ESPN.com – MLB – Recap – Nationals at Braves
Horrifying. The Braves kept it close for awhile — actually leading from the bottom of the third to the top of the fifth, 3-2 — but the bullpen couldn’t maintain that, giving up six runs in the top of the ninth to blow it open. Chris Reitsma — who, incredibly, is the only reliever I trust right now — pitched a perfect eighth. But Bernero gave up a solo homer in the seventh to Jose Guillen, who also hit a two-run homer off of Roman Lower Intestine to start the scoring in the ninth. T*m M*rt*n and K*v*n Gr*b*sk* also stunk up the joint in that inning; each pitcher got only one out and Gr*b*sk* was the only one to give up less than one run.
John Thomson got the loss — he didn’t pitch too badly, but did allow four runs, which was probably one too many. The big concern was that he walked four; he can’t do that and remain successful.
As usual, it’s probably all Andruw’s fault, even though he was 2-3 with two walks and scored a run. Chipper was 2-4 with a walk, scored twice and drove one in. Estrada also had two hits. But Furcal contineues to struggle, and Raul Mondesi left six runners on base, four in scoring position, all with two out, on his way to going 0-4 with two strikeouts. Offensively, a dead man couldn’t do much worse. Langerhans started for Jordan and had a hit and an (intentional) walk; maybe he’ll play for Mondesi on Friday.
That will be against the Phillies, who still can’t beat the Marlins. Well, they won the first game of their series but lost the next two; the Marlins join the Nats in tying the Braves for first. Horacio Ramirez will start against Gavin Floyd to kick off the series. The first two games will be on TBS with the last an ESPN Sunday Night game.
We have to have some sort of live arms down at Richmond that can come up and strike somebody out. I know we do.
Well, there’s that Buddy Hernandez guy, but he’s short. We’re trying to sell jeans here.
It almost felt good, in a perverted way, to see Gr*b*sky give up the three-run 2B in the ninth, knowing that Martin’s brutal pitching would also show up in his ERA. I swear, thank God the attendance was so low, or those foul ball bullets would have killed someone.
yuck
Steffen: I thought the same thing about Martin’s runners scoring. (Call me demented, too.) After making that mess, Martin shouldn’t have been let off the hook by someone else. And Gryboski was just the guy for letting those chickens come home to roost.
Yeah, I wonder if that makes us bad Braves fans. But since the chance of a comeback was very slim anyway I guess it didn’t matter much.
Hernandez and Barry both haven’t pitched all that well in Richmond, so I’m cautious about longing for them. Maybe we could call Gabe White back? If the Frank Brooks rumor is true, that’s a start as well.
Que este el Frank Brooks rumor?
Bullpen Blues. Martin’s getting too predictable.
It is true. From rotoworld:
Braves claimed LHP Frank Brooks off waivers from the Dodgers.
Brooks still projects as a useful reliever, though no team that gets him seems all that interested in holding on to him when it comes time to free up a 40-man roster spot. The Braves will assign him to Triple-A Richmond.
Que este el Frank Brooks rumor?
Pete Van Wieren said on the air late in the game that the Braves had claimed lefty reliever Frank Brooks off waivers from the Dodgers. He pitched 11 games for Pittsburgh last year, had a 4.67 ERA, but struck out 18 in 17.1 innings.
Just noticed that Brooks also gave up 5 dingers in 17.1 innings last year as well. Holy Eric Milton, Batman!
But the .083 lefty batting average is nice.
Horrible game. Expounding on a post in the previous thread about Skip and Joe, I almost drove off the road when Skip said, “I think it would be the bomb if the gekko did the robot.”
They also had a good series of one-liners when Skip got the Nationals’ batting order mixed up, saying that Ryan Church was coming to the plate when it was actually Nick Johnson.
JOE: That’s OK. It’s good anytime you can talk about church.
SK
JOE: I’m glad you ‘alter’-ed what you were saying.
(pause)
SK
Great stuff …
I think some of our hitters are about to heat up. Mondy hit some nice foul balls and just missed on some curves. Him or Jordan will light up the Phillies. The Nats are playing a little over their heads right now due to not playing 81 of their “home games” in two diffrent countries.
Leo will get the bullpen thing worked out. M*rt*n is die a torn rotator cuff any day now…
*die=due
I don’t know, “die” is pretty appropriate too.
As is said in the previous thread…calling Richmond and the team formerly known as Greenville…send anyone who can hit 88. I would call for Marte, but what is the pointed of starting his clock when the pen can’t get anyone out?
XM is great can finally get all the braves game here in Raleigh.
BTW went to see the Bulls play the Clippers Mon. night. Damon Hollins looks like he could help in the OF right now…
For a minute there, I thought you were talking about an NBA game.
As for Hollins, he’s almost 31. His time has probably come and gone.
It’s curious, though, that someone like the Pirates or the Blue Jays hasn’t taken a chance on him in the Rule 5 draft …
Tough loss. Our team can’t really win shootouts. We need to tighten up our pitching. Oh yeah, we had a gem last night…
The Marlins have given up only 15 runs so far. We need to light a fire under a number of our pitchers. Giving up 39 to their 15, albeit two blowouts, is unaccpetable.