ESPN.com – MLB – Box Score – Dodgers at Braves
I still really love beating the Dodgers.
Brian McCann was back in the lineup, and he produced immediately, driving in two runs with a two-out double in the first. John Smoltz cruised through the first three innings. He loaded the bases on three singles with none out in the fourth, but got out of it with a popup, a strikeout, and a flyout on which Willie Harris made a nice play to save two runs. And John pretty much cruised from there on, striking out six against six hits and two walks in seven innings of work. The Dodgers have essentially no power — the Ghost of Luis Gonzalez, their cleanup hitter, leads the team with four homers, and fifth-place hitter Russ Martin leads them with a .462 slugging percentage, which would be eighth on the Braves — so they have to nickel-and-dime you to death. Yeah, signing Juan Pierre was a great idea.
Francoeur had another big two-out hit, a bases-loaded double in the fifth to score two more. And that was it for the scoring. Pierre screwed up on that play, but other than that the Dodger defense was pretty great, making several good plays to save runs.
The hits were even at eight, but the Braves also walked eight times, versus two for the Dodgers, a primary reason that the game always seemed close to a breakout. Bobby used his bullpen aces, Gonzalez in the eighth and Soriano in the ninth, even though it wasn’t a save situation. Whatever.
McCann was 2-2 with two walks in his return. Harris also had two hits and was robbed of at least one more, and has completely left Langerhans in the dust. I remain unconvinced he can hit .280-.300 in the bigs, much less .455 which is what he’s doing now, but so far, so good, let’s ride it while we can.
I love Brian McCann. I have a mancrush on him, officially.
Great win today…and the Nets are winning too, so good day so far.
Added point: I am opposed to scoreboard-watching before the Fourth of July, but anyway… The Braves are probably better off if the Mets beat the DBacks. I figure, the Mets are going to be around all year, no matter what we do, the point is to get far enough ahead of the teams in the West that the race in the East is just for seeding purposes.
Mac, I guess you are not amazed by seeing Bobby using Gonzo and Sori tonight or you are indifferent about it?
I didn’t think about the point on beating D-Backs, and I agree with you definitely. Seems like there are four teams slowly seperating themselves from the pack in the NL.
The Brewers are slowly becoming a very very dangerous team.
It’s not what I would have done. I probably would have used Gonzalez in the eighth, but Kali in the ninth. I figure if something goes wrong, I’d rather have Soriano bailing out Yates than vice versa.
I wish we’d gotten a couple of more runs so Barry or Colyer would have been in play.
I thought the use of Soriano in the 9th was questionable. But I attribute it to scars from last season. Bobby wants to seal the deal on any win he can and not let any momentum move to the opposing side. Personally, I would have rather seen either Yates (I can’t quite believe I’m saying that) or Moylan pitching with Soriano in the bullpen, standing on the mound, and holding a ball should bad sh*t start to happen. And my reason for this is to have Soriano ready for tomorrow. On the other hand, we can’t predict what will happen tomorrow and we can now say with certainty that this game is a win–count it. So, I’ll stop second guessing Bobby for tonight. In conclusion, go Braves and the Mets must be destroyed.
Yates is pitching better this year
KJ up to a .472 OBP. Unbelievable.
Another Bagwell note… He’s one of only 12 players with 400 homers and 200 stolen bases. That’s not exactly a free pass to the Hall — Andre Dawson is one of only three players with 400 and 300, and he’s not in yet, and Canseco has similar counts to Bagwell — but it’s just a demonstration of an all-around player.
Both Sori and Gonzo are on pace to destroy their respective career highs in appearances and innings, which is the main reason why I want Bobby to save them from pitching in non-save situation. However, I guess Bobby doesn’t want to handle anymore late-inning excitements this season.
What a great week so far…beating the Phillies, shutting out the Dodgers, those hateful Dallas Mavericks being eliminated in the playoffs and their loudmouth jerk owner going home, and my Spurs moving to the 2nd round. A GREAT week indeed.
Back to a subject that’s being beaten to death in here, when are we calling in replacements for Davies and Redman? How many bad starts do these guys have to have?
Another Smoltz shutout is even more proof at the contract between our 1-2 starter and our 4-5 starters.
I don’t want to talk about it, Alex.
KJ with a .472 OBP and Frenchy with 27 RBIs, a decent walk rate and a .312 BA. Those were two of my biggest concerns to start the year and they are both coming through in a big way. As was also pointed out, Kali, my vote for Braves Journal whipping boy at the start of the year, is also looking good.
All we need is a 4th and/or 5th starter now. Looking at the minor league stats, we don’t have anyone who is eating a lot of innings (this is probably more because of management philosophy than anything else). Dan Smith and Matt Harrison are both averaging about 5-1/2 innings per start in AA and Lerew is close to that in AAA. My gut feeling is that McCay McBride is being groomed as a starter and may be up in a month or so if he continues to do well.
