ESPN.com – MLB – Box Score – Cardinals at Braves
The Braves won this one pretty easily — it was 5-0 after the first and 11-1 after four — and even though Chuck James didn’t pitch especially well, he goes to 3-0.
Jeff Suppan looked like John Thomson with an inner-ear infection, allowing ten runs on nine hits over 3 1/3. It was 2-0 with two on, nobody out as the Braves went walk-triple-walk-single to lead off the game before the Cards finally retired McCann, and with help from a throwing error it was 5-0 after a Francoeur single and LaRoche flyout.
Rolen hit a homer to make it 5-1 in the fourth, but the Braves came back with a six-run barrage as five singles in six batters (with James bunting out foul) chased Suppan, and McCann doubled in two for the big blow. It could have been worse — the Braves left the bases loaded.
After that, James was apparently coasting, but every time the Cards got runs the Braves answered back — two for each team in the fifth, one in the sixth. The Cards continued to pitch uncomfortably inside, including hitting Andruw in the knee after Chipper doubled in two runs, but the Braves still won’t answer. I know you don’t want a beanball war, but what we have right now is beanball appeasement.
James allowed eight hits and two homers. He walked only one, but only struck out one, which is something he can’t normally do. He was pitching with a big lead the whole time except the first. He actually got five groundball outs versus 12 flyballs, which for him is news. Yates, McBride, and Paronto pitched scoreless innings.
As you can see above, Chipper was back in the lineup; he celebrated by going 2-3 with two walks, two runs scored, and three RBI. Everybody but the pitcher had at least one hit (LaRoche and Renteria had three each), at least one run (Giles and Renteria had three apiece) and at least one RBI. Haven’t been many like this this year.
Where’s Alex?
break up the Braves?
“beanball appeasement”
LOL, Mac. I wonder if Neville Chamberlain would have batted Brian McCann in the 7-hole for a month.
I was very dissapointed when McBride apologized to Edmonds..
Cards pick up the wrong Weaver.
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2510568
I’m not gonna lie: taking a series from the Cards is Sweet. Now I can talk shit to my buddy from St. Louis tomorrow. What a day… (this must be what not being in the pennant race is like – the little things matter more)
Can we go back and spreadload this games 10 extra runs over some of our June games?
I know 7 out of 12 ain’t exactly scary, but that’s 3 series wins out of 4. This team is what it is (and what it isn’t), but it is not quitting. As my HS football coach (who played for Bear Bryant) would say, “We gotta get the smell of shit off of us.”
Here’s to 3/4 vs. the Redlegs…
Cincinati loses in 13. They are just now finishing up. They get sweeped with a long night tonight. Which can only be good for us.
Justin, please… don’t even start.
Crawford freakin’ stole home tonight for Tampa Bay. Man, I would love to have him.
7 1/2 behind SD/ Col/ maybe LA for the wild-card.
1914 update:
NY Giants 40-24
Chicago Cubs 40-32
St. Louis Cardinals 37-36
Cincinnati Reds 35-36
Brooklyn Robins 31-33
Pittsburgh Pirates 31-35
Philadelphia Phillies 30-34
Boston Braves 26-40
Braves didn’t play on July 5. Sunday. Blue laws, donchaknow.
I hope Francoeur took a good long look at the opposition’s right fielder in this series.
TRADE HUDSON!
The Braves might be taking a lot of inside pitches without reciprocity, but Andruw getting hit clearly was not intentional. The pitch was a hard breaking ball that started WAY outside off the plate and swept across to hit him on the rear leg. Andruw didn’t react toward the pitcher and no one on the bench argued.
Reitsma gone for the season ==> http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=ap-bravesinjuries&prov=ap&type=lgns
Reds have lost 5 in a row.. don’t know if that’s a good thing or bad thing for us…
Before we get too excited about the recent winning, don’t forget it was vs Tampa Bay and the Orioles. The Cardinals have been playing almost as poorly as the Braves recently too. But winning is definitely nice. Reitsma missing the rest of the year and possibly all of next year if he has Tommy John surgery is great news too.
