ESPN.com – MLB – Recap – Braves at Giants
Horacio Ramirez pitched six strong innings. Unfortunately, he came out to pitch the seventh, when he allowed three straight hits, capped by a three-run homer to the inexcusible Pedro Feliz. The Braves tied it in the top of the ninth, and lost it in the bottom of that inning, but the seventh was the big one.
Kolb started the ninth, and immediately gave up a single. But then he got a ground ball, which might have gotten him out of it, except that Furcal threw the ball away after getting the first out, letting the batter reach second. Foster came in to get Michael Tucker, and did, but Bobby brought in Powell, who walked the first guy then allowed a game-ending single. (Bobby argued the play at the plate; I won’t judge.)
LaRoche was 2-3, including a homer to tie it in the ninth. Andruw doubled and scored, and also drove in the game’s first run with a groundout. The Braves got a double from Marcus and singles from Furcal, KJ, Estrada, and Ramirez.
Chipper left the game in the seventh with soreness in his foot. They’re not acting like it’s serious, but we shall see… The Natspos won. So did the rest of the division, which is all at .500 or better again. Today’s game is on SportsSouth, scheduled to start at 3:35 ET, Smoltz versus Noah Lowry.
Of course Mac, like you, I didn’t stay up for the final results. I went to bed in the 6th inning and it was 3-1 Braves. It sickens me to have a lead on the road like that late against a BAD team no less and lose it.
And I am sorry, but the Giants ARE a bad team.
Furcal is a showoff and it sounds like he, not Kolbb was the real culprit.
With that said, while I am not completely blasting Kolbb, he did give up the leadoff single and everyone who was ready to jump on his bandwagon, just stop it.
I agree about giving Embree a look but we need to get a real closer in here, stat.
“Furcal is a showoff and it sounds like he, not Kolbb was the real culprit.”
It’s sounds to me like Horacio’s the real culprit. And it’s not like the homer was even to a good hitter — Feliz has power, but he swings at everything, so there’s no reason to throw him a strike. The sooner he’s out of the rotation for good, the better.
No Ks for HoRom. This is the NL, where pitchers bat.
No BBs, now that is good.
And one home run, or as Horacio Ramirez calls it, “the usual.”.
No need to jump off the Kolb bandwagon because of a single and a groundout. But if Cox is going to pull him in a situation like that, he doesn’t have as much confidence in him as I thought… yet.
Is Johnny Estrada physically incapable of blocking the plate? I just saw the replay of the “walkoff single” and had he blocked the plate properly, the guy wouldn’t have scored. That tag was total BS, too. KJ’s throw was as good as you’ll ever see and got there ahead of the runner! I understand that Estrada might be gun-shy after getting pulverized by Erstad, but these kinds of plays directly cause us to lose, and if he can’t suck it up and do his job, he shouldn’t be out there. And he does jack at the plate, too. Trade him and put McCann as the starter. I’m tired of this. I realize the fact that the runner was there at all was the snowball effect of the single, the error, and Powell not pitching great, but come on.
You know, I really don’t know what to do about Chipper. If he still has pain in his foot, that’s not a good sign. It’s not healing like it should, and watching him is nervewracking because I’m afraid he’ll hurt himself every time he moves. The team did okay without him. Maybe he should give it more time.
My impression is that if it’s not healed on its own by now, he needs to have surgery. Now, it might be healed and still hurt, at least after hard use. He maybe should have given it another week of rehab.
On the radio they said Bobby was going to take Chipper out anyways and that is why he came out. The foot is only a little sore, but is getting better.
Jenny is right. Johnny “Cougar” is a wuss. IT reminds me of another sports situation. A few years ago the Tennessee Titans were playing the Baltimore Ravens in a playoff game in Nashville. Eddie George went over the middle about five yards out to catch a pass. That is when Eddie met a man by the name of Ray Lewis, and was knocked cold. Eddie George was never the same player and was scared to take a hit. When the Titans would play the Ravens, George would always stumble before Lewis could hit him again. Lewis would call George out in the media by saying “Eddie is soft!” Lewis was right, he took George’s man hood. Just like Daren Erstad took Johny “Cougar Melencamp” Estrada’s.
For what it’s worth, this is what’s on ajc.com today:
These things are easy to downplay, but it may not be such a big deal.
I watched the entire game because I live out here on the West Coast in Giants country (Yuck). I have been a Braves fan as long as I can remember. Anyway the Braves where living dangerously from about the 6th inning on at least offensively. They could not seem to get the ball out of the infield to save their lives. Schmidt appeared to have his good stuff going early in the game. Furcal actually never tagged the runner with the ball. He had the ball in his throwing hand and simply stood in the way of the runner as the runner was comming down the baseline. The runner bumped him slightly just as he was throwing the ball apparently enough to cause the errant throw. It also appeared that even though Kelly Johnson made a nice throw in to Estrada that he had some difficulty getting the ball out of his glove. It was almost like he double pumped the ball just before making the throw. If he had picked it up cleanly from the beginning and into the act of throwing he could have nailed the guy at the plate by at least 2 steps. It is a game that the Bravos clearly could have won IMO. Maybe Haoracio should be dangled as trade bait????
OFF TOPIC: Is it just me or is Sportcenter’s 50 states in 50 days series the worst piece of garbage/filler on TV right now – I’d rather see hockey higlights.
Kolb did get a double play ball, and the leadoff single was an 80-hopper, so I’m not quite prepared to get off the bandwagon yet. I still believe he’ll be closing next month.
