ESPN.com – MLB – Recap – Marlins at Braves
Big win, but maybe a big loss too, as Horacio Ramirez left the game after five innings with an apparent groin sprain suffered running the bases. The Braves got a run in the first on a sac fly by Andruw but kept stranding runners; then they broke through in the fifth.
Kelly Johnson continued to shine, going 3-4 with a walk, scoring twice. Andruw was 2-3 and hit a mammoth homer, the first one ever hit into the upper deck in left, to put the Braves up 4-0 in the fifth and pretty much end things. LaRoche added a homer in the sixth, and Marcus drove in two with a ground rule double in the seventh and then scored on a bases-loaded walk to Jordan, of all people, who also had two hits.
Ramirez was as sharp as he’s been all season, holding the Marlins to three hits and a walk in five, striking out two. But he got hurt running the bases in the fifth, scoring on an outfield error off of Johnson’s single. Hopefully it’s purely precautionary.
Gryboski pitched the sixth; apparently Bobby has finally figured out that he should be used to start innings and not be brought in with runners on base. He was perfect, as were Boyer in the seventh and Brower in the eighth, those two each recording strikeouts. Boyer was particularly impressive, pitching to the heart of the Marlins’ order and making them look bad. His control’s still not what it should be but his stuff is for real.
Kolb can’t pitch at all. Used in just about the easiest situation you can imagine — at home, against a demoralized team, against guys with no power, with an 8-0 lead — he immediately gave up a double and then walked the next guy. Marcus bailed him out with a great DP and another play on the final out of the game. Kolb’s just atrocious, and I don’t know why they don’t do something about him. (Acronym of the day: K‘s Only Loser Batters.)
One thing that makes this a big win is that Dontrelle Willis goes for the Marlins tomorrow. (Night game, TBS.) Even if Sosa continues to shine as a starter, it’s a tough matchup. Also, the Natspos won and the Phillies have a big lead.
I live in Tampa and what maybe worse than Fox Sports Braves Announcers (who I listened to all last season living in Columbia, SC) are the Fox Sports Marlins Announcers. They sound like they are reading the news on a bad public radio show.
I would like to state for the record that not all FSN local announcers suck: Detroit’s Mario Impemba and Rod Allen are both very good.
Detroit may have good announcers on FSN, but that doesn’t do me any good!
Seriously, though, I’m really not happy with the way the Braves announcers are being used on TBS/TS/96rock. I liked it better when they switched radio and TV teams in the middle of the game. I can only handle so much Joe Simpson or Don Sutton at one sitting.
While I agree that Kolb is sucking, I hardly call a weak ground ball as a “bail out”. A bail out would be if the guy hit a bullet and he made a great play.
It’s clear that Kolb is never going to be a pitcher we can trust with a one-run lead. The question is whether he’ll be a pitcher we can trust with a three-run lead. And I think the jury’s still out on that. Unlike Gryboski, he *does* get a lot of double play balls.
Another acronym:
Fast (Under Right Conditions) Age Liar
Very, very nice.
OK, this is the funniest thing I’ve seen all week. Well, ok, the funniest non-political thing. These guys actually miss Paciorek.
I remember watching Harrelson and Paciorek when they were together doing White Sox games. Absolute torture. But they’re right. Ken Harrelson is the worst broadcaster ever. He’s much much much worse than Paciorek. He’s worse as a broadcaster than he was as a GM. And that is saying an awful lot.
The only FSN announcers I can stand are the guys that do the Cleveland Indians games. One is Rick Manning, I’m not sure who the other one is. They are really good. (I have the MLB Extra Innings pkg – got it so I could watch the Braves when they are on TSouth) The absolute worst are the announcers for the White Sox and the Mariners. They actually make it painful to listen to/watch the games.
We have two FSNs around here, one for the Dodgers and one for the Angels. The Dodgers have Vin Scully of course and the Angels have a Steve Physioc/Rex Hudler combo. Can’t complain.
Watching the Dodgers tonight, the Padres started our old friend Robert Fick at catcher (did know he could still do it). Wouldn’t mind seeing someone go Darin Erstad on him.
Of course, the Dodgers would be starting Paul Bako at catcher but he blew out his knee. If you haven’t heard, DePodesta claims he’s “solved” Catcher ERA and that Bako’s great at calling games. I’m skeptical myself.
Mac, I hadn’t heard that, and I’m very curious. I’m sure the details are classified, but do you remember where you heard it mentioned?
No, I don’t. It was just a couple of days ago, right before Bako got hurt.
I hadn’t heard that either. I wonder what his numbers show about Jason Phillips. Phillips and DLowe did everything but come to blows in working last night’s game. A couple of times Phillips started to approach the mound and Lowe gave him the old “I don’t need to hear anything you have to say” wave off. Lowe ended up with a decent night but it seemed more inspite of Phillips than because of him.
Anyway, your right to be skeptical. Any system that results in Paul Bako getting the bulk of your time behind the plate should be looked at with a critical eye.