McBride might well get some starts, but he has yet to demonstrate that his problems with command or completely behind him….
Hey Stu, you go to the Vandy-UGA baseball game? (I’m assuming you did.) Too bad you didn’t get to see Price at his usual dominant self, although he did still only allow 3 earned in 7 innings with 8 K’s. And is anyone hotter right now than de la Osa? How close were his doubles to being home runs? I went to the game last Sat. against Florida where he jacked one on top of Memorial. Man, they are playing awesome right now!
Oh, and Go Braves!
McBride definitely isn’t ready – he’s walked 6 in 9 innings! However, knowing Cox’s style, if McBride turns it around as a starter and there’s still a spot when he’s ready, he’ll get priority over the other guys.
Yes, I was most definitely there.
I’m pretty sure de la Osa’s bases-clearing “double” in the 9th was actually a homerun — it appeared to hit off of a light stand behind the fence and come back. Didn’t need that extra run, anyway.
Great game to watch, though. Nice comeback on the road, even if it is Georgia, a pretty bad team this year. Price wasn’t dominant, but Pedro played some pretty bad defense behind him, and really only two or three of UGA’s hits were anything but seeing-eye grounders. And it sure is nice to have Casey Weathers to bring into those close-and-late games.
TD–I think that you are right that the Braves envision McBride as a possible starter. Tonight McBride actually pitched 3.2 innings without a walk and struck out 5, but gave up 6 hits and lost.
It truly is pretty astonishing how little power the Dodgers bring to the table. I kept harping on them being a real World Series contender until this series opened and I saw that they thought it was still the 80’s and they were the Cardinals of old. They will hit well, steal bases, but be a consistent scoring team? Hardly.
Did anyone else miss Furcal just a little when he threw out Renty? Man, that was a beautiful play.
Smoltz had his best game of the year and Coxy used the pen correctly. Maybe that was more astonishing than the Dodgers’ lack of power.
McBride just doesn’t seem like the kind of guy to count on. Didn’t amaze me at all last year either and was never a big fan of him when he was coming up through the minors.
TD–I think that you are right that the Braves envision McBride as a possible starter. Tonight McBride actually pitched 3.2 innings without a walk and struck out 5, but gave up 6 hits and lost.
I always enjoy it when the organization takes the counterintutive “you suck so much as a reliever – let’s make you a starter” tact. It’s the Roman Colon gambit.
I still say Smoltz-Hudson-James-Davies-Vulture is best option for the rotation.
Mac’s recap-awesome as usual.
The Braves’ hitters are working counts–working pitchers. It seemed every inning Bret Tomko looked up and he faced runners on first and second with less than two outs.
When Pierre misplayed that ball, Bret looked like he’d been punched in the gut. He was pulled before the next batter.
I’m gonna love this summer.
I don’t know if anybody has mentioned this or if it is entirely accurate, but Yahoo has Villareal starting on Tuesday.
If Woodward and Yates (not so much anymore) are the Mets’ Atlanta-infiltration unit, it looks like we’ve done them one better:
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/preview?gid=270505129
(Hey, they’re excited because he had an outstanding start with Triple-A New Orleans!)
Sosa was decent for us two years ago. But then again, I don’t expect that Sosa will ever resurface again.
Mark Bowman:
“Lerew for Tuesday? Even though pitcher Anthony Lerew has been impressive in his last two starts for Triple-A Richmond, there’s absolutely no indication that the Braves will use him to start Tuesday night’s game against the Padres. They need to fill the void that was created when they placed Mark Redman on the 15-day disabled list Tuesday.
Lerew, who has had some maturity and control problems in the past, tossed 6 2/3 scoreless innings against Charlotte on Thursday. In his five starts for Richmond this year, he has posted a 1.37 ERA and held opponents to a .211 battting average. High early pitch counts prevented him from completing at least five innings in any of his first three starts of the season.
While Lerew would be pitching on regular rest, the Braves must wait to see what happens over the course of the next few days. If Oscar Villarreal isn’t needed for long relief during any of the next four games, he would certainly be a prime candidate. He was 1-0 with a 3.50 ERA in four starts last year.
During Lerew’s past two starts, he’s completed 13 2/3 scoreless innings, surrendered just six hits and not issued a walk. McDowell says the reports show that the hard-throwing right-hander has found success with his sinker.”
FREE LEREW!
“I always enjoy it when the organization takes the counterintutive “you suck so much as a reliever – let’s make you a starter” tact. It’s the Roman Colon gambit.”
Strange, ain’t it? If a guy can’t pitch one inning without giving up multiple runs or walking the bases loaded, what makes some think over 5-9 innings they can be good? It makes no sense.