I was watching Mike&Mike before work and they were discussing who among current active players are Hall of Famers. They didn’t seem to think Smoltz would get in. While he doesn’t have the accumulated stats of Maddux or Glavine, he has been a dominant starter and a dominant closer and one of the best post-season pitchers ever. He’s definitely a Hall of Famer to me.
Smotlz’s career numbers..
182 wins as a starter including 52 CG.
Career era 3.28
154 saves
2667 strike-outs
career whip 1.17
and one of the best post season pitchers of ALL Time..
That sounds like H.O.F to me folks…
Trading Hudson would be a mistake. First, he isn’t pitching very well and has a big contract, so it’s not like you are going to get a lot for him. It’s not a solution to say trade all your bad players, as if if you bundle enough bad players, you will somehow get a good one in return. Doesn’t work that way. Second, while I am just as frustrated with Hudson as anyone, you shouldn’t simply overlook Hudson’s previous body of work even if he has been mediocre since he came here. A number of good or great pitchers have had down periods in the middle of their careers, including Carlton and Clemens and recovered. It’s dangerous to simply discard a guy that has a track record, especially since you aren’t guaranteed to get anyone any better. For example, let’s say you traded Hudson for Phillip Hughes. There is no guarantee, regardless of what kind of prospect he is, that Hughes will ever be even as good as Hudson is now. In fact, the chances are that he won’t be. You can’t make trades out of frustration–let’s hope that Hudson remembers that he used to be a great pitcher.
Are we back? Should people fear us again? Can we sweep the Reds?
There is no question that Smoltz is a HOFer. He may not be a first ballot-er, but his postseason dominance and the fact that he was the lone Brave here for every year of the streak, I think, puts him in the Hall, even if he’s short on wins.
Can’t believe after all this we are only a couple games out of second place!
Wildcard here we come! Maybe we can actually do something in the postseason this year since we aren’t going to win the division.
If Smoltz wins 200 then I think his HOF plague starts to get made. I think 200 will be a number he needs to reach to assure himself of a spot.
I would say that the conventional wisdom among baseball people is that Smoltz is gonna be in the HOF. As I’ve mentioned before, even fans who detest the Braves (and there are many) have great respect for Smoltz & tend to think he should be in.
While I believe he’s the subject of a great debate, I also believe Smoltz will & should get in. With the saves/wins combo & the fact that he’s the winningest pitcher in post-season history, that’s a hard resume to beat.
When they look back on this bunch of Braves, it’ll be a lot like the Brooklyn Dodgers from the 1950s—one WS title, several pennants, and 5 HOF players (Maddux, Glavine, Smoltz, Chipper, Andruw).
Smoltz is a HOF inductee. I think he will finish with 200+ wins even if he just pitches thru the 2007 season. I just don’t believe anyone can look past the fact of how clutch he has been on the biggest stages. His postseason track record is top of the heap. I heard the Mike and Mike discussion as well about who you would give the ball to win one game. I understand giving it to Clemens or Martinez, but the first name that comes to mind for me is Smoltz. I’ll never forget going to old Atlanta Fulton County Stadium as a kid and having Smoltz come over and sign my game program. Total Class Act.
Chipper’s foot, not as bad as once thought…inflammed ligament
http://atlanta.braves.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/article.jsp?ymd=20060705&content_id=1541084&vkey=news_atl&fext=.jsp&c_id=atl
Mac,
Perhaps you know if this theory has any validity. (If not I am going to do some research this evening.)
The Braves have essentially been a .500 team the last two or three years, the way they have finished first with records above .500 is to have one stretch every season where they play exceptional baseball. Going on 10- game winning streaks or winninng 25 out of 30. Other than that one great stretch they have been around .500 for the other games in the season.
This year we do the opposite. Play .500 ball more or less for every month but June, when we just stink up the joint.
