ESPN.com – MLB – Recap – Braves at Phillies
Big win. The Braves trailed 3-0 until the seventh, but rallied back to win, the first time they’ve won after trailing by three or more runs this year.
The hitting hero (for my money) was Ryan Langerhans, who doubled, tripled, and walked. In the seventh, he doubled with Estrada on first. Estrada scored on Julio’s groundout, then Langerhans on a wild pitch. In the ninth, he tripled off a porch in right — off of Billy Wagner, no less — and scored on Betemit’s flyout to give the Braves the lead. Maybe Langerhans will get some starts against lefties now. In between, Andruw doubled home Giles in the eighth.
Jorge Sosa gave up the homer, but that was the only hit he allowed. Unfortunately, he walked four, though he also struck out four. Giving up three runs on one hit is pretty impressive, though. Foster replaced him with one out and one on in the sixth, and had a strikeout and a walk. Gryboski finished the inning.
Kolb pitched the seventh — a one run game, mind you. He allowed a leadoff hit but got the next three, capped with a strikeout. Brower gave up a hit and a walk but had a caught stealing in the middle to get out of it, picking up the win. Reitsma’s control wasn’t his sharpest but he got two flyouts and a game-ending strikeout for the save.
The Natspos won by — well, you know. Look at it this way — the Braves picked up two games on the Cubs for the wildcard! (FWIW, the Braves are 1 1/2 up on the Marlins in that, even in the loss column.) The Braves now face those Cubs for four in Atlanta. Kerry Wood will face Davies tomorrow, but perhaps more interestingly, on Tuesday Greg Maddux will pitch in Atlanta for the first time in a year and a half. I expect that he’ll get a warmer reception than Tom Glavine’s gotten used to.
As expected, Smoltz and Andruw made the All-Star team. I wonder if Bobby might think about starting Smoltz on three day’s rest on the Sunday before the break, which would probably hold him out of the game.
as much as i hate to say it, i think dan kolb is going to be a key for the braves success the rest of the year. getting him pitching decently would go a long way toward solidifying the bullpen. seeing him throw well tonight was a good sign. after the single, he looked like he tried to reach back and throw 120 again, but seemed to settle down a little.
I think you are right, Dan Kolbb is the key…the day the Braves get RID OF HIM it will be the key to our success. How long are you people going to hold out for him?
Screw the wild card…when are those damned Natspos going to lose already. I am SICK to death of them already.
Nats are 26-6 since they played Atlanta last. Chad Cordero is a big reason why they are 5 1/2 games up on the Braves. If Hampton and Hudson return Sosa would be valuable in the bullpen. I still don’t see anybody on the roster who looks like a good closer. Maybe Sosa. If JS does pick up some bullpen help please no Tom Martins
Somebody needs to give Jon Miller pronunciation lessons. Wilson Baytemit? Rafael Foorcal? Ondruw Jones? It drove me crazy all night, plus my neighbors seem not to know it’s only July 3 and they have been yelling and screaming and playing salsa music and burning something even though it’s past midnight.
But small peeves aside, what a fantastic game, once we got to the 7th inning! These kinds of games are why I love baseball. I was on the edge of my chair all night. Sosa wasn’t so bad except for the one bomb that wouldn’t have gone out in any other park. Our real problem was not capitalizing on Tejeda’s problems, of which there were many. This game should have been 9-3, but we won and it was more interesting this way! Thank you, Mike Lieberthal, for dropping that easy relay throw that beat Marcus by 20 feet and letting him score. Thank you so much! And thank you, Urbina, for the timely wild pitch. Fantastic. And thank you, Chris Reitsma, for having a 1-2-3 9th! And Dan Kolb, for working out of his own mini-jam and pitching well. I’m starting not to dislike him so intensely anymore. And especially, thank you to the umps for not screwing up that call, even though it was probably accidental! What a fabulous game. I’m still in shock.
Congratulations to Andruw, even though he should have been a starter and everybody knew it. I feel bad for Rolen. He knows Ensberg should have his spot. What a dilemma.
Jason Michaels arrested for slugging a cop? Brilliant.
Happy Fourth, everybody (at least in my time zone!)!
Cordero blew his first save in a long time tonight — naturally, they won anyway. Good to see the Braves stage a comeback – had they lost their 4th in 5 games they would be officially on the skids.
Too bad about Furcal’s knee — he was just starting to fight his way out of his season-long slump. Ordinarily he’d have gotten to that single by Abreu, though he probably wouldn’t have thrown him out.
Incidentally, I’ve endeavored to hand out some midseason grades. You can find them here. Comments and insults welcome.
I agree…once we get all our starters back healthy:
Smoltz, Hampton, Hudson, Thomson & Davies rotation.
Bullpen:
Reitsma, Foster, Sosa, Ramirez, Boyer, Gryboski, Brower.
Out:
Kolbb, Bernero, Colon (to farm as starter).
If Thomson stays hurt, Ramirez stays in the rotation and I would either go 6 relievers (my preference) or even give Colon another shot in the pen.
Either way, I would like to see KOLBB AND BERNERO off the roster alltogether.
