ESPN.com – MLB – Box Score – Braves at Mets
As it turns out, the Mets haven’t won the division already, and another 150 or so games will in fact be played this season, a great disappointment to many media people who want to know why we can’t just skip to the World Series.
Kyle Davies was dominant, pitching his first career complete game, allowing just three hits (one a Chris Woodward homer), striking out six and walking one. He threw 106 pitches, 77 strikes.
Andruw and LaRoche did the heavy listing, driving in all the runs. LaRoche picked up Andruw in the first after a strikeout, driving in runners at second and third with a double. In the third, Andruw hit a monster two-run homer to center (one of the toughest places to hit a homer in the big leagues is center at Shea) followed by one by LaRoche. Andruw capped it with another two-run homer in the fifth.
Marcus had a hit and a walk before leaving the game in the middle innings, probably to avoid injury in a blowout. Tony Pena Jr. actually drew a walk in his place, but come on. Betemit, in the two-spot at last, had a hit and a walk.
Recap will be late tomorrow because it’s a day game and I have things to do. Hudson versus Glavine. The old guy is a lot less of a health risk right now, I’m afraid.
Up yours NY METS!!!!!!!!
Stupid classes tomorrow means I won’t get to watch, but I’ll be following online. Here’s hoping we can light up (tomorrow’s starting pitcher) like we did in his first few starts against us.
Mets: We win the division
Braves: Not so fast
That, ladies and gentlemen, is how good this team can be.
I plan to follow when I get the opportunities during the day tomorrow since I’ll be at school… I’ll record the game and watch it tomorrow when I get home!
What do we suppose the New York Post and Daily News will be saying tomorrow morning? The Mets are so obviously finished. From clinching the division to clinching last place in the timespan of a day. That’s difficult to do.
Davies has struggled since his first four starts last year, so it’s been easy to forget that he’s one of the better pitching prospects in the game. A joy to watch today, even against a weakened Mets lineup.
Oh my God…Harold Reynolds actually just said that the Orioles “got served” in reference to their ass-beating at the hands of the Indians.
Well, I’ll be able to watch the first hour and a half or so of the game, but since I’ve skipped my afternoon class 3 times already, including Monday, and we’re only 4 weeks into the term, I guess I’d better not again this week. Oh, well.
Congratulations to Kyle Davies on his first complete game! And what a game it was!
My reflections on this game:
– LaRoche is looking more like Will Clark every day.
– Davis proved tonight that we can be just as excited about him as the Tigers on Verlander.
– Andruw is looking so solid with that wide stance. I really do believe that has been such a difference with him. Confidence is a killer when it’s on your side.
– Kudos to Bobby for sticking with the kid for 9.
– Tony Pena Jr. hit the snot out of that line drive, which is too bad because that’s probably the best wood he’ll get all year on this level.
Didn’t Langer drive in the first two? Whatever. Druw and LaRoche both had great nights. It was to beat the Mets. And we should have been blown out yesterday. If we can do anything at all against Glavine and Huddy can get his act together, this could turn out to be a decent series.
Nevermind – I now remember that it was LaRoche driving in Bet and Langer in the 1st. I forgot *blush*
And Peter Gammons just named Jose Reyes one of the best young shortstops in the majors. Could the Baseball Tonight crew be any more idiotic?
The thing about Gammons is that he’s a lovely guy, good writer, and he’s everybody’s friend, which means that he gets scoops; but he’s an absolutely APPALLING scout. His player predictions are so laughable that it’s not even worth it to cherry-pick them. It’s fair to say that he has absolutely no understanding whatsoever of what makes a good player.
What I was glad to see about Andruw today is that he looked really bad on breaking balls in the first inning, and then again in the third before he crushed the fastball for a home run; but then by the fifth inning, he got into a hitter’s count, sat on Zambrano’s slider, and golfed a low and away pitch into the left-field seats. He made a great adjustment, and crushed the ball.
our team can be better, chipper and renteria didnt play. though i know adding one of them means losing betemit, which is tough to do, having 9 quality players is not a bad thing.