I don’t know if this is normal for a good team. I would think that a team with a .600 winning percentage would normally win 6 out of every 10 games. NOt play .500 ball and have a big stretch where the team won a bunch of games then revert back to .500 ball.
Thoughts?
JIM
JB, I would definately buy your argument that the Braves had a downward streak when instead they should have had a positive one.
But let’s look at it this way. Let’s imagine a hypothetical scenario in which the Braves would have played .500 during that horrid month. Let’s give the Braves seven more wins that they would have had during June. That would make them 43-42. Just an inch above the line. However, look at where they would be in the standings. Around seven or so behind New York, and right in the thick of the Wild Card race. Around a half game, more than likely.
Let’s be honest, this aint the American League. In the NL, that’s keeping you in the running. Which sort of vaildates your argument in a way.
Okay, seperate post for a seperate point.
Let’s imagine the Braves had actually had a winning month of June. They went 6-22, right? Let’s reverse it to 22-6. Which we all know the Braves are capable of. And even if you don’t think so, we are all mostly Braves fans here, so we’ll be happy to imagine it. With that record, we’d be 59-26 right now. Which would put us in “Best In Baseball” territory.
Unfortunately, while fun to imagine, it just ain’t happening right now. BUT, I do think that it’s entirely possible that the Braves have it in them to make a really good run. Every series turns critical, and on down the line in August and September most games start turning into “must-wins”.
I’m going out on a limb, here. The Braves have a better shot of winning the Pennant and World Series this year than the past three. Yes, that’s bold. But here’s my reasoning. This team is obviously not going to play .500 like JB says, make a good streak, and then easily coast into the division win. We all know by now, from three division series losses, that it isn’t good for the team. By having to earn it and play hard for it, this team isn’t going to do any lackluster coasting into the postseason. This team will either squeak by and win the division or play good ball and win the wild card. And then they will take the route of the Red Sox in 2004 or the Astros in 2005. And that’s IF they step up and start earning it. And I believe they are entirely capable.
I might be way off. But I really believe that we’ve got a good club here, and I really believe that they’ve got it in them to make lemonade out of lemons this year.
Are Giles numbers reminding anyone of last year. Furcal got off to a miserable start and then turned it around. Same w/ the Braves, their record was terrible and when Furcal got hot everything turned around. The only problem is the Mets are actually good this year. I think they can falter down the stretch, but I still dont think we can catch them. If we can JS needs to tighten his suspenders and get one more quality starter to replace Thomson. Huddy needs to start pitching like a #1 or #2 starter and our bullpen needs to keep it up. We can make a run, but it might be too late…
Whoa! That is going out on a limb. We’d have to play .667 ball over our remaining 77 games even to end up in WC territory. No way this team can or will play like the Tigers or White Sox did over the first half. And, even if the Mets also only went .500 the rest of the way, we’d still end up a game back (89-73 v. 88-74).
88-89 wins probably won’t be enough to beat out the 2nd place finisher from the central for the wild card either. I’d take the 88 wins and missing the playoffs though because it would mean a lot of winning baseball in the 2nd half and would almost certainly mean the bullpen problems would be fixed finally, underperforming hitters such as Giles and Laroche would find their strokes, and starting pitchers Ramirez and James would continue to pitch well while Hudson and Thompson would remember how to pitch like they used to. That kind of finish to the season would set up the team in great position for next year.
Put it down:
2006 Division Champs
not going to happen
Yea I was upset to see McBride apologize also … our guys have been getting hit and getting hit ..if I was Andrew I would be having a heart to heart with some of these pitchers … perfect opportunity was with Paronto facing A.Pujous …. he should hit their best guy … we got hit 3 or 4 times in series with no retaliation .. Francour gets hit in head and nothing …… bout time we start taking care of our own ……
looks as if we are facing the Reds’ version of Russ Ortiz and Josh Towers today. Hopefully, we will show up.
I didn’t say for who CSG
well then, who Johnny W
ha, the Braves of course, I gotta keep the faith….only thing that keeps me sane……or insane
at least we are pulling for the same team