ESPN.com – MLB – Box Score – Cardinals at Braves
That was a nice win. (Leitch is going to go nuts.) The Cards put up a 3-0 lead early, a two-run double in the second and a Pujols solo homer in the third.
Then, suddenly, the Braves started playing like the Braves, for nearly the first time this season. Marcus hit a solo homer in the bottom of the third, then Renteria hit one to follow. The game was halted by rain at this point, but when they came back Andruw drew a two-out walk, followed by a McCann homer, then Thorman singled in Francoeur (after a double) to make it 5-3.
Then Smoltz clamped down, getting them 1-2-3 in the next inning, and after the first two reached in the fifth he retired Pujols, Rolen, and Edmonds in order to get out of it. Then he struck out the side in the sixth, after which he left the game with seven strikeouts and no walks.
Paronto got the first man in the seventh, but then allowed a double and a single to make it first and third, Pujols at the plate, and I think everyone thought that the game was lost… and Pujols’ rocket shot was a hard grounder to Betemit at third, who turned a double play to end the inning. The Braves got another run on a Langerhans homer, Ray pitched a perfect eighth, and Sosa got the save, Marcus making a leaping catch of a line drive for the last out.
Two hits each for Giles, McCann, and Francoeur, and everyone reached base at least once. Really nice win, and the first back-to-back wins in forever.
Ok, the funniest headline of the year.
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2508718
I think they should make this into a comedy movie with Adam Sandler and Jack Nicholson…what do ya’ll think?
If you guys adont click on the link:
the Headline:
Guillen attends first sensitivity training session
(from other thread)
I have come up with a script idea for a sports comedy:
“Sports Nuts” starring John Leguizamo as Ozzie Guillen or an Ozzie like character who is a terrific manager but gets himself into trouble daily by mouthing off at everything.
The team is forced to stick him in “sensitivity training” and while there, he starts to learn a valuable lesson about his behaviour until he’s kidnapped by 2 crazed Indian fans who want to prevent him from managing. and insulting people.
co-starring Leslie Nielsen, Damon Wayans and Steven Van Zandt as Jay Marriotti
ESPN’s talking heads on Baseball Tonight and their road reporter interviewing McCann were relating the Braves’ third-inning rally to the Francoeur (and Giles) HBP. McCann said, “we;re sick of it” about Francoeur’s being pitched high and inside, and said he’s sorry the offense hasn’t scored enough runs for Smoltz to get wins (although that hasn’t really been the problem.)
McCannGiles’ game-ending catch was Web Gem #5.(Edited by MT)
Normally I’m not much for all the macho “retaliation” stuff, but I wish Smoltz had put a fastball in somebody’s butt. Sure, it might have started a fight. Who cares? Most baseball fights are just a bunch of slow jogging and loitering around anyway.
Very nice win tonight. I thought we looked a little more like the team I’ve been used to watching the last few years.
If not for A-Rod’s Hr…we would’ve won 7 out of our last 10.
TRADE HUDSON!!
Caught the game tonight.
There were three really nice plays at first. A 1U, a 3-1, and a 1-3-1. Ho Ram has fielded his position very nicely two starts in a row as well. Little things like sound defense from our pitchers is encouraging.
The relays back to the infield on fly-outs and base hits were sharp too. I saw lots of spring in lots of steps.
Oh, and Thorman hits it hard like a left handed Sheffield. His RBI was pure worm burner muscle.
The double play the Braves turned to get out of the 7th was outstanding. All three players involved did exactly what they were supposed to do. Not only did Betemit glove a hard grounder but he got a good throw off quickly. Then Marcus was able to get something on his throw even though the runner was basically on top of him, and Thorman made a nice scoop to finish it. They made it look like an easy play even though it was anything but.
So, nice job guys! That’s how you play the game. Keep it up, and it’ll start being fun to watch the Braves again.
w00t! Glad to see the Braves pulled it out. I was at the D-Rays/Saux game (Kazmir was really impressive, BTW) and got out in time to hit up a sports bar for top of the 9th of the Braves game. It’s very encouraging to see the Braves winning a few. But with that said, 4 DPs is still discouraging, as is the 8 Ks. Still, a win’s a win. Thomson/Carp tomorrow, I believe. Lets hope Thomson shows some good stuff so we can trade him for a nice prospect or two. :-b
Haven’t seen this posted, but it’s not good news. Looks like we’ll be without Chipper for at least a couple of days and maybe longer. From ESPN:
Chipper Jones will see a foot specialist on Tuesday after an MRI showed a partial tear of the plantar plate and the second toe in his right foot.
Team spokesman Brad Hainje, reading from a statement, said the injury is similar to but not as severe as the one Jones had in his left foot last season when he missed 37 games.