For any interested Mets fans, Andruw’s middle name is Rudolf. I kid you not.
ububba, waiting anxiously for your report. that must have been a sweet game to go see, especially in their house 🙂
it was fun to see from my house.
heh. it was over before i got home from work, sadly.
Just got back from Shea, and as Lou Reed once sang, “Oh, it’s such a perfect day…”
Not only did the Braves manhandle the Mets & render the Shea crowd to a grumbling murmur, but my Devils completed a miracle comeback with a miracle win to overtake the Rangers & take the division. Nice.
Before Andruw’s first HR, there were 2 outs with a base open & I asked a Met fan next to me, “Does Willie Randolph know who is batting now? This guy hit 51 HRs last year. He should really be careful.”
“Oh, he doesn’t want to face the lefty.”
Ka-boom. Ballgame.
Davies got ahead of people & the Met lineup was pretty sad tonight. Nonetheless, Davies K’d Delgado 3 times. And LaRoche, oddly, went with the pitch & hit it hard. The 2 Andruw bombs were rather memorable. And it’s always nice to leave that place when it’s … real… quiet.
Zambrano Is Efficient but Ineffective – New York Times
I suppose that giving up three homers is efficient in its way. By the way, why doesn’t the NYT call all the players “Mr.” like they do in the news section?
Dix, don’t you mean adding both of them? Betemit is the first choice to fill in for either of those guys. It’s when both of them are out that we get to see Orr.
In an update to the “Jim Bowden is a moron” segment, apparently he was stopped because he ran a stop sign right in front of a police officer. Why? They had just been questioned because he was in a dispute with his girlfriend.
It gets better: when the officer checked Bowden, he noticed scratches on his face from his girlfriend and arrested her for domestic violence. And she slapped him. Twice. So now the girlfriend is in trouble for assault and resisting arrest.
Not only was he driving while tanked up, he ran a stop sign right in front of a cop and got beat up by his girlfriend! What a great life this guy leads!
Most common line of the day: “This explains the Soriano trade.”
Mac, or anyone for that matter, can you explain to me the Andruw quote ” Both of them. Count it.” I am a lifelong braves fan, but new to this board and have seen it referenced a few times. Thanks in advance.
ESPN.com reports: Braves 2B Marcus Giles left in the seventh with a sprained middle finger on his left hand. He was hurt sliding into second on a stolen base in the third. X-rays were negative, and Giles was to be re-evaluated Wednesday.
That’s not good.
You don’t wanna know…
So if Giles go out for any period of time our infield from right to left goes: Betemit, Pena, Orr, and LaRoche. I don’t know about you guys, but that does not bode well for producing many runs.
Well, I’ll be able to watch the first hour and a half or so of the game, but since I’ve skipped my afternoon class 3 times already, including Monday, and we’re only 4 weeks into the term, I guess I’d better not again this week. Oh, well.
God, I did this so much during college.
Heh, davies lowered his ERA to under 5. That’s what one good game early in the season will do.
Ryan, in the Gold Club case, Andruw was questioned about certain of the illicit goings-on in that den of sin and shady mob-affiliated strip club. From the testimony in the trial (as posted by Smitty last year):
Jones: ?There were two chicks in the room messin? with each other.?
Prosecutor: ?What did you do then??
Jones: “Both of them, count it.?
Whoops, that was me.
Thoughts on Shea…
On further reflection, I gotta say that now that Olympic Stadium is no longer in MLB, Shea is easily the biggest dump in baseball. (I haven’t been to RFK yet, but I hear it’s fairly lacking.)
You can’t go to that place without having to negotiate a floating hotdog wrapper flying in your face at some point. The bathrooms are too small, the imported beer concessions make no sense (sorry, I’m a beer snob), even the walkup ticket booths are rarely fully staffed.
And then there’s the airplanes. It’s like that scene in “The Blues Brothers” where Jake & Elwood are in a creaky apartment that shakes when the El Train goes by.
“Elwood, how often does the train go by?”
“So often you won’t even notice.”
