ESPN.com – MLB – Box Score – Pirates at Braves
Hey, let’s play the “Lose Your Baserunners” game! Tim Hudson, somehow, hit into two double plays, which is really hard to do when you’re supposed to be bunting most of the time. So not getting run support is partly Hudson’s own fault.
Also his fault, allowing homers to the likes of Jose Castillo — a two-run shot to give the Pirates the lead in the sixth — and Chris Duffy. With Matt Lawton gone, the Pirates have only two real power threats, but they aren’t those two guys. Hudson left after getting one out in the seventh, having given up four runs on eight hits. The good news was that he struck out five and walked only one, and pitched out of a couple of jams that weren’t his fault. Foster, Brower, and McBride did great work out of the pen, especially McBride, who struck out two in the eighth.
The Braves aren’t going to score many runs when the Joneses go 0-8, especially when Furcal joins them to go 0-12. Marcus had a hit and a walk, and Julio had two hits, so even a hit apiece by the big guns might have made a big difference. Langerhans also had two hits. Francoeur had a double, later scoring the Braves’ only run on Estrada’s double, but after that the Pirates figured out that you should never throw him a strike and handled him.
The Marlins (the team I’m really concerned about in the division) play tonight, and the rest of the division is off today. The Braves now leave for their annual sauna trip, three games in Cincinnati and three in St. Louis. At least they don’t have Astroturf anymore. Tomorrow night’s game is on Turner South, Sosa against Ramon Ortiz, who has a 5.84 ERA this year and whose middle name is “Diogenes”. I think he carries a lantern around in search of a reliable breaking pitch.
I actually think the Mets are equally scary, if not more so, than the Marlins. Their starting pitching has been solid, and they have a reasonable closer. Their bats have been cold, but if they heat up (Wright, Beltran, Cameron, Floyd), it could get ugly.
The Phillies have no pitching and the Nats have no bats, but the Mets and Marlins both look balanced and dangerous.
I am more scared of us being the only team from the NL East to make the Playoffs and then we will be forced to play the Astros in the 1st round.
Right now, ANYONE but Houston…I would even rather play St. Louis.
Frankly, I hope the Mets or marlins or Phils or Nats beat out Houston…then we it’s the best of all scenarios because the Cards would play the “other” NL East team while we would get the NL West winner almost assuredly putting us in the NLCS for the first time since, what, 1999?
We just have to avoid playing HOUSTON at all costs in the Playoffs. Our shaky, inconsistent lineup against those 3 starters. Yikes.
What many folks may not have noticed is that the race for the best record in the league has gotten an awful lot closer lately. I don’t think it’s a forgone conclussion that the Cardinals will end up with the best record.
That almost certainly won’t matter until the NLCS, though. The wildcard isn’t coming out of the west.
Oh, that’s right. I keep forgetting that it isn’t best record against worst record.. it’s best record against wild card team. Never mind.
Unless the wild card is in the same division as the best record. Either way, if the Braves win the division, they’ll either play the NL West or a Central Division the wild card – presumably Houston.
As long as I’m here – anyone else think Francoeur should bat 3rd? If we want him to keep seeing hittable pitches, perhaps he should bat in front of Chipper and Andruw instead of 7th (as he has against RHPs). Perhaps that will slow down the cooling off process.
Who cares about the Mets? They are 8 games back
Catching the end of the Rome show on ESPN, I see Patrick McEnroe filling in for Rome. I didn’t know it was allowed on ESPN to have someone who actually has a job in sports (captain of the U.S. Davis Cup team) to be a talking head.
I thought they only employed retired players, failed front office personnel, and loud sportswriters.
Davis Cup captain isn’t really a demanding job, and he does a lot of tennis commentary.
U.S. Davis Cup captain sure isn’t a demanding job THIS year.
Oh! Snap! Nobody knows what I’m talking about because no one watches Davis Cup!
Jay Williams had a job at ESPN during at least part of his rehab. So has Grant Hill.
I got it… The hardest part of being Davis Cup captain is having to follow Andy Roddick around. “Come on, Andy, play. You know you want to. I’ll be your best friend!”
And, of course, the praying that you don’t have to play a tie on clay.
Charlie Stiener is on CNN talking to Wolf Blitzer about steroids. There’s something weird about seeing the two of them next to each other. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but it’s very uncomfortable (although it is better than the blog report).
He must not have prayed hard enough. Again.
Malisse and the Rochus brothers shouldn’t be that challenging. Total, they can’t be more than 15 feet tall. Still, on clay, McEnroe had better pray Agassi’s feeling like a European getaway late next month.
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=insidedishbravesmadepitc&prov=tsn&type=lgns
Anyone else see this?
The Braves made a run at Rangers 2B Alfonso Soriano, offering 2B Marcus Giles, RHP Jorge Sosa and a pitching prospect for Soriano and OF Kevin Mench. The Braves would have had a difficult time parting with Sosa, acquired from the Devil Rays at the end of spring training for IF Nick Green. Sosa was 4-1 with a 2.63 ERA in his first nine starts after leaving the bullpen. …
JoeyT, saw it, didn’t believe it. Still don’t.
I buy it completely. There’s almost no way Texas accepts that deal because Mench is a stud, they have a 2B on the way and as much success as Sosa has had this year, he has to be viewed with some skepticism. But it would at least be interesting to see what kind of response you get from a suggestion like that. I mean, really, if Texas was actually open to trading Mench, why wouldn’t you want to know that?
xdog, the name of the commenter is below the message, not above. I didn’t post that message.
I also don’t believe it. It makes zero sense for the Braves.
Mench isn’t a stud. He’s okay, and he puts up stud numbers in Arlington.
OK, that was a bit of an exaggeration. But I still think that if he’s even potentially available, you want to know that. The only difference between his home and road numbers this year appears to come down to about seven hits. Last year, he did show more difference in home/road splits though.
I just wrote a long piece on the subject. The trade makes no sense for the Braves unless they were going to flip Soriano elsewhere.
The Braves front office always keeps the trade talks and possibilities pretty close to their chest. Wouldn’t surprise me if they put out a little bit of disinformation every now and then.
Sorry for the mis-attribution, JoeyT.
Sorry I missed the credit, piers.
Sorry I have trouble coping with this layout.