ESPN – Cubs vs. Braves Box Score, June 10 2007 – MLB
So with two out and nobody on in the first, Cubs starter Ted Lilly hit Edgar Renteria up high. There was some milling around on both parts, during which Lilly got himself ejected. This was unfortunate, because the ESPN announcers would not shut up about how awful this was for the poor Cubs. Though the Cubs bullpen actually pitched pretty well, holding the Braves to two runs through the seventh, it’s obviously an awful burden. Meanwhile, Renteria had to leave the game later with an injury and was replaced by Woodward, who is awful and left five men on in two PA. Sheesh.
Meanwhile, Buddy Carlyle pitched well through four, but gave up two runs to tie it in the fifth and a homer in the sixth to give the Cubs the lead. Bobby probably should have hit for him in the bottom of the inning but let him stay in, which hurt when Carlyle allowed another homer to make it 4-2, and he couldn’t get through the inning anyway.
The Braves finally rallied in the eighth. Saltalamacchia hit a double to lead off and Thorman of all people followed with one to make it 4-3. Harris singled to make it first and third, then stole second, and KJ was intentionally walked. Escobar hit into a double play, but the tying run scored. McCann, pinch-hitting for Woodhead, walked. Then the Cubs’ pitcher, Ryan Dempster, threw a 3-2 pitch to Andruw in the dirt allowing Harris to score with the go-ahead run.
Paronto picked up the win with an inning and a third of relief, pitching out of a jam of mostly his own making in the eighth. Wickman gave up a couple of noisy flyouts in picking up the save… The Braves had twelve hits, and left that many on base. It wasn’t the most efficient offensive outing, that’s all I’ll say.
I’ll take it.
Despite how abysmal this team has looked, they’re still only 2.5 out of the division, 2 out of the WC. We have a playoff lineup, if Bobby would just learn to play them all at once.
Go Braves.
BOB: “What would you say ya DO here?”
WOODWARD: “Look, I already told you! I back up the infield positions so these other guys (points at Escobar, Prado, Orr) don’t have to! I have baseball skills! I am good at dealing with pitching!”
I’ll take it too.
I got home just in time to see Paronto load the bases, and magically get three outs without anyone scoring. Salty just missed a dinger leading off, and Lee’s dumb decision to not guarding the line in a two-run game got Thorman one too. Good to see our team rally, and hopefully we can keep this up.
Buddy did all right tonight. For four, he was dominating, and through six did what we’ll be pleased to have him do all year long. It was a bit much to leave him in there in the 7th, but I suspect it had more to do with the small bench than it did with anything else.
Also Woodward sucks ass. He must be destroyed, and his body must be covered over with enough salt to keep it from ever holding moisture again. For effect, a repetition: Woodward delenda est!
And finally, Go SPURS!
HAHAHAHAHAHA! Nice, Chuck.
“What the heck is wrong with you people? I HAVE PICTURE SKILLS!”
Good to win back-to-back games again. When was the last time we’ve done that?
Somewhere after the top of the eighth inning Chip Carey was saying, “The Cubbies missed a great chance there, not getting anything with bases loaded and no outs. Look for the Braves to score here, as teams so often do after an inning like that because the momentum swings into the other dugout. The Cubbies, really needed to score there. We, I mean they, will probably regret not being able to seal the deal there. Let’s hope not.”
Unfortunately, the Braves did have to choose that inning to score and take the lead, so now we’ll have to put up for an indefinite period of time with Chip both saying that it is fact the other team scores after a bases loaded no out situation, and moaning about how the poor “Cubbies” just can’t win.
Also, I do not trust our 4-5 hitters at all. After McCann walked in the 8th, I thought “oh no, we’re not going to score here.” Sure enough, if it weren’t for a Cubs mistake, we wouldn’t have. We need to find a way to get Diaz and Harris into the lineup every day.
