ESPN.com – MLB – Recap – Brewers at Braves
Tonight’s hate list: the umpires and Adam Bernero. The umpires kept this game going through a steady rain in the middle innings even though (a) the game was already official, with the Brewers winning, and (b) there was a clear space to play if they’d just shut the game down for an hour. Kevin Gryboski, asked to pitch in the mud, gave up two runs that turned a 4-2 game into a 6-2 game. Bernero continues to suck.
Kyle Davies continues to battle his control; there is no doubt in my mind that when Hudson comes back (quite likely to start the first game after the break) that he should be sent down for his own good. Davies went five, allowed four hits — but walked four, and two of the hits were doubles. He’s pitched around some problems in other games but sooner or later you’re going to get burned unless you strike a lot of people out — which Davies doesn’t do yet — or get a lot of double plays — which he probably never will. The kid has some good stuff and I think he’s got a good head for the game, but he’s simply not as ready for the big leagues as he seemed at first.
Gryboski gave up two runs in the sixth. I don’t like him, as I think everyone knows, but I don’t blame him for it either. The conditions were nasty and the ball was sopping wet, and he had to wait around for twenty-five minutes while the grounds crew worked on the field instead of putting the stupid tarp down. Bernero came in in the seventh and allowed two runs, got through the eighth fine, then gave up another run in the ninth to make it 9-2. Those three runs were the putative difference in the game, since the Braves scored four in the ninth, but the Brewers would have gone to their closer if the game had been closer… as they did, when it got to three runs. Coming into tonight’s atrocity, Bernero was allowing a .277/.320/.394 line with nobody on base, a .337/.386/.483 line with runners on, and a .408/.474/.612 line with runners in scoring position. In other words, once a guy reaches base there’s a good chance he’s going to score, and once he reaches second it approaches a likelihood that he will score. Demote him now, please.
The Braves actually led, 2-1, after the first, getting infield hits from Furcal and Giles, an RBI groundout from Andruw, and a double by LaRoche. But that was it until the ninth. They got some runners on — Sheets allowed eight hits in seven innings — but couldn’t score them, largely because LaRoche’s double was the only extra-base hit they got off him.
The Braves got four off of Matt Wise in the ninth, Johnson’s three-run homer the big blow. But then Derrick Turnbow came in and got out of it. Andruw was 0-5, including making the last out of the game. Betemit had three hits, Giles two and a walk.
Colon versus Chris Capuano tomorrow, weather permitting, which it might not. The two teams’ only common off-dates, other than the break, are the 8th and 19th of September. The Cubs beat the Marlins again, and as you probably know the Phillies beat the Natspos.
Stop the presses, I have a news flash: Adam Bernero can’t pitch! Of course, hindsight is 20/20, but Bobby’s decision (I am assuming) to let him burn innings wound up costing us the game. I’m sure he never guessed that we’d mount a 4-run rally in the bottom of the 9th, given the way our offense had performed to that point (does it seem to anyone else as if Andruw may be hitting another skid?), so I guess my point is that in general, I am against inning-burning unless the score is completely out of control, which it wasn’t, and I am against ever bringing in Adam Bernero unless the situation is the same, which it wasn’t.
There must have been a Bud Selig brain fart memo (okay, cheap shot) this year about not calling rain delays, presumably to save clubs the hassle of issuing/fighting with fans over/immorally withholding rain checks. Tonight was not the only night I’ve seen ridiculous amounts of rain falling and the game continuing. It will probably take a serious injury to get this policy loosened, but this situation, like many others in baseball, is getting out of hand.
I agree with Mac’s point about Kyle Davies. He has been the shakiest of our pitchers after an initial flash of brilliance, and he will probably be demoted, which would be good for him. His control was off tonight and he pitches with WAY too many baserunners. We were due for a pitching meltdown tonight after the last few days, and we got it. Oh, well. We’ll get ’em tomorrow.
Totally unrelated, but why have we heard nothing about Estrada’s punishment? Does anyone else find this odd?
They may be waiting until the All-Star Break, when everybody gets together. It was an unusual situation.
When is the trade deadline?
July 31 for trades without going through waivers. Aug. 31 is the deadline for postseason rosters but there’s a cheat.
Right on the money with the comments about Davies. He’s been a gamer and taken the ball when asked, even twice on short rest, but he clearly does not have the control it takes to pitch every fifth day in a pennent race at this point. With all the grinding he does in almost every inning, I fear that if we don’t get him out of here soon he could hurt himself. Hopefully one of the starters will heal up soon so Davies can get back to double A.
File this game under “Can’t win them all”. Sheets vs Davies is a matchup the Braves could only win maybe 2 out of 10 times, so good move by Bobby to burn the low leverage arms today and try to end the first half on a good note tomorrow. Hopefully Roman can keep the magic going.
At this point, I expect Davies to be sent to AAA when Hudson comes of the DL, and Bernero to be DFAed when Hampton comes back. One of Sosa, Colon, or Ramirez will go to the bullpen.
Marte goes back to AAA when Chipper comes back. Perez and Jordan aren’t coming back.
It’s hard not to think this is the perfect time to send him back out. He showed some good “game”, as it were, and he never really got rocked. It’s easy to see where he needs to improve, so send him out on a positive note with a clear path back. I don’t know how likely it is, but it certainly seems like the reasonable thing to do.
And I second nyb’s concern about injury risk. Much, much too high a percentage of his pitches have been under pressure.
The only downside to sending him out when Hudson comes back is that it would be another passed-over opportunity to dump Bernero. But Hampton apparently thinks he may only be about a week out, so hopefully there will be another chance coming up.
Well, if the game happened last night ( I went to bed. )
I am sure it will happen today, the doppler shows a pretty large gap in the rain.
Didn’t see the game of course because I am here in Houston still (not like I could have seen this in DC), but it seems fair at this point that Davies should be the first one to go.
I say that with the caveat that Hampton is ALSO returning next week because Adam Bernero also has to go. The difference…Davies should be in Richmond and Bernero should never wear any Braves uniform again. That simple. Where’s “fireadambernero.com”?
Again, I am sure this will lead to another back n forth exchange, but Roman Colon (assuming another quality start today, win or lose), should stay in the rotation. That means, Hudson comes back first for Davies (going to Richmond) and Hampton back second for Jorge Sosa who has been a strong reliever. Colon has not.
I mean, we can chat all day long that colon “must have” been hurt or whatever the reason but to me, don’t fix what aint broke. If you have 2 pitchers who have been good as starters, and only one of those pitchers is ALSO good as a reliever, then it’s pretty black & white what has to happen and keeping Colon in the rotation is the way to go. Then, in a month or so, they can re-evaluate when Thomson returns.
Personally, I wish we could trade Thomson when he’s healthy for a closer because I feel like we could leave Colon in the rotation.
Yeah, Thomson could garner some interest.
He is on his option year after all, but he isn’t healthy. hm.