The upside: I bought a ticket for $9 & sat in the Loge (with 3 others) along the first base side. (The Mets have these color-coded games with a sliding price scale depending on the team or day of the week & tonight’s was one of the cheapies.)
Aside from the Cow Bell Guy who beat his cowbell when the Braves were batting (?), tonight’s group of Met fans (at the game and on the LIRR) weren’t too obnoxious–I’ve seen much worse. Still, as if on cue, they booed the tar out of Zambrano & Jorge Julio.
David Wright is easily the most popular Met, as he got the loudest cheers and had his jersey worn all over the park. Gals seem to dig him in a big way, too. He’s like a mini-Jeter right now. When he bats, you can hear some teen squeals just like when Jeter bats in The Bronx.
A Braves fan from Birmingham sat near me tonight. He was an Auburn grad who grew up a Bama fan because his Dad went there.
“So why would you commit to 4 years in a town like that?” I asked, in all seriousness.
“Because Auburn is just a far superior school.”
“For engineering or animal husbandry?”
“No, I was a business major.”
“Oh, never mind…”
RFK is an endearingly terrible place to go see a baseball game. In one sense, it’s a real throwback, because you can really still smell the piss and beer, something that the new Camden Yards-wave of bandboxes really did away with; but then, in another sense, it’s a horrible field, a horrible team, and there’s not much to recommend it if you’re not a fan of the smell of piss and beer.
So it’s kind of a toss-up.
I’m a business major at Auburn.. hmm.
Anywho, tomorrow’s batting order (I assume Giles is out) will include Pete Orr, Wilson Betemit, Tony Pena, Todd Pratt, and Tim Hudson.
Uhm.. can Hudson bat 5th? Can Jorge Sosa still play middle infield?
Yeah, I’ve heard that about RFK.
Well, I’m gonna make it down to DC at some point this year. Won’t be next week (got NHL playoff tickets: Devils/Rangers), but I gotta do a business trip there this summer. I’ll try to pick a weekend when the Bravos are dueling the Nats.
And how great would it be to get a good effort out of Huddy tomorrow?
Nice things about RFK: there’s no obnoxious Jumbotron, it’s very Metro-accessible, and I was not harrassed despite being decked out in Braves gear.
Bad things about RFK: programs are $10, a slice of pizza was like $8, the field is in horrible condition, it’s dark and dank and smelly (the women’s bathroom was like a truck stop), the whole section shakes every time someone moves, there’s a constant stream of annoying metallic clanging noises, it’s falling down, the field dimensions suck and CF is ugly, the team in it also sucks (DC United as well, at least last year), and the fans have a uniquely obnoxious quality that follows from trying to pretend to be a hardcore fan of a team that’s been in existence for about the same amount of time I’ve been out of high school.
Despite all this, I’m going for the August series (all 3 if I get a job, only one if I don’t). It’s the only way I can see the Braves.
Obnoxious Jumbotron… thinking of Turner Field, and our largest-screen-in-the-world-for-about-10-minutes DiamondVision, Jenny?
I lived in DC this past summer when I worked for the Senate, and I actually got to sit in the Senator’s seats to watch the Nats and the Rockies. I had a blast, but RFK is a total dump.
Man, this is absolutely freaking ridiculous. Now we will be playing two men short, assuming we don’t just retroactively put Renteria on the DL because of this. Our starting infield now contains Wilson Betemit, Pete Orr and Tony freaking Pena. Somebody had better come back and fast, because Pete Orr and Tony Pena may be the worst hitting middle infield in baseball history.
Don’t forget Juan Castro and Nick Punto. (Thanks, Twins!)
***********Thank You Note************
I would like to thank Mac for helping me out. Since writing haikus for chicks wasn’t going well, I am now writing Spenserian sonnets to my friends on facebook in hopes of getting a date. Wow, a lot of names have 14 letters. Thanks Mac for your wonderful help.
Yep, from the AJC:
“The only negative for the Braves was Marcus Giles’ middle-finger injury to his left hand. X-rays were negative, and he was diagnosed with a sprain, which will be evaluated today.”
Yippee.
