ESPN.com – MLB – Recap – Braves at Mets
Smoltz and Glavine battled to a draw, but Boom-Boom Bobby Hernandez allowed a two-out run-scoring single in the eighth, and the Braves won on the night John got his 2500th strikeout.
Smoltz was obviously not 100 percent, his hamstring apparently bothering him again, but he pitched effectively other than a second-inning homer to David Wright. (When are we going to deck that kid?) He allowed but four other hits in seven innings, walked one, and struck out five, putting him at 2,501.
Tommy was almost as impressive, his second good start against the Braves ever, I think. He walked four (two intentional) in seven, allowing six hits, and striking out but two. But in prime Glavine style he pitched around a ton of baserunners. (He doesn’t believe in the DIPS Gods.)
Furcal tripled in McCann in the third to tie the game. But after that it was baserunner after baserunner left on. In the eighth, Marcus and Andruw got on with nobody out, but Julio grounded into a double play. (He was hitless, and the Juliometer stays fixed.) But Betemit came through with a bad-hop single for the eventual winning run. (It was vindication after he’d been robbed of a hit by Reyes with two out and the bases loaded his last AB.)
Andruw was 1-2 with two walks; the one time he made an out he just missed a homer. Furcal, Francoeur, and McCann all had two hits.
Kolb let the leadoff man on in the eighth but got a double play. The same thing happened to Reitsma, who then let a ball go to the warning track off the bat of — sigh — Wright — but the park just held it.
The Natspos are, naturally, winning by one run in the seventh. The Marlins and Phillies are still playing in a slugfest… Turner South tomorrow night, Hudson versus Zambrano.
Joe Simpson had a chat with Smoltz and Tommy before the game, during which Smoltz stated he “took it personally” when Glavine gets booed in Atlanta. I wonder if folks would keep doing it if they knew that members of their own team didn’t like it . . .
Carlos Lee just homered for Milwaukee to tie the Nats in the bottom of the eighth!
Oh, and screw Tom Glavine. He has that extra contract year to keep him warm down there in last place.
Here’s the Win Expectancy Chart for the game along with some details.
http://joshengleman.info/071505.jpg
Five Most Important At-Bats:
1. Bottom of the Ninth, Reitsma pitching, Piazza grounds into double play. P Value = .349
2. Top of the Eighth, Hernandez pitching, Franco grounds into double play. P Value = .283
3. Bottom of the Eighth, Kolb pitching, Cameron grounds into double play. P Value = .253
4. Bottom of the Ninth, Reitsma pitching, Floyd singles to center. P Value = .194
5. Top of the Eighth, Hernandez pitching, Andruw Jones singles to left. P Value = .185
Batter of the Game: Rafael Furcal (.269 WPA)
Pitcher of the Game: Chris Reitsma (.146 WPA)
Worst Brave of the Game: Julio Franco (-.229 WPA)
I guess that answers my question.
Why do I feel like I’m being solicited?
Yeah, really. Who would do a thing like that?
Stanton balked in the winning run!
Stanton just lost the game for the Natspos by BALKING home the guy on third. Freakin’ incredible!
Our old pal Mike Stanton balked in the winning run in the 10th to give Milwaukee a 4-3 win over Washington. Braves now trail by 1 1/2 games in the East.
HI-larious. Welcome to Washington Mike Stanton.
The Braves don’t have to make any trades. Just let the other teams make bonehead moves like the ‘Spos have done.
They just showed it on ESPN. HILARIOUS!
Hello All. I’m a Braves fan living in NYC and was at the game tonight. Chatted up some Mets fans behind me who were quite gracious in spite of my Braves cap. When Kolb came in they clapped me on the back and said “well, you’re going to give it back now…” I cringed through the 8th, and the best they could say after it was over was…”if we can’t knock Kolb around maybe we do suck!!”
I was surprised to learn that Kolb was appreciated on a national level. Maybe his blog is catching on…
Wait, I just got here – how did the Nationals lose tonight?
Just kidding.
Tell me why kelly can’t hit these days
He gets sulky
are you there? ,,click the 3rd photo
Did the people who saw the Nats highlights think it was a balk by Stanton? I thought his front foot went behind his back leg and thus the rubber, meaning he had to throw home, so when he went to first, it was a balk. However, they didn’t show it from a good side angle so I’m not sure. But now they know how it feels to be robbed by the umps, and they aren’t happy at all. Ha ha! Preston Wilson had another RBI, delaying the FO’s realization that he is, in fact, Preston Wilson, but all good things must come to an end. We are now 1.5 games out of first!
I didn’t get the game, so I’m happy we won, and I would like to announce that I SAW PALMEIRO GET HIS 3000th HIT! It was really, really cool.
Hey Jenny thats cool!!!!! I saw Nolan Ryan beat up Robin Ventura, almost as cool. Well I am glad we didn’t get Stanton to run the pitching machine. Maybe Steve Karsay will come open…
I don’t know what is a balk. Stanton moved his hands up, as if to start his delivery, stopped, and then threw to first.
Pitching machines can’t balk, Smitty 🙂
Is Jose Reyes okay? I saw the highlights on SC and it looked pretty nasty. Of course, I saw Luis Matos tear the skin of his finger off the bone in May on a bad bunt, so I’m used to it, but the guy let us win. Hope he’s okay!
I’m concluding Marcus was actually sick. He didn’t look too great tonight either, and unless he got plastered again last night, I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt. It’s strange we haven’t heard anything about it, though. Kinda fishy
From the AP.
Watching it on ESPN, I saw what Weeks and the ump saw. In my mind, it was pretty clear.
By the way, I think we were all underestimating how much Furcal’s shoulder was bothering him. Hopefully he can keep this up for the rest of the year…
That’s a pretty funny picture of Kelly, braves rule. He’s been looking at too many close pitches with two strikes, IMHO. So now, he’s not walking as much and striking out more. I think he’ll straighten it out soon.
My wife is so antsy to dive into Harry Potter – she’s looking out the window for the UPS truck. What a strange phenomenon.
There’s a pretty funny picture of KJ on AJC, too, a ways down the page, looking like he just saw a 4-foot cockroach on third base or something.
Since I read faster than my brother, I get the Harry Potter book first, but I have to read the whole thing in a day or he’ll take it. 672 pages. I read number 5 in a day and got a huge migraine, but it was worth it. I can’t wait.
I was at the Brewers Nats game last night and I have to say that it was definetly a balk. My wife sitting next to me had no clue what had just happened and why the crowd was going crazy. It took twenty minutes for me to explain what a balk was and why the runner from third got to walk home. Of course I also had to explain why Frank Robinson has no reason to complain about umpires and rules when he had benefitted so blatantly earlier in the season on the phantom home run call. Other then that it was great to see the 2-1 score come up in favor of the Braves, although I had in the back of my mind that they were going to lose with their offense scoring the way it has lately.
Kyle S,, I didn’t expect your kindness.I really appreciate it.^^ I’m nervous recently. In fact I couldn’t do anything because I got hurt in the right shoulder.As soon as I saw a picture of kelly , it made me laugh.Such was my intention.HaHa.It is well preserved in my laptop.^^I wish every happiness with your wife.^^