ESPN.com – MLB – Recap – Phillies at Braves
Six whole runs? I feel like a glutton. The big blows were a pair of two-run homers, one by Marcus (his first of the season) in the third to break a 1-1 tie, the second by LaRoche in the seventh that pushed the lead to 6-2.
Bobby benched Mondesi and Jordan in favor of Orr in left and Langerhans in right. The former doubled in the third to score in front of Marcus. Langerhans was 0-4 with three strikeouts. Orr hit second, Marcus third, and Chipper down to cleanup. Chipper was 1-1 with an RBI and was walked three times as the Phillies had no interest in pitching to him. Andruw got a hit! What’s more, it was a run-scoring double, and he also walked and only struck out once.
Hampton went 8 2/3, struck out four, walked three, and allowed seven hits. Pretty much what he’s done all season. Kolb only had to get one out to get the save and managed to walk the first man he faced, but actually managed to keep Thome from hitting a grand slam to tie the game.
The Marlins are winning late. If that holds up, they’ll be a game up on the Braves, Natspos, and Mets and two up on the Phillies… Tomorrow night, Hudson versus Wolf on TBS.
Hampton looks brilliant this year. What a great stretch he’s having after two Jeckyll and Hyde years. He’s simply controlling hitters, and games in general, with his sinker and committment to the groundball. He could be 4-0 if he had good run support too. He’s averaging over 7 innings a start and threw 118 pitches before exiting last night, keep up the good work Hamp.
Couldn’t keep up the .500 BA, though, damn…
Great game. Great pitching by Hampton. Glad to see our bats finally woke up.
What could be better? During the game, FSS showed Mazone watching LaRoche pitch in the bullpen. Seems that our bullpen has gotten so shaky that we’re looking to our first baseman for help. I think that we originally drafted him as a pitcher, but still. I guess he couldn’t be any worse than Martin.
Anyway, let’s focus on the positives…our bats finally woke up. I’m keeping that my fingers crossed that we can do the same for Hudson tomorrow. I’ll be there, so hopefully we’ll see another gem from him.
Interesting moving Chipper to cleanup too. I had been thinking before that what’s best for Chipper isn’t necessarily what’s best for the team.
Until LaRoche or someone else becomes consistent hitting behind Chipper, it doesn’t matter where you hit him. He’s going to get walked a lot, so I think the lineup they had out there with Furcal, Orr and Giles is a great combination. If Orr is getting on base then you have two very good base-stealing threats and Giles is a very good contact hitter. The Phillies paid for walking Chipper last night. Let’s hope he remains patient and doesn’t go into postseason mode and start chasing pitches just to try and get a hit.
Chipper has the 5th highest OPB in the majors right now and the 6th most walks behind offensive threats such as Craig Counsell, David Delucci and Louis Castillo (combined for 2 HR and 18 rbis).
I loved last night’s line up. I hope it will be a while before we see Jordan and Mondesi in at the same time.
The crowd was audibly booing Kolb last night as soon as he got behind in the count.
Pete Orr hustles on every play. He made the nice catch against the wall in foul territory that really helped Kolb.
There were two young fans with Sosa signs in attendance. Sosa + Control = Closer.
Man, Jaret Wright is getting crushed once again in Texas as we speak. I kind of feel bad for the guy, especially with an owner like Steinbrener breathing down his neck. I bet right now he’s wishing he had of taken less money and stayed with us.
Jeremy,
You feel bad for a guy who left the Braves to play for the g*dd*mn Yankees? Seriously? I hope they release him. I don’t hate guys for leaving via free agency, that’s the business of the game and within their rights. But going to the Yankees is unforgiveable to me.
By the way, he left the game with a possible arm injury, and for this he is BOOED by the Yankees fans. But remember, Yankees fans are classy. Yep, pure class.
I stand by my prediction that the Yankees will eventually trade him back to the Braves, picking up all of his salary, just to get rid of him.
Sosa + Control = Closer.
No kidding. I really like Sosa and think that was an excellent trade. And with his stuff, he doesn’t need pinpoint accuracy, he just need to be around the plate and he’ll get people out.
ESPN says Wright’s going on the DL with a bad right shoulder, the same one that’s had two operations.
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/recap?gameId=250423110
I think that in Jaret Wright the Braves finally found the perfect dead cat to drop in Yankees’ lap. It is too bad that JS could not have planned it this way. That said, it is too bad about his shoulder.
The Marlins just called up Travis Smith…we’ll be in first place any day now.
Matt,
Why is going to the Yankees “unforgiveable?” Other than kicking the Braves ass in two WS, what have they done to deserve such contempt? Steinbrenner a jerk, but the Yankees are the aristocracy of baseball and, like it or not, almost every player would like to put on the pinstripes at one point or another. Let’s compare Yankee history with Brave history. It sounds like another swipe at New York generally, which is pretty ridiculous coming from a bush league wannabe city like Atlanta. As for Yankee fans having no class, at least they show up which is more than I can say for Braves fans in Atlanta.