Harris is Superman, I’ve decided. I keep waiting for him to cool down, and he just doesn’t. If he’s another Chuck Thomas, let’s ride him for the whole season then trade him before his value plummets. Salty’s pretty cool too.
hahaha! good one, Chuck G.
“What’s WRONG with you people?!”
Willie Harris is awesome.. and FREE SALTY!!
Woodward makes me miss Todd Pratt.
I will never miss Todd Pratt.
Chip Carey needs to go back to Chicago with his Cubbie loving chatter.
What a complete bonehead.
Chip Caray and Pete Orr for Rich Hill. Make it happen, JS.
So was it just talking, no punches thrown or anything like that?
How about Chip Caray and Chris Woodward for Harry Caray’s glasses and a half-finished Rolling Rock?
No punches. Thorman and Paronto looked ready to throw down
Thanks Hate King…Yeah Thorman and Paronto look like bouncers, we have a team that has some people that look like they’ve been a bar fight or seventeen…Wick, Paronto, I’m sure Gonzo would be down for some fisticuffs…and we all know how lethal Woodward can be with a bat when it comes to bodily harm.
Bob: Chris, it looks like you’ve been missing a lot of opportunities to drive in runs lately.
Chris Woodward: I wouldn’t say I’ve been “missing” them, Bob.
nice win and it is great to salvage a series tie against a pretty good team. A few comments:
– Buddy Carlyle is at least giving the team a chance to win. there is a reason he has pitched all over, but he showing some moxy and getting the most of what he has to work with. he is certainly better than Redman, Cormier and Lerew.
– The Lilly ejecttion was a joke. It was n 0-2 pitch that got away. he was trying to move him off the plate so he could back door the curve — just like he just did with Escobar. It is amazing an umpire, brother of a major league pitcher, and man who watches baseball every day, did not see that. A complete over reaction.
– Salty and Harris need to be playing as much as possible. Harris is a spark and Salty looks like a hitter. They were both catalysts tonight.
-Rissa doesn’t trust the 4/5 hitters and neither do I. I’m surprised AJ didn’t swing at the Dempster fall down slider. He was flailing at the others despite some being up. After all this time pitchers still get him out teh same way. JF is improving, but he still perplexes me. After Dempster was all over the place tonight he swings at the first pitch and grounds meekly to SS. I really hate first pitch swinging, especially when a pitcher is laboring. Even more when his last pitch was one where he fell down.
-Agree with Mac…Bobby went too long with Carlyle, but he was trying to milk another inning for the pen so I can see his logic.
-the Braves really scratched and clawed, which is good to see.
-Probably good Lilly was tossed for no other reason he is another finesse lefty the Braves have such problems with. He looked awfully good for the 3 hitters he faced.
-Soriano can bite me. When you hit 3 bombs, hang over the plate, take big cuts at everything and pose on warning track shots, you should expect to get moved off the plate from time to time. His griping at Hudson last night was just silly.
-Nice to see Thorman play well, both at the plate and in the field. I like the kid, but i’m still not sure what to do with him long term. It seems Salty will end up there and probably deservedly so if he can play enough defense.
-Down 2.5….after the last month i’ll take it. But Chipper, please hurry.
I agree, Salty should play everyday. Would it make things easier if McCann were to move to first? I mean, did anyone else see Salty try to play first a few games back?
hmm.. Hanan, wasn’t it a 2-0 pitch, not 0-2?
Dan….if it was I stand corrected. I seem to remember Joe Morgan making the observation too, but I could be wrong. Still, Lilly was dealing so I didn’t see why he’d want to start up with the head hunting. Even if he was I didn’t see a reason to toss him without benches being warned beforehand.
I think it was the perfect time (for the Cubs) for Lilly to throw at Rent. Early in the game, none on, two out, he figures he’ll hit Edgar and get the next guy to get out of the inning. But I also think it was crazy to toss him. I mean, what is baseball coming to? The league has gotten way too harsh on the whole beanball/retaliation thing, and tonight it was taken to the extreme. Don’t get me wrong, I love seeing the opposing starter leave in the 1st inning, but I still disagree with the decision.