A lot of interesting information on this Braves note on MLB:
http://atlanta.braves.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/article.jsp?ymd=20060418&content_id=1406649&vkey=news_atl&fext=.jsp&c_id=atl
1. “Adam LaRoche took time to look at some of his previous at-bats with Chipper Jones on Monday.”
Thank goodness, should have done that earlier…like last August.
2. “Cox provided a light-hearted response when he was asked why the current generation of players are suffering more strained muscles than the players of yesteryear did.
‘Guys are in too good of shape,’ Cox said. ‘If they just drank more beer they’d be all right.'”
Gotta love the old man!
3. “Left-handed reliever Macay McBride is expected to return to the Braves bullpen on Friday. When that happens, James will likely stay in Atlanta to continue his role as a long reliever. He, along with McBride and Mike Remlinger, will give the Braves three left-handers in their bullpen.”
For once, we have good news on the health front!!!
So who gets sent down to accommodate McBride?
Cue the reporter asking, “So, Marcus, which finger was it that got hurt?”, followed by Marcus happily flipping off the entire New York media contingent.
I will pay for a tape of that.
“So who gets sent down to accommodate McBride?”
Itd have to be Ray or Moylan i guess, both guys i really want to see (esp Moylan) and havnt yet darn it
My guess will be Moylan for sure.
I’m going to RFK on Saturday night. I’ll be the youngish-looking guy carrying a baby in the midst of 40 frat dogs.
I’d guess Moylan goes down. In fact, I wouldn’t be shocked if Lil’ Jonny was on his way to Atlanta now, in case Marcus can’t play. Send Moylan down, activate JS Jr. When Macay’s ready, send JS back down.
Billy Jay that is indeed what I meant
Two comments from Jayson Stark on ‘Mike and Mike’ this morning:
1. “I’m not sure that this Braves team is even CAPABLE of overtaking the Mets this season.”
(We are still 4 games back with roughly 150 games left to play, right? Maybe I missed something…)
2. “This is the shakiest bunch of Braves I have seen in a long, long, time.”
(Maybe he thinks that Orr, Pena and Betemit are now our full-time infield starters, and that we have voluntarily benched Chipper, Renteria, and Giles)
As much of an idiot as Jayson Stark is, I do find it quite funny that when the Mets eek out a win over our crappy #5 starter, they are ordained as the new ‘Kings of the East,’ and when we take one of their many crappy starters and grind him into the dirt with the heel of our shoe (not to mention while tossing a 3-hit CG ourselves), we still suck and this must have been a fluke. Hilarious.
If you read Stark’s comments in context of this series, they are silly. But in the context of looking at the rosters, and what one might predict those rosters will produce over the course of the season, they’re not outrageous statements. I would think he was talking about he latter.
Am I sure that this Braves team is capable of taking over the Mets? No.
Is this “the shakiest bunch of Braves I have seen in a long, long, time.” Without a doubt.
This doesn’t mean the Braves won’t win the division, but I am not happy with the current configuration of the team. The starting pitching has shown itself to be shaky, and I expect the bullpen to regress to its true talent level. And for some reason Bobby hates John Thomson. He takes him out because he fells “good, not great,” but leaves Davies out there. Tony Pena is on the roster, and given his speed, I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s batting lead-off today.
I don’t get it, JC. How is this group even shakier than last year’s team? Jordan and Mondesi starting. The bullpen was much shakier.
I mean, if we’re without Chipper, Renteria and Giles for an extended period of time, this team gets a lot shakier. But I don’t see that happening.
Thank you Kyle Davies for shutting up NYMETS fan.
Really, Hudson just needs to step up for us and Glavine or Bannister or someone needs to stand down for them. Problem solved. The gulf is not that wide.
JC, maybe Cox learned his lesson by pulling his pitchers to early (Thomson). I dont see any reason why these guys cant throw 110 pitches everytime out. Isnt McDowell given them an extra day of rest when compared to the way Mazzonne got them ready.
