ESPN.com – MLB – Box Score – Reds at Braves
Miserable Braves Loss Type 4.1(d): “Starting Pitcher Gets Completely Knocked Around, Game Basically Over From Beginning, Don’t Try To Get Your Hopes Up.”
That wasn’t the Bad Horacio. That was the Horrible Horacio. The Bad Danny wouldn’t sign for that. He gave up a run on a Pratt (please, can we bring back Pena now?) passed ball in the first, then began the second. He never got an out. Six hits into the inning, the Braves trailed 6-0 and Villareal was in. He finally got an out, only to allow a homer to make it 8-0. The ninth run scored on a two-out infield single, and we might as well have gone home.
Okay, the Braves finally put some runs on the board — two in the fourth, two in the sixth, one in the seventh. They actually got the tying run in sight on a couple of occasions. You can complain about Andruw not getting up the line fast enough on the last out of the seventh, which Freel misplayed, but expecting a rally from 9-0 down isn’t really fair.
Chipper had two hits, including a homer, and three RBI. The Braves got nothing from the 7-8 spots (0-8 between LaRoche and Pratt) which didn’t help any. But come on, 9-0?
UPDATE: I was too upset to give the deserved props to Kevin Barry, who pitched four shutout innings, allowing no hits and one walk, and striking out five. He was great. Rest of the team, not so much.
If I performed at work like Todd Pratt does, my boss would drop kick me in the adam’s apple…
Good to see Chipper hitting the ball well again..he’s up to 50 rbi’s suddenly.
I think Kevin Barry really deserves a mention in this recap. He was great, a bright spot in a dark game if there ever was one.
Hey, 3 of 4 is in sight, still.
You omitted (possibly just for mercy’s sake) that Pratt also let the last run of the game in by overhtrowing third on a stolen base attempt.
And yes, Kevin Barry deserves mad props. Nine innings so far this season, 2 H, 2 BB, 8 K. This guy could be something special.
Thomson vs Arroyo on sunday doesn’t look good for our 3 out of 4 hope..
Kevin Barry pitched great…Fun to watch….Looked like he was comfortable out there. Out-thinking the hitters. Like Chucky J, I’m interested to see how he does after everyone else has had a chance to scope him out.
Good to see chipper looking like he is having fun again.
BAD AJ, BAD.
That said, he’ll hit one out tomorrow. C-C-C-Count it!
I’ve been saying that Davey. We need to win tomorrow or the BRAVES are going to lose three out of four. Think Bobby will have mercy and use Chuck James on short rest? I’m not hopeful.
This loss is so depressing. Eric Milton vs. Horacio Ramirez. Should have won that.
Also I think given the BLOWpen problems, the Braves should try Barry at closer. What could it hurt? But it will probably take another two blown saves from Jorge Sosa to get Bobby Cox to even consider it.
At 9-zip, I went out to dinner.
That we got 5 runs & Barry had 4 shutout innings is about as much as I could’ve hoped for. We can still win the next 2 & take 3/4. That, of course, isn’t a bad thing either. Small steps…
Really mortifying moment for me tonight that only folks here could appreciate: I went to a Bowie Baysox game (Double-A affiliate of Baltimore in Bowie, MD) and relieving the Bowie pitcher after six innings? DAN KOLB!
A 24-year-old on his profile and in the program, and clearly not the former Brave/Brewer. But currently in AA ball and pitched 2 scoreless. Beware the second coming…
Baysox games are great, if you go on Dollar Dayz. You can get reserve seats (which are like right behind home plate, just missing the first few rows) for $1. My family went a few weeks ago, and it’s right near where my dad works, so it’s easy. Good stuff.
I did not watch tonight’s game. But echoing comments, why is Todd Pratt still on this team? Brian McCann does not need a friggin’ mentor. Kid is hitting in the .340s and his defense is just fine. And pitchers like him, which must mean that his pitch selection is good. Cut the dead weight, Brian is fine.
Oh, and in case you missed it, Jose Lima gave up a salami to Dontrelle Willis tonight. Gotta love Lima Time!
Yeah, I ran across DK2 last year.
Well I missed the game tonight due to the fact I fell asleep, but it sounds like it was probaly a good thing I missed it. I am thrilled to see the old Chipper again. Chipper is still only one piece of the puzzle that is the 2006 Atlanta Braves that needs to fall into place if this team has any hope for the WC.( New objective for JS, RELEASE TODD PRATT NOW!!) One more thing congrats to Kevin Barry and if he can start let him start, if he can close let him close but he needs to be out there more than every couple nights.
Link
In case anybody was wondering, Marcus really hates hitting leadoff.
Also, condolences to the Francoeur family on the death of his grandfather.
