teams were beating each other up. They look downright attrocious against the rest of the league, save for the Braves. I see a new GM and Manager in the Phillies’ future. Have they made one trade or picked up one free agent relief pitcher that hasn’t been a total bust. This year’s crop is adding to that number, and it is a bumper crop.
I’m starting to think Philadelphia is where pitchers go to die. I know the park is Coors Field East, but how can they not have one decent reliever? Not that I mind, but it would be nice to see some competitive baseball in the division. The Braves would have better competition against the likes of Tampa Bay, Detroit, KC and Seattle (oops, sorry, KC and Detroit did fair better against the Braves than the NL East opponents).
Actually, the Phillies have a better record out of the division than the Braves; they’re 11 games back, like I said, but in the division they’re 13 1/2 games worse. Their deficit is largely due to poor play against the Marlins, of course. For that matter, the Mets are almost as bad in the division as the Phillies; all but one half game of their deficit is due to their record in-division. The Marlins, in their turn, are four games worse than the Braves in the division, and four games worse out of it.
I should have clarified it by saying against the rest of the National League. Especially lately.
In fairness to the Phillies, they lost Billy Wagner for the season and Padilla for a long stretch. That’s a lot to overcome; the Braves couldn’t do it earlier in the season. If you lose your best players, you can’t really say the manager and GM are at fault–although I agree that Bowa can’t get this team to play for him.
As far as I’m concerned, Millwood is and always has been a no. 3 or at best, no. 2 starter. I thought so when he was in Atlanta. He just doesn’t seem to be able to shoulder the burden of being a no. 1 for whatever reason.
Everyone has injuries, though. The Braves lost Marcus for two months and Horacio — who was only having an All-Star type season — for longer. Furcal and Chipper missed significant time early, Andruw has been hobbling all year, Marrero was hurt most of the first two months. The Phillies were supposedly the superior team and the deeper, yet where are they?
Exactly, Mac. The innjuries help explain why the Phils are dropping like a rock, but they sure don’t explain why they were behind the Braves before all the injuries hit, nor why they weren’t able to distance themselves from teh Braves when we had injuries.
At best the teams are comparable in terms of injuries. As mac notes, we lost an All-Star 2B for two months, we lost Chipper’s bat for over half of the season as he played with a bad hamstring, we lost Horacio for months, we had Paul Byrd on the DL for two+ months, we’ve had Andruw playing with patellar tendinitis, we lost half of our 1B platoon for several weeks (don’t think that hurt even a little? think Mike Hessman), we had Marrero out for a few months, even Furcal’s had a fair number of missed games. Throw in the abject suckage that was Mark DeRosa at 3B, and Philly still has no excuse for not being in the lead, or at worst near a tie.
keep winning atlanta… Chippers gonna need his power to beat up on the cubs starters in the rematch in octobober 😉
Correct. Look deeper into the Phillies and see that none of the relief pitchers they have brought on board have been effective. How many games have they lost in late innings this year? It’s the same problem they had last year. I feel bad that Wagner has been hurt, but just like last year, a closer is worthless if you can’t hold the lead for him. I looked at 9 games in August alone where the bullpen lost a lead, and in all but one case, it was the middle relief. They did come back and win two of those games despite that. Some of that has to blamed on coaching. Every pitcher that has come to Philly has gotten worse over time, even those that weren’t that good to begin with.