Didn’t Soriano start games in Seattle on occasion? Is there no thoughts of possibly converting him? I guess if we needed a #3 we might try it, but since we only REALLY need a 5, I guess he stays in the pen?
Dan–thought of you when I read Bowman’s piece–but has Lerew actually been recalled?
Joshtothemaxx–I think that we need two starters as Davies has yet to prove that he is ready to claim the #4 slot.
Lets keep Soriano in the bullpen. Eventually, we should get help from one or more of the following: Lerew, Harrison, Smith and even Reyes…
I think the Braves try to make Rafael Soriano a starter next year with Gonzalez (obviously) closing. I don’t think Soriano starts any games this season.
I need some advice–someone offered me Al Reyes for Tim Lincecum in a mixed Fantasy league. It’s a keeper league, but you only get 4 keepers, and I already have Bartolo Colon, John Smoltz, Jake Peavy, John Lackey, and Dan Haren (with Chris Capuano on the bench) as my starting pitchers. So what I’m saying is, there’s no guarantee Lincecum stays in my rotation next year.
Should I do the deal?
I think we need to see a few more decent outings before we start a FREE LEREW campaign. Yeah he’s off to a decent/good start in AAA, but it’s still early May.
I seriously doubt they’ll make Soriano into a starter next year. Smoltz, Hudson and James will still be around, and you’ll have Davies, Cormier, Villarreal, Harrison, Lerew, and probably others looking to fill those last two spots in the rotation. Plus, why dismantle that great bullpen after just one year? Making Soriano a starter — barring injury to either Smoltz or Hudson — just wouldn’t make a whole lot of sense to me.
Do you need saves, AAR? If you really need saves, do it.
We don’t need to rob anyone from the bullpen…they are going to used way too much as is.
Lerew could be useful, but it would be great to see him in Richmond for another month.
Saves?
Well, I could always use more saves. Right now I have Joakim Soria as a stopgap, with Armando Benitez (a bit frightening) and Huston Street (solid enough) as my main guys. If I have four closers, I’m pretty sure I’ll win the saves category.
My mistake. I mixed up Anthony Reyes and Al Reyes.
Man, there’s going to be a lot of groundballs today…Hudson and Lowe, lots of sinkers.
I think we’ll have two gaps in the starting pitching staff, not one. Davies has one more shot. If he’s as bad control-wise as he has been, he’s going to Richmond. I don’t know who we’ll bring up. It would be nice to see Lerew pitch effectively in Richmond for more than a couple of starts before bringing him up. I’m not sold on McBride as a starter either, especially if the Vulture becomes a starter. With Villareal and McBride pitching we are going to have two starters who even when they pitch well can only make it to the 5th. That’s pretty stressful for a bullpen that doesn’t have many multi-inning guys (Moylan? Barry?). But, despite this, the Braves are in first place. Go Braves!
I still say moving Soriano to the rotation at any point is a very bad idea. We just now got our bullpen straightened out and you wanna screw it up again? Perhaps Kali will become solid enough next year to take over a setup job, but that’s not a given, and asking anybody else down there to do it reminds me of last year all over again. We’d better be trading for another starter and have that fail before we even think about moving Soriano.
Dude, if you have Lincecum you should not trade him. This kid is going to do to the NL what Liriano did to the AL last year, and he’ll be awesome next year, too (Barring injury).
I don’t think Soriano as a SP is a good idea, with Wickman out now, they’ve already established Soriano as the default closer and Gonzales as the set-up man. Both of them look really comfortable. Don’t mess it up.
I wouldn’t panic and make a trade either. Not unless it’s for a major-league ready young arm that will be here as a 4th or 5th starter next year. We don’t need another one-year washed-up veteran rental.
If Davies settles down then I think the last spot in the rotation would be just as well off calling up an arm. Who’s our new Travis Smith?
This is completely off topic, but I just got a puppy! It’s a chow mix.
Just to clarify, I don’t think we need to make a trade yet, either. I would continue to plug along with Davies, at least for awhile.
I do think Redman needs to be replaced, but the first choice should be to try Vulture in the slot, second choice should be to call somebody up from Richmond and see if they can do it, the third choice should be to make a trade and only if none of that works do we even consider moving Soriano, and after considering it, I still probably don’t do it.
And if Cormier comes back healthy, you can plug him in there between Vulture and call-up from Richmond as the second choice (I actually think he would be first choice were he healthy, but he’s not at the moment) and move everything else back a slot.
King Diamond, that’s kinda what I was thinking. Thanks.
I just talked to my local Marine Recruiter Alvin W. Bozeman….I’m really close to enlisting.
Ya’ll might not see me for awhile.
Chipper is the go ahead. Get one.
The great freaking hero, Andruw Jones. How much are we supposed to spend on him and his fleet of cars this offseason? God he pisses me off. arrrrrrggg.