And did anyone else, when Jon said that Pete Orr has come in to pinch-run, think to yourself, ‘That’s not Pete Orr, that’s Chuck James, b*tch!’?
I did. It was funny.
I like how Andruw brought his bat with him when the dugouts cleared. Granted he was on deck, but its more fun to think that he was read to start hacking away.
Those ESPN announcers pissed me off tonight. They would not shut up about the d@mn Lilly ejection (which, I agree, was totally wrong), but when players which much of the world had not seen or heard about yet (Salty, Escobar), they did not mention a single thing about them. Even as Salty laced a line drive single they didn’t bother to talk about him – errrr………..
A nice and kind of surprising win for the Braves. I missed the first half of the game: does anybody know if Renteria’s injury is serious?
After all this misery, we’ve actually picked up a game on the Mets. What does that tell you?
Was driving back from D.C. to NYC today, really blazing along, trying to catch “The Sopranos” by 9 pm. We got to Manhattan around 8 & decided to stop into our favorite Irish pub instead. The owner, a 44-year-old Mets fan who detests the Braves & refuses to step foot in Yankee Stadium (great guy, actually), sees me & my girl walk in & he says, “I got the Cubs game on for you.”
He really knows how to give you an understated dig.
Two pints into the game, we said, “Hell with ‘The Sopranos,’ we’ll watch the Braves & catch the HBO West Coast version at midnight.”
Glad we did. Comeback wins help you sleep at night.
AJC: “Renteria, in an ace bandage after the game, said he would be ready to play Tuesday, but Cox wasn’t as sure.”
Thanx Big D.
Jon Miller was really bad tonight. My favorite was the bases loaded double play: DeRosa to Salty to Thorman.
Another example a manager should never bring in a closer for two innings if the closer does not named either Rivera or Smoltz. However, Lou really had no choice tonight.
Lou is handcuffed, he has a bullpen like ours last year, no one dependable….
This was a good win. It would have been awful to lose a game like this considering the depleted state of the Cubs’ pen.
I want Woodward to be released as much as anyone, but I’ll have to give him credit for starting the home to 1st DP in the 8th. Escobar could have probably done it also, but whatever the case, that saved us.
As frustrating as it’s been lately, it’s encouraging to know that some of the NL leaders are going through something similar. Milwaukee and the Mets are stinking it up right now!!! You gotta’ love it – especially the Mets!
Bigfoot, i actually saw that play. you see, derosa was running to 3rd, and seemingly forgot that he was no longer a brave, barehands the ball, and chunked it home. it was amazing and bizarre at the same time. those espn announcers are just TOO damn good! FREE SALTY!!!
How bout that, David Wright after yesterday’s game vs. Detroit:
“They probably have the best one-to-nine [lineup],” Carlos Delgado said of Detroit.
Wright agreed.
“These guys or the Braves are probably the two best teams that I’ve seen,” he said.
That was nice of David Wright because I heard Wright on the Radio a few days ago state that as long as the Mets are healthy, no in the NL should be able to compete with them.
I think David Wright should run for office. He know how to speak out of two sides of his mouth.
And god, to hear Mets fans talk about this guy like he’s an effing religious icon. My brother, the Mets fan, speaks of Wright like he’s Mother Theresa meets Buzz Lightyear. It’s rather sickening.
http://www.ajc.com/sports/content/sports/braves/stories/2007/06/10/0611bravesnotes.html
Welcome back Chipper?
I can ONLY PRAY along with everyone else in BravesJournal that the Braves keep Yunel Escobar up (even in a part time role) and finally, for the love of all that is good & holy, get rid of Chris Woodward.