Jones, who also was diagnosed Monday with inflammation of the medial collateral ligament in his right knee, was not available for comment after Atlanta beat St. Louis 6-3.
good to see thomson, not cormier starting tomorrow. i hope he can return to his first of the year form so we can put together a little win streak. good win tonight. tough to see chipper not with us for a while seeing how he looked to be heating up. i hope he does not go on the dl so we can continue to use him in big pinch hitting situations.
This is really upsetting to me, not only is he my favorite player, he seemed to have found his swing again.
The MCL injury is probably cascade from favoring the foot. If the plantar plate is the same as the plantar fascia, I think JJ Redick had an injury like that (sorry, Duke haters, only comp I could think of off the top of my head) and missed three weeks for it to heal, but Chipper is not 21 and he doesn’t play basketball. And I’m just throwing stuff around.
Went to the Al Gore movie, then out for drinks, & successfully avoided all talk of baseball scores until I came back home to watch the victory in super-speed time.
Gotta say that the Paronto-induced DP on Pujols was about as unexpected as finding a $20 bill in a taxi cab. The weird thing is…after that DP, I knew we were gonna win. Haven’t entertained that moment in a long time.
No Wild Card talk, y’all. Just start winning games & getting better. If it happens, let it be the miracle it would be. Two in a row & 6 out of 10 doesn’t make us the ’05 Astros, but I sure love beating the Cardinals, no matter our station in the NL.
BTW, I can’t say enough about how fair, honest & eye-opening “An Inconvenient Truth” is. As a straight-up documentary, they do a great job of taking a fairly academic/scientific topic & relating it to your life & your future. Do yourself a favor & see it. It’s hard not to see that flick & be moved.
I think its time for one and for all to do something we haven’t done in a while. To unlock something we have put away.
Braves fans unite and…
BRING BACK OPTIMISM!!!!!! THE TIME IS NOW!
I’m very optimistic!
…but, TRADE HUDSON!!
…for a CLOSER!!!
Lets trade hudson for some hot dogs! I am hungry!
Happy Independence Day to everyone!
My family is off on vacation for a few days, so I’m counting on you guys to coax the Braves into keeping the wins coming. Maybe, just maybe, we’ll start some sort of streak here. Back-to-back wins for the first time in over a month has me thinking big!
A very nice win last night. It’s good to get Thompson back if only so we can trade him later in the month to some contender desperate for starting pitcher. He should be a big upgrade over Cormier in the meantime. If the Braves keep playing like last night the rest of the week, they could finish the first half within eyesight of the wild card. I’m not sure whether that is a good thing or not, and expect a return to their losing ways of June shortly especially with Chipper down. But it’s more fun to watch them win regardless of whether they end up making the playoffs or not. I’m starting to think it will take a trade or injury to knock Giles out of the leadoff spot. I still can’t figure out what makes Bobby and John think Giles is better suited for leading off than, say, Renteria.
That game was a true pleasure to watch! I’ll echo ububba’s comments on feeling like the Braves were going to win.
It would’ve been so easy to tune the game out during the rain delay, but something’s changed on this team. I cringed when Smoltzie threw down the gauntlet and said they needed to go 8-2 before the break, but this morning I think it’s possible.
Here’s to the Braves All-Stars: Andruw, Renteria, and Mc Cann. Can’t wait to see that game now!
BTW, that Algore movie is filled with inaccuracies.
dude, please leave the al gore comments off this board…if its not bad enough watching the streak end, i cant handle al gore on top of that
You never trade starters for closers.
never
ever
And if Huddy is so awful, how are we gonna get anything for him?
Hudson isn’t awful. He’s just not very good. Or at least he’s not as good as his salary and being the Braves’ #2 starter would merit. The Braves can get something for him because a lot of playoff contenders don’t even have somebody as mediocre as Huddie at #2.
Chief, be prepared for Alex to bombard you with why you are wrong about the inaccuracies in the Al Gore movie. You have been warned.
Now fellas, side A go to Daily Kos and side B go to redstate and do your vitriol thing over there, where there’s a more appreciative audience for your respective views.
You know why politics are (mercifully) banned from this site? ‘Cause no one can go more than thirty seconds without being a dick.
hudson from may 16-june 10. 6 starts 40.2 innings pitched, 12 earned runs- 2.69 era
june 16- current- 21.2 innings pitched 19 earned runs. not even worth calculating his era.
something just doesnt seem right with his mechanics to have 4 consecutive bad outings. i have to believe he will figure it out and tear it up in the next half. i feel trading hudson would be a bad move for the organization. as braves fans, we always want to trade a guy when he hasa bad couple of months, but it is just not a wise decision to trade a guy with hudson’s track record while he is in the worst funk of his career.
Yeah, but if you think that Alex R. is going to have a lot to say about an Al Gore movie, just wait till you hear him talk about Tim Hudson.