The way this team rotation is pitching- with a starting pitcher blowing up once per time through the rotation- Kevin Barry’s current role as a long man isn’t the worst of ideas.
From the numbers, I think it’s clear the Braves have at least six backup catchers superior to Pratt currently under contract- Carlos Mendez and Dax Norris in Richmond, Salty in Mississippi, Max Ramirez and Cody Clark in Rome, and Tyler Flowers in Danville. Salty and Ramirez are the only real prospects in the bunch (at least, until we see more of Flowers), but any of these other guys can start one game a week without killing the team.
There was a Washington Times story about the two Kolbs a year or so ago but it’s gone for whatever reason.
The one who pitched for the Braves is Daniel Lee Kolb, the one in the minors is Daniel Joseph Kolb, I remember that.
Brian J. what about Brayan Pena? I mentioned that he should be playing over Todd Pratt last week and I was told that Bobby doesn’t want two young catchers on the team. But Pena was playing pretty good when he was in the majors earlier this year and Pratt is supposed to play defense but I haven’t seen him do anything that a decent catcher can’t do. And he can’t hit for sh**. He needs to be sent down.
I could not agree more about Pratt. Seriously, if this team was 10 games up in the standings, then it could afford to have a “veteran mentor/great clubhouse presence” who can’t hit a lick, but as we all know, this team is not. If Pratt does not at least provide solid defense by throwing out a few runners, then what exactly is he on the team for ? Bring Pena up, for crying out loud. If they can drop Remlinger (who Bobby has to have loved a lot more and was loyal to) because of ineffectiveness, then why can’t Pratt be replaced with Pena ? I just don’t understand it.
I guess the last 2 days should make us realize June wasn’t a fluke. This team isn’t going to play .800 ball the rest of the year and win the wildcard. Time to retool so the next few years aren’t the same story.
I read in the AJC that Ramirez hurt his hamstring in the 1st inning. What is the deal with sending pitchers out there hurt to get shelled? We need Ramirez pitching well in the second half. What is gained by making him fight through an injury right before the All-Star break? Barry should have come in to start the 2nd. He has been fantastic. I don’t know whether the Braves are better off trying him at setup/closer or keeping him in long relief which unfortunately is a job they use much too often this season.
I don’t get the need for a veteran catcher. Hire Eddie Perez or somebody to be a catching coach in the dugout and get a younger catcher who can actually, you know, play to backup McCann. Pena looked very solid in his callups earlier in the year. Why not release/trade Pratt and call him up?
I wonder how many weeks we’ll have to have Sosa giving up homeruns before Braves brass gives up on him and tries something else. Do you guys realize if Sosa hadn’t had his career year last year the Braves most likely would have finished below .500 and out of the playoffs last year? Now he has reverted to form. We need to take a cue from Tampa Bay find some dumb team to trade him to for a utility infielder.
So Giles doesn’t like leading off and he hasn’t been very good at it. So why isn’t Edgar in there? I’m sick of hearing about how the Braves don’t have any alternatives. Hello? Flip-flop 1 and 2 in the batting order. Done.
when will we completely shut down a team, the last time we kept someone from scoring was May 1st against Colorado, we won 2-0. Time for Smoltz to completely shut them out.
or time for someone to help their own cause, Willis hit a grand slam against the Mets last night. Someone might have put it on the other thread, there’s no reason for me to go back and read those threads.
move Barry to a starter role and let Thomson try closing, or just give Barry the ball until he fails.
This was on the Atl Braves website this morning. “With Sosa’s propensity to allow the long ball, Ken Ray will likely be getting the majority of the Braves’ save opportunities. Sosa would likely move back into the top setup role if the club is fortunate enough to land a proven a closer via the trade market. “
We’ll get that closer on July 31 and it will be to late.
Should have been done in May.
Sosa has no business starting or pitching meaningful relief innings for this team. He should be at the bottom of the depth chart and only come in for games like last night when it’s already hopeless. You can’t have the league leader in homerooms closing or pitching setup if you want to win games. (Maybe the Braves don’t?)
Sosa should go to PNC Park and throw the balls during the Home Run Derby.
He’s become and expert at that
No no no! Otherwise, it’ll go on forever!!… on second thought, that’s a good thing, heh heh heh.
This is sad: Sosa also had a league-worst .383 opponents’ average with runners on base, and a .359 mark with runners in scoring position, worse than anyone on the team except former closer Chris Reitsma (.438).
It’s great when your “closers” can’t get people out when there are runners on base.
Its great when your “closers” cant keep the runners from getting on base too.
Some people think Eddie Guardado would have solved that problem long-term. Anyone agree?
Guardado was pretty decent in 2004 (18 saves, 2.78 era) and 2005 (36 saves, 2.72 era)
But this year he’s 1-3 with an era of 5.25 with 8 hr’s given up in just 24 innings pitched.