Why is it the perrogative for the Braves clubhouse to always feel like a homeless shelter for really awful players over the years (Bret Boone, Andy Ashby, Keith Lockhart, Chris Reitsma, Dan Kolbb, Woodward, Tom Martin, Todd Pratt, Eddie Perez, etc.)
Seriously, we continue to give $$ to people who should be paying US for the privilege of calling themselves major league ballplayers.
Chip should send Miller and Morgan a thank you note–their harping on the Lilly ejection (and their other blunders like the Orr/James confusion) makes one pine for the tater tot and limeade blather of Chip and Joe.
Good to see Thorman with some productive offense, but he still had a limp pop.
Question: How bad is Escobar’s defense at short? Even if he’s a little worse than Renteria out there, I’d be ok keeping him up as long as it means Chris Ward goes back down.
This is the 2nd email I’ve sent to the ESPN ombudsman in the past 2 months. Both of them about Joe Morgan being completely unbearable.
Follow up: I hate ESPN even more because of the “National Blackout” on my mlb.tv. Thankfully, I was able to get Braves radio.
Joe Morgan, at this point, need to have tape over his mouth and at the very least, punched really hard in the face a few times.
Sorry if that’s too mean for some, but last night was particularly unbearable. His raging bias for 1-2 innings I could have handled and gotten over. The fact that he and HIS ENABLER, Jon Miller, WOULDN’T. SHUT. UP. FOR. THE. ENTIRE. GAME. was too much for all of us to listen to.
Thank Gawd I was able to watch “The Sopranos” and my Spurs win Game 2 of the NBA Finals so that I only had minimal time actually listening to them since i had the game on in the silent, picture in picture part.
Any sense if Renteria is truly hurt or if it was just a pretense to get him out of the game before he might get a hard slide at 2B?
I want Woodward to be released as much as anyone, but I’ll have to give him credit for starting the home to 1st DP in the 8th. Escobar could have probably done it also, but whatever the case, that saved us.
The bases wouldn’t have been loaded except for Woodward’s error leading off the inning.
Woodward is lame but I favor him over Orr b/c he can play all infield positions. Orr can’t play SS. Woodward might even be a less awful hitter than Orr.
Woodward is awful. If they send Yunel down when Chipper is activated, I’ll join a chorus of you in screaming (and perhaps vomitting). Yunel has shown that he belongs up here. And between Chipper and Edgar, we need a solid defensive player. Plus, unlike Woodward or Orr, he can hit (and not just pop-ups with bases loaded).
Francoeur talking about the rally: “It was big…for us to be able to come back like that and do what we did, after that whole thing. We knew if we could see some pitches tonight and get some runners on, we’d force their bullpen to get thin.”
Am I batsh1t crazy, or did he not swing at Dempster’s first pitch and weakly ground out to end the inning? Who is this ‘we’ he’s refering to?
Yunel is trade bait. They won’t send him down.
If anyone here likes pro wrestling… wrestleball.blogspot.com
Also, is anyone here an independent wrestling fan? Like, CZW and ROH?
The NL race is really close at this point. There is no team moving away from the competition. The Mets looked like they might a week ago or so but they are as inconsistant as the Brewers, Padres, Dodgers. Even though the Braves looked pretty mediocre since May, so have most other potential contenders. It’s a close one and really up for grabs this year, I think.
time,
Another key for the Braves is winning as many season series with WC rivals (and the Mets) as possible in case of possible ties. By winning yesterday, we finished 1 game up on the Cubs, head to head. That was key. We currently have 2 of 3 over the Dodgers and 3 of 4 over the Padres, among others. We also still currently have a 1 game head to head lead over Philly.
It’s really key for the Braves that they continue to win as many of the overall series as possible. the one team that seems to have a hold on us is Florida.
I meant timo…sorry!