I just wish Tim could be a little less inconsistent–he had a couple amazing starts and now he’s had a ton of horrible ones. Basically, he’s John Thomson, except he’s being paid about $7 million more per year.
Any trade of Hudson is going to wind up with the Braves eating a lot of salary. Smoltz is going to be a much more tradable commodity.
Someone here must be working at Turner Field. From Mark Bowman at the official site:
As Chad Paronto entered Monday’s seventh inning, the stadium speakers were blaring Aerosmith’s “Same Old Song and Dance.”
news break:
Ben Wallace has signed w/ the Bulls – 4YR/$60mil
also:
Kobayashi sets a new hot dog world record! I think it was 53 1/2, dont know what time limit they have
53 3/4 for what it’s worth. Old record was 53 1/2. In 12 minutes.
Shuttle launch in 30 minutes so this irritating 24/7 coverage on CNN will soon end.
I was briefly the University of Georgia pancake-eating champ. I can’t even look at a pancake now.
Chief,
The greater point of the Al Gore film is to illustrate that global warming is real. In the scientific community, that’s not even a debate. The “debate” comes from elsewhere.
Speaking for myself, I’ll cast my lot with the people who can actually prove, among many other things, that the earth’s not flat and it does in fact revolve around the sun.
Good news- the shuttle launched and didn’t go kaboom or have any visible pieces of foam fall off.
Ububba is right about global warming, although I think he’s wrong about pancakes. But then again, I’ve never entered a pancake-eating contest.
Glavine pitching against the Pirates this afternoon. Gave up 3 ER on 11 hits, a walk, and his own error in 5+ innings. Mets lead 4-3, but the Pirates have loaded the bases with no out in the top of the 6th.
I suppose I should mention the no-politics rule, though the official position of this blog is that global warming is real and anyone who doubts this should go outside.
Pancakes with syrup, with butter, or dry?
Mac,
Did I mention politics? I was talking cinema & science. 😉
In the contest, how one devoured the pancakes were up to the contestant. I won the original UGA contest by eating 40-something pancakes in 30 minutes (I was 19 & starving), all with a tad of syrup.
When I moved on to the “state title” squaring off with other champs from various Georgia colleges a few weeks later, I thought I’d prepare myself, but I had no chance. These people were in another league. I finished second-to-last out of 10.
The guy who won (from Berry or Mercer, one of those schools) would mash a half-dozen pancakes together like a hamburger and eat them. He ate over 100. He looked exactly how you might expect—slovenly.
The second-place finisher was a petite gal from Agnes Scott College. Her approach was right out of charm school. She buttered each pancake & ate them one-by-one. But she never stopped shoveling.
When I saw what I was up against, I kinda gave up on any idea of being a champion glutton of a higher variety. However, it did give me some rich material for a column in the college newspaper.
If everyone thinks I have too much to say about everything, I am happy to take my opinions elsewhere.
Secondly, Tennessee Braves and Chief Nacahoma, I am not telling anyone how to vote. ububba asked my opinion on both the “Superman” and Al Gore movies last night on the thread and I told him I liked both but thought if he was taking his gfriend, he should see the Gore flick.
The Gore flick shouldn’t not be a political issue to anyone. I am w/ Mac 100%. Global warming is real, every scientist says the SAME thing on the issue and there’s no debate, except from a small White House faction. Furthermore, I am a political Independent/Moderate so I don’t agree with Al Gore on everything, but he’s right on Global Warming and this movie needs to be seen…watch it before you judge.
I also recommend Superman, Xmen and several other summer films…does anyone have a problem with that?
And A.A.R., since you asked, my opinion has already been previously stated that the Braves absolutely should trade Tim Hudson. He’s not pitching like a 1 or a 2 and his deal could help our bullpen and our offense at first base or left field. A lot of people feel this way so again, I am unsure why people feel the need to highlight my opinions all the time.
And ububba, I am glad you enjoyed the movie.
And everyone who doesn’t like my posts can rest easy: My wife and I leave for Cabo San Lucas on Thursday morning and I won’t be back until Wednesday night of next week (though my hotel in Cabo will have Internet access) but I won’t be spending my vacation arguing about Tim Hudson & Al Gore with people.
Enjoy!
Thank Goodness you’re leaving Alex. You big crybaby.
am i the only one here with a biology degree? i thought so…
yawn…
This is probably because thousands of scientists worldwide–an overwhelming consensus, it could easily be argued–reject alarmist global warming theory. More than 17,000 of them, including dozens of Nobel laureates, have signed a petition saying no convincing scientific evidence supports the theory of catastrophic global warming. You can read the petition for yourself at http://www.oism.org/pproject/s33p357.htm.
but i will say its freakin hot here in alabama and lets just agree to hope thompson doesnt suck