If I didn’t state this earlier, I think Horacio should be fine. Apparently, from what I have read, his leaving was strictly precautionary and the Braves were already dominating the game at that point so I really think Bobby was just being careful–a good idea considering we are trying to stay in the race with 3 starters injured.
I forwarded Mac this article yesterday by Tim Kurkjian:
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/story?columnist=kurkjian_tim&id=2091859
From what Timmy is saying, we should have Hudson back in the next week of two.
This is good news, but I think we all hope we get the Timmy from April and not the one from May. At least we can have a 5-man rotation and allow Sosa to continue to pitch solidly.
As for the rotation in its current state, I think it’s extremely important that Bobby & JS get someone up there for 1-2 starts. Not only was I not a fan of Smoltz’s 122 pitch count the other night, I am also not a fan of back to back 3 day resting situations for our soon-to-be-burned out staff.
Between Seth Greisinger, Chuck James or any number of kids in Richmond or Mississippi, there’s got to be someone who can handle 1-2 starts for the Braves and pitch well enough giving us a chance to win.
With the possible exception of tonight vs. Dontrelle, the good news we can all safely say now is that we no longer have to FEEL like we are going to go game to game scoring 1 run a night. We may not score 8 every night, but assuming Kelly Johnson, Betemit, Andruw, Estrada, McCann and all these different guys keep consistently hitting, then we can focus on our biggest problems: DAN KOLBB and injuries.
My favorite acronym; it’s been used twice:
Found Under Rented Car, Acting Loopy. Totally Rude And Denies Ever Having Injuries Mending.
I hope you’re right about Hudson, Alex. Hampton was speculating in the print version of the ajc this morning that his (Hampton’s) injury might be more serious than first believed. Sounds like they’re still playing the wait-and-see game with him…
On a brighter note, Kelly Johnson’s got his OPS over .800 with an OBP of .390. Wow!
This was in the Toronto Sun this morning –
Jim Fregosi of the Atlanta Braves.
Fregosi, the right arm of GM John Schuerholz, has seen Lilly’s back-to-back, quality starts.
The Braves have the greatest need with three starters on the disabled list: Tim Hudson (oblique muscle strain), Mike Hampton (left forearm) and John Thomson (left foot).
Jim Fregosi? Right arm? Can I just say ewwww?
only one problem with the kolbus acronym;
(Acronym of the day: K’s Only Loser Batters)
I don’t even think he could strike out little league batters at this point. I’d take my 8 yr old niece any day against kolb to get on base. She could probably do it blindfolded and just with letting 4 pitches go by.
I love Skip, Don, Joe, Pete, and I can stand Chip. Paciorek sucks and so does Rathburn, but creynolds link is right, the Hawk does suck. The worst both possible would be: McCarver, The Hawk, Rathburn, and (I’ll probably be alone on this) Joe Morgan.
On another note, Paciorek was molested by a priest when he was a child. I feel sorry for him and that’s why I don’t mute the TV when he is on.
For those of you who hate Tom Paciorek, you obviously don’t remember who he replaced: Al Downing. I’d rather pound my balls flat with a wooden hammer, than listen to another game called by Al.
Ditto on McCarver, Hawk, and Morgan being horrid.
I’m just thankful that no one lets Bill Walton call baseball games. 🙂
Remember Erinie Johnson? Ugh! Maybe when Al Litter retires after this season we can get him. We have owned him over the last few seasons anyways.
Smitty, I hope you mean Johnson, Jr. Old man Ernie was great, but that’s certainly as much, or more, emotional as it is objective.
I like Joe Morgan and Jon Miller. Joe Morgan alone or with anyone else is a completely different story, though.
The thing I hate about Morgan is he won’t stop talking about how great he was. Don’t get me wrong, Joe Morgan is in the top 5 of all second basemen of all time, and the Big Red Machine was outstanding,but tone it down.
McCarver’s biggest problem is he thinks he was great too. McCarver was a good catcher, but not as good as he would like to think he was. Morgan has two MVP’s to back him up. I couldn’t stand it last year when McCarver kept cutting off Al and trying to give a ptiching lesson to an All-Star pitcher. He is just full of himself.
I cant stand to listen to Joe Morgan either, but hey, at least he isnt Billy Sample 🙂
The Fox guys for the Astros & Rangers are pretty good. I haven’t had any problems with them. Not sure of all of their names, the Ranger analyst is Tom Grieve.
Totally agree about Hawk, Morgan with anyone except Miller (who’s pretty good about keeping him on track), and Mc****head. He’s got to be the worst.
Harold Reynolds has been doing a surprising good job with the CWS, I’d like to see him leave the joke of BBTN and be one of ESPN’s regular analysts.
Might kill two birds with one stone there, John. HR is part of the problem with BBTN. But there is still a lot to like about him. I haven’t been watching any of the CWS this year… yet. But I do recall him doing a good job. He’s aggrivating as all hell trying to do the big picture thing in the studio, but he’s got the little details that make for a good broadcaster down.
quote from tim mccarver, “you’re a real man deion”.
quote from me, “you suck tim”.
sorry wrong page! totally irrevelant to this page.
no, right page…i didnt take my medication. sorry for so many blogs