I think Miller is trying to comply with an ESPN directive to pronounce names as they “should” be pronounced, as they would in language and country of origin. Of course, he can’t, and they sound stupid in English, which is why people don’t pronounce them that way. I have no idea where he gets “Forcal” from.
If you listen to SportsCenter, all the ESPN “professionals” (as opposed to the ex-players) pronounce it “Ondroo”. That Andruw doesn’t prefer that pronounciation doesn’t enter into it.
BAYT-eh-mit is the correct Spanish pronunciation of the name. He’s getting close with Furcal, too – it should sound something like FURE-cal, with the “ure” sounding like naturalist John Muir’s last name. I’ve never understood “Ondrew” Jones, either; I blame Tim McCarver. Why would the U in his last name make the A sound differently? Perhaps that’s how they say it in Papiamento.
If you listen to SportsCenter, all the ESPN “professionals” (as opposed to the ex-players) pronounce it “Ondroo”. That Andruw doesn’t prefer that pronounciation doesn’t enter into it. I thought he said a while back that he did prefer that pronounciation, and that is where it came from.
Miller’s pronunciation of Furcal is correct, though I think he enjoys drawing it out a bit. Spanish vowels have one, and only one, pronunciation each.
ah, ay, ee, oh, oo
So sayeth Senora Echave, my ninth grade Spanish teacher. If someone knows differently, I’d love to see a source.
I guessed they were trying to do “correct” pronunciation, but they should just go with the flow and do what everybody else does, because it’s distracting, at least to me and my small brain. Ya basta!
Hilarious look Chipper gave the camera after his interview. His interviews make me laugh for some reason (not as much as Andy “What DOES victory smell like, exactly?” Roddick). My mom said he looked like a sleepy camel…
Perhaps “Andruw” is the Dutch form of Andrew? The name is “Andres” in Spanish and “Andre” in French, and in both cases the A is pronounced “ah,” but I don’t know any Dutch.
Sansho, I’m surprised you hadn’t heard of KJ before. He’s been a prospect since his monster year in Macon a few years back (2001, I think) when he hit .290/.400/.510 as a 19-year-old shortstop. It’s a shame that Brad doesn’t have time to write No Pepper any more – so much harder to follow the Braves prospects now. If you’re reading this, Brad, know that a lot of folks miss all the excellent work you did every day 🙂
My understanding (this is from some years back) is that he says that it’s pronounced “Andrew”, that it sounds more like “Ondroo” when he says it because it’s his accent but in English use the standard English pronounciation. Which is sensible. You can’t go around changing the way every name sounds to its country of origin, because it sounds stupid. I think “Andruw” is just a local spelling or family spelling. Google it; every link, other than a couple of cybersquatters, is to our Andruw.
Rafael’s last name should be something like “Foor-call” but that’s not what Miller says. He always has the first syllable sound like “four”, so “four-call”, or even “forkle”. The Betemit pronounciation is probably as close as an English speaker can reach, but it’s a lot of effort for little gain.
Spanish-speakers pronounce my name “Mock” because they can’t handle the English “a” sound.
Not that it really means anything(and I haven’t watched many games since mid-June because I’ve been in Omaha for the CWS) but Kolb was throwing 91-92 instead of 94-96 like at the begining of the season(which completely took me off guard when he started to do that). If(and it’s a big if) Kolb starts t pitch more effectively, maybe he was throwing so hard that he was losing some of the sink on his fastball? More likely he just sucks, but there is always the possibility.
Cheap salsa band is still at it. It is now 12:50 AM. So here’s a new question: Is the HR Derby stupid or should we keep it? It seems to have no meaning and just makes players tired. I know few people who watch it and it’s organized badly, even worse this year (nationalism? Come on). I say dump it.
I love the home run derby and the slam dunk contest and stupid things like that. The problem in my eyes with both is that they are too drawn out with all the commercials and competitors. Limit it to four people at the start and try to do it with as few breaks as possible. Not likely (especially if FOX is televising an event) but that’s my perspective.
I’ve always heard the Spanish “u” as the oo in “room” (i.e. flume or tomb) instead of the oo in the word “floor” (i.e. for or tour). And now I’m done talking about pronunciation.
The dumbest-sounding thing I heard Miller say was “The Braves are 44-37, only seven games over .500 which is unusual for them . . . usually by this time of the season they’re well on their way to winning 100 games.”
Like last year I guess, when they were 40-41 at the half-way point.
Just got back from the game a little while ago, and god am I glad I didn’t have to put up with the ESPN announcers tonight. Not that putting up with Phillies fans is any better…
Well, even though it sounds awful, I would imagine that most people like some sort of effort to pronounce a name correctly.
I walk around with the name “rafael castillo,” which is almost NEVER pronounced correctly. People can’t handle the diphthong in rafael, although most feel that “ae” is pronouned as “ee” although it sounds nothing like that. as for my last name, it usually turns into “castilio” or something that effect.
It’s always a pleasure (albeit small because I’ve gotten so used to bad pronunciation) to hear proper pronunciation, and so, I would imagine that any effort would be appreciated by the players as well, no matter where they’re from.