The umpiring behind home plate was pretty bad last night. Culbreth had a wildly inconsistent strike zone, which was never more obvious than in the ninth, when Walker got two very low strikes to punch out Kelly Johnson. Then Powell got squeezed twice on pitches in the same location to Torrealba (but inexplicably got an even lower one called a strike).
Saw this on the Baseball Analysts website’s review of the top prospects:
19. Jeff Francoeur: Atlanta Braves (OF)- 21
AA (SOU): .275/.322/.487, 21/76, 13 SB in 335
“Now in the Majors, Francoeur homered in his first game against the Cubs. He has a bunch of flaws as a player — both contact and selectivity — but makes up for it in raw talent. Still, you have to wonder how long we’ll be justifying walk rates with that comment. The Braves are huge believers in Francoeur, and have all-but-decided that he, Kelly Johnson and Andruw will make up the 2006 outfield. Expect Jeff to have the, by far, worst numbers of the group.”
If the Braves have all but decided that their 06 outfield is set, I would bet we pull another charles thomas and send Langerhans off this winter.
Is everyone happy that McCann will be behind the plate tonight. Johnny is really starting to frustrate me. Did anyone notice last night where Estrada was standing when LaRoche tried to come home w/ a throw, but eventually threw it past Giles. Estrada was about five feet away from the plate. Even if LaRoche had come home with the throw Estrada couldnt have made the play.
All Estrada had to do was get his knee down in the 9th and the game would have continued. Maybe Bobby should let McCann catch for Smoltz and Hudson for the rest of the year
OFF-TOPIC: Does anyone know how long it’s supposed to take to attach *.mov files to e-mail? I’ve been waiting 15 minutes now and I have DSL and nothing’s happening.
It shouldn’t take that long on DSL. Does anyone live in Chattanooga and want to give me an internship in the fall in the Communications field?
If you’re using web email, it may be that your system won’t attach an email that large.
If it comes back an hour from now and says it can’t attach the files, I’ll kick my computer. I think it’ll work, my brother emailed the same files to his own account yesterday but on a supercomputer. 45 minutes and counting…at least it’s not slowing down anything else.
Do the Nats remind anyone of us in 1991? HTye just won’t go away!
As Mac said (this has the makings of a truly terrible pun) Chipper should have gone under the knife 6 weeks ago. Rest eases the pain but doesnt’ solve the problem.
Is Fredi Gonzalez going to be the new Florida manager? Why are our base coaches in such high demand?
As a side note, I want to thank Mac for providing an appropriate forum for me to vent how much I HATE TONY REALI!!!!
I don’t think the Braves will let Fred out of his contract.
Not this year, but what about next year?
Two significant worries at this point:
1. Estrada’s obvious fear of contact at the plate since being mugged by Erstad has now cost the Braves a game; given the current closeness of the division and wild card races, this is not a situation that should be allowed to continue. Move him now, while his trade value is as high as it will ever be.
2. Kelly Johnson’s propensity to take third strikes is emerging once again. Bad umpiring is a fact of major league life–a batter (especially a rookie batter) has to expand his strike zone with two strikes If Bobby continues to set him second in the order, this might become a serious problem.
I think the Marlins will get fire Trader jack in the next few weeks and bring in a guy who has managing experience. I wouln’t be shocked if Lou Pinella came in.
Its not as convinient, but using IM to send a large file may be one of the easiest methods. Otherwise, may I recomment that everyone get Gmail, Picasa, Google Earth, or any other wonderfully superior FREE google software.
I do hate to make ‘Top Gun’ illusions when discussing baseball, but it was far too relevant. I’ll thank all of you for not jumping on a “Maverick” McCann” nickname. That being said, last night was possibly the 2nd game Estrada cost us in the last month. The last one came from RF I believe. I think he’s hurting physically and mentally from that Erstad hit, he probably wakes up in cold sweats, stroking his ‘soul patch’, and hoping no one can tell he’s lost the edge.
Is Gmail faster? I’ve been going nearly 3 hours now on Yahoo and I do have a Gmail account. Does it send files faster or just receive them better, because I’m sending it to a Yahoo account.
BTW, you need an invitation to Gmail, you can’t just sign up. If anybody wants one, give me your email address and I’ll send you an invitation.
That’s a very sad mental picture of Estrada. I hope it’s not true.
Estrada is a pussy
I want one BSmith9215@yahoo.com
Wow. I just checked my Gmail account for the first time in awhile and an email from Alex R. has been sitting in there for a week. Sorry, Alex! I did send you a reply, finally!
The invitation is on its way, Smitty.
Johnny is (hopefully) gone at the end of the year anyway, so if we could get something for him now, great. I think we need to give McCann a shot at starting before we run out of spots in the minors for both him and Saltalamacchia. Both don’t have great defensive reputations, but McCann has always looked at least as good as Estrada in the times I’ve seen him play and he has caught several good starts from Smoltz. His projection is already above-average offensively as an MLB catcher and he’s only going to get better, so we might as well run him out there now.
Jenny, could I please get an invite too.
josh017@hotmail.com
the closer we get to the trade deadline, the more I get the feeling that we won’t be making any big moves.
I really think all the player and position questions we’ve been posing aren’t going to be handled until the offseason. Besides, I bet we could get a whole lot more for much of our trade bait (i.e. LaRoche, HoRam, Estrada) in the winter.
I want a Gmail account!!
themalones@charter.net
Thanks.
Jenny,
If you’re still checking this thread, I’d love a gmail invite.
gtg037d@prism.gatech.edu
Thanks!
I sent you both invites. “Poopy Pants”? Should I take you seriously?