I’m not sure he would’ve been the long-term answer, but you never know.
No, Sam. This season, Guardado has also surrendered a 324/404/459 line with runners on and 8 HR in 24 innings- an even higher HR rate than Sosa. He may be marginally better than Sosa, but there’s a lot of room between Sosa-quality and major league-quality.
I need Jenny’s help. I have tried to watch the FOX games on MLB.TV last week and now this week and it’s telling me that the “connection was refused when trying to contact the proxy server that you have configured. Please check your proxy settings and try again.” After you gave me that IP address last time, it worked great for a couple of weeks, but now, no dice. It’s not just when I try to load the MLB.TV but when I try to go to any page with the IP that you gave me. Do you have any other ideas or maybe another IP I could try ??? Thanks as always for your help.
I read in the AJC that Ramirez hurt his hamstring in the 1st inning. What is the deal with sending pitchers out there hurt to get shelled? We need Ramirez pitching well in the second half. What is gained by making him fight through an injury right before the All-Star break? Barry should have come in to start the 2nd.
Sometimes the manager has to rely on the player’s self-reporting about these things. Horacio said it didn’t bother him to throw, so what are you gonna do? Especially when we made MIlton throw all of six pitches in the bottom of the first — there wasn’t much time to go to plan B.
The proxies tend to stop working after awhile, I don’t know why. I get them off a Red Sox website when they aren’t on national TV and people get blacked out on MLB.TV, but unfortunately they are this week, so the computer guy there hasn’t put up a new one, since everyone can just use their televisions. Maybe there will be a new one up next week. Sorry I can’t help this time.
During the past month we’ve lost games against Russ Ortiz, Josh Towers, Eric Milton, Ramon Ortiz, Fernando Nieve, Ricky Nolasco, Wandy Rodriguez, Tim Corcoran, John Lester and Ted Lilly just to name a few..
Those are games you have to win, especially if you have ANY hopes of contending.
Nolasco, Lester, and Lilly – I can handle. The rest are a bunch of scrubs
Hey, crazy idea for y’all.
Rumor out of NYC is that the Yanks are looking to either trade or dump Shawn Chacon. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’ve never liked the guy. I think he walks too many and doesn’t strike out enough, BUT he did “close” for Colorado a few years back, pre-humidor.
So maybe we bring him down to sea level, let him spend some time with the Second Spitter, and see if he can bring back that closing feeling. The Yanks were talking about sending him to Seattle for Pineiro who got bombed yesterday, so I bet we could beat that offer pretty easily.
BTW, I can’t believe I just suggested we get Shawn Chacon. Must take shower…..feel so cheap and dirty….
Don’t worry Charlie..
Strange things happen to people when they have to watch Reitsma and Sosa try and save games over an extended period of time..
Sometimes a change of venue can help, although I gotta say that Chacon has been brutal this year. Even last year when he was “good,” he was wriggling out of trouble all the time.
Jenny, thanks for the try. If you come across another one, please post it and I’ll keep my eyes open for it. I live here in New Mexico now and we get blacked out of DBacks AND Rockies games for reasons that I haven’t yet figured out, so I was using it to watch those games as well. It’s awfully frustrating when the Braves play either one of those teams and I can’t watch even though we’re 500 miles from either Phoenix or Denver, but I digress.
If the Braves get Shawn Chacon I swear I will throw up all over the place. Being from Colorado originally I know all about Chacon. He’s from Greeley and was supposed to be the first hometown star for the Rocks but his attitude was the main reason why he got shipped out of town. Dare I say that his closing “experience” was KolBB and Reitsma-esque. Make that worse than those two.
Program Alert: BILL JAMES on TV, Monday, 9 pm, Discovery Science Channel
The show is called “Baseball’s Secret Formula”
Here’s a review:
http://www.nypost.com/entertainment/sorting_sox_entertainment_mike_battaglino.htm
It’s also airing:
7/11 @ midnight
7/11 @ 4 am
7/11 @ 10 am
7/11 @ 2 pm
7/15 @ 5 pm
Call me crazy but I fail to see how a 805 OPS is more effective than a 922. But that’s just me.
I’ll watch just because I normally enjoy James’ stuff, but this oughta be real cute.
That caught my attention, too.
Sounds like a situational hitting thing. I do NOT see how it can be otherwise.
Sounds like a situational hitting thing. I do NOT see how it can be otherwise.
Wait, I know why. Damon is a leadoff hitter. More importance is put on scoring runs than driving in runs, remember.
Also, Andruw’s OBP in 2005 was .003 above the NL average. (.347 – .344) Damon’s was .034 above the AL average. (.366 – .332) How much you want to bet he brings that up?