I remember the Braves announces explaining once the Eddie Perez went by “Eddie” because he hated the way it sounded when people pronounced “Eduardo” incorrectly.
I love Jon Miller, but I do keep my expectations for informative commentary low. He somehow manages to make Joe Morgan seem both informative and entertaining, which is quite an accomplishment knowing what it’s like to listen to (or, much worse, read) Joe Morgan alone.
Didn’t everybody pronounce Andruw that way before (and shortly after) he came up? He may have just given up on it like Eddie did because a butchered attempt at the correct pronunciation was more frustating than just have people say as they normally would? I don’t know… it just seems like it was always that way for everybody when he was talked about as a prospect and when he first came up.
As for Andrew, can we start pronouncing him “MVP”?
Special note to those who didn’t see it: Johnny threw a bullet to nail Abreu trying to steal. Just Beautiful! Abreu is just plain dangerous!
The Cubs are reeling from an extra-inning heartbreaker. Don’t let’em up!
Just read on ESPN that J.D. Drew broke his wrist…..ok, everone all together….”AWWWWWWWWW…..”
I heard Nick Johnson is on the DL list. What is it?
He’s on the DL from being sick of winning so much.
That, or a heel contusion.
The throw to second saved the game for us. What a beautiful play by Johnny–Marcus didn’t even have to move his glove.
Nick Johnson is on the DL with a “bruised heel.” This morning’s Washington Post, instead of congratulating the 4 Orioles (Tejada, Roberts, Ryan, and Mora) and 2 Natspos (Cordero, Hernandez) who made the All-Star team, spent 2 pages whining about how Johnson and Jose Guillen weren’t All-Stars. I’m sorry. Johnson is a 1B. Derrek Lee and Albert Pujols are 1Bs as well. There is no comparison. And Jose Guillen? Please. I hate our paper. People started whining about how the O’s got too much coverage so now they are buried somewhere on page E5 while the Nats are on the front. What a pile of BS.
Poor JD Drew. He should come back to Atlanta. Everything worked fine for him here.
My last word on the pronunciation thing: it’s okay, I guess, that Jon Miller is attempting to pronounce guys’ names “correctly”. But when Andruw’s own MOTHER calls them to tell them it’s Andrew, not Ondroo, what are they doing?
The throw to second saved the game for us. What a beautiful play by Johnny–Marcus didn’t even have to move his glove.
Nick Johnson is on the DL with a “bruised heel.” This morning’s Washington Post, instead of congratulating the 4 Orioles (Tejada, Roberts, Ryan, and Mora) and 2 Natspos (Cordero, Hernandez) who made the All-Star team, spent 2 pages whining about how Johnson and Jose Guillen weren’t All-Stars. I’m sorry. Johnson is a 1B. Derrek Lee and Albert Pujols are 1Bs as well. There is no comparison. And Jose Guillen? Please. I hate our paper. People started whining about how the O’s got too much coverage so now they are buried somewhere on page E5 while the Nats are on the front. What a pile of BS.
Poor JD Drew. He should come back to Atlanta. Everything worked fine for him here.
My last word on the pronunciation thing: it’s okay, I guess, that Jon Miller is attempting to pronounce guys’ names “correctly”. But when Andruw’s own MOTHER calls them to tell them it’s Andrew, not Ondroo, what are they doing?
Mac, what is going on with this delayed posting? Which “abusive users” are we talking about? I didn’t do anything, did I?
What’s happening with this delayed posting? Is it just me?
Oh, there’s my other comment. It didn’t show up even after I refreshed my browser 5 times so I added the above. Sorry, guys. But my question still stands!
It’s not you. For some reason, some comments aren’t showing up until someone else posts one. I have a message in about it, so hold on.
Okay, thanks. Sorry, guys, for the double post!
I think Joe Morgan and Jon Miller do a pretty good job, but they talk in general too much. It’s obvious that Miller is told, or probably was told many years ago, to fill every single moment of dead-air with futile filler chat. They always have to get about a dozen sub-plots going on each Sunday broadcast. I can’t count how many times ESPN has done a short feature on Andruw’s new wide stance. They also kept talking about Betetmit’s “relaxed” approach to fielding. He made one smooth play, then missed a transfer, and suddenly he’s too relaxed and it cost him. That’s very shallow and uninteresting commentary, clearly an example of the announcers reaching for material. The TBS guys are much better at allowing the pace and sounds of the game to dictate the broadcast. Someone should tell them that we want to at least here SOME sounds of the actual game, or at least that I do.
My pet peeve is Joe Morgan. He’s been doing these games for 15 or 16 years and, apparently, has never seen fit to take any kind of broadcasting course (or course, he’s not a journalist as he keeps telling us). He drives me crazy with all the “you knows.” And while I enjoy his knowledge of the inner game (eg, how to turn a double play), his lack of knowledge of the “meta-game”, such as how to put teams together and his obvious contempt for any kind of statistics makes me wonder why do people like Morgan other than he was a great player and seems like a nice guy.