Also, was NY METS grounded last night or just too ashamed to show up around here. I missed his sarcastic remarks or maybe he was just speechless. What will the NY faithful do when there #2 starter gets shelled today by a bunch or the Braves bench players? Unfortunately, Glavin has looked very dominate this year, but he always struggles against the Braves. It would be great if Huddy can find his old self today and whoever that was hitting for LaRoche last night would stay around for the rest of the season. Maybe it was his twin brother!
Several Comments.
As a Northern Virginia resident, let me say that RFK is a horrific place to watch a game. And I grew up going to Fulton County Stadium when my family would drive up from Savannah. I am COUNTING the minutes until a new DC stadium is built.
Second, Hudson…get it together. If you are hurt as Mac suggests, then get the hell out of the rotation and let Chuckie James have a shot. If Davies is now comfortable and Smoltz and Thomson are already there, we are closer and closer to having a strong 5-man rotation. Hudson needs to get his act together.
Third, why has Adam not been hanging out with Chipper more? If the Ridalyn kicks in, then Adam needs to focus on everything Chipper has to say.
Fourth, Jim Bowden is not only a drunk and a moron, but he looks like a hybrid of a game show host…some sort of bizarre Peter Tomarken, Chuck Woolery, and Bob Eubanks human hybrid.
Do you guys realize that if Bobby WALKS Carlos Delgado on Monday and then Sosa gets David Wright out (something he was doing just fine) the Braves win that game 3-2 and we are 2-0 at Shea Stadium this year?
When are the ESPN fools going to stop handing the division to the Mets yet?
By the way, loving ordered the MLB package…the part of the game I did listen to, the Mets announcers (including Ron Darling who was here in DC last year doing the Nats games) were less biased then the ESPN guys. Darling (who I met when I was a kid and he’s a nice guy, class act) was very complimentary of the young Braves and both guys in particular were complimentary of Wilson Betemit–Mac pointed out to me that they called him the most underrated player in the National League.
Why are we getting fairer and better analysis from the Mets announcers then the supposedly neutral ESPN guys? It’s just odd but a nice shout out to the Mets guys for being classy.
I don’t see how this bullpen is better than last year’s. It was bad last year, and they didn’t do anything to improve it. Two of the best pitchers are gone, Farnsworth and Boyer. Pete Moylan and Ken Ray are on this team. That’s terrible. Maybe there small sample of “success” is for real, but I’m not buying it. And there is no help coming from the minors.
I have no problem with the offense. It wasn’t bad last year either. Of course, if the injuries continue to be a problem, then the season could get ugly fast.
This is the shakiest team the Braves have put on the field since I was in high school.
Yes, we did loose Farns but keep in mind how long we had him.If you compare the this year’s bullpen and last years here’s what you get. Draw your own conclusion!
Last year: This year:
Kolb Cormier
Reitsma Reitsma
Martin Moylan
Gryboski James
Bernero Ray
Colon Remlinger
Sosa Villareal
Well that didn’t work – just look at left hand column and then the right hand column. Sorry about that
The Mets announcers are indeed quite good – I remember thinking the same thing at the end of last season, as they discussed the merits of the Braves team and players. Quite objective, quite unlike the Yankees crew, kneeling before Jeter and the rest (I live in the NYC metro area so can see both team’s networks.) I do sense a sort of metrosexual tone to their color commentary, half expecting Hernandez and/or Darling to say “You go girl” after someone hits a home run.
csg, let me first echo your comments on RFK. As a dc resident, that place is a terrible place for a ballgame. I have only been to 10 ballparks in my life, including RFK, and each were at least 100 times better.
also, let me add my $.02 regarding the national media circle jerk over the Mets. How many times/years have they been picked to finish over the Braves by SI or ESPN in the last 14 seasons? I would guess at least 7 times. Now, only 13-14 games into a 162-game season, they are already the division winner. Even after Davies 3 hit, 1ER, CG last night, the headline i see this morning is “Injury-depleted Mets lose to Braves.” Not Davies throwing 80% strikes. Not Andruw murdering the ball. As is par for the course, Bravos-related achievements take a backseat to justifications for the opposition’s lack of success.
http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/5512636