I don’t know if this was discussed in the game thread, but wouldn’t Willie Harris have been a much better option to replace Renteria, since Escobar moved to short anyway? It’s not like Woodward’s a wiz at third (as evidenced by the error late in the game) and Willie looked okay the one time he played over there.
joshtothemax–I really liked your comment yesterday about the Southern quality to Braves’ broadcasts. As someone living outside the South it is a pleasure not only to listen to the Braves announcers, but just to hear some of commericals. WGST brings Atlanta (and with it bits of the South) out and for that I am grateful….
I guess that I am glad that I did not have to listen to Joe Morgan. ESPN here had Tennis and FOX (which sometimes carries baseball) had golfing lessons….
The NL is a joke. That’s the only thing that will save the Braves.
It was a nice win (and I thought Buddy did fine–you can’t expect a journeyman to pitch 3 hit shutouts) but I would much prefer that they score some runs, get ahead and pound teams. The middle of the order is just not very good until Chipper gets back.
I actually dreaded the game being on ESPN because I would have to listen to Miller and Morgan. A lot of people love Miller, but I find him annoying and listening to Morgan, who after 20 years doing this, is still completely inarticulate, drives me nuts. Fortunately, with TIVO, I was able to watch “The Sopranos” live and watch the good parts of the game without being subjected to Miller and Morgan. But Morgan was right about one thing–Lilly’s ejection was absurd. If he was going to throw out Lilly, they should have thrown out Hudson the night before (although I certainly think a guy that hangs out over the plate like Soriano is asking for it. In the old days, a guy like Bob Gibson or Don Drysdale would have buried Soriano and told him to like it.) Umpires should be there to control the game but not be the stars themselves. Throwing the starting pitcher out in the first inning because “he expected” him to hit someone is ridiculous and makes a mockery of the game. And then Renteria takes an utterly cheap shot at the second basemand and nothing happens. If I was the Cubs, I would go after Renteria next year because that was inexcusable.
Dan and Hanan, I just checked Gameday and Dan was right, it was a 2-0 pitch that plunked Edgar.
I told you guys I would take care of buisness on Saturday.
That was a great win last night. We have to find a way to get Salty in the line up more.
Also, Thorman’s new nickname is “the King of Pop” Because of his great ability to pop the ball up all the time.
Alex…thanks for checking that…I stand corrected on the count and apologies to Wolfe for that. However, I still think he reached on tossing Lilly in that case.
Jayson Stark is on
Cold PizzaFirst Take….and they’re going to be talking about Andruw Jones…and his amazing catch.I agree with Marc’s comments about the ejection being ridiculous. I also agree that Joe Morgan needs to be stopped (there’s a pretty funny website called firejoemorgan.com I believe).
But one thing that continues to confuse me, year in and year out: why do managers insist on batting Soriano leadoff? Is it just because he steals an occasional base? Isn’t that just doing the opposing team a favor? I love managers.
I can’t believe we are only 2.5 games back. I know these next few series will be tough, but I’m really looking forward to seeing how the team responds. I like watching us play tougher teams. Even though we lost the Boston series earlier, it was one of my favorites to watch. The only thing that will be missing in the Twins/Braves series will be Kent Hrbeck at first. I was hoping to get some payback for him being such a friggin ogre.
I agree Adam.
I was at the game with some of my friends on Saturday. They are bot Cub fans. I asked why Soriano isn’t hitting 3 or 4, they said he didn’t have enough pop, I am like “what?” My order would be:
Pie
Fontenot (who looked really good)
Soriano
Lee
Rameriez
Floyd
Barrett
The Righ Fielder of the week
Pitcher
That lineup looks fine, but I’d figure DeRosa would go in the 2 hole for Fontenot.
I like Fontenot, I think he is going to be a good player for them.
Did anyone notice how badly the National League got beat up yesterday? In particularly Tom Glavine and the Mets getting clobbered by Detroit and the Royals bashing the Phillies. Also the Devils Rays grilled the Fish. Well at the least the Braves get to start off with the Twins, who barely avoided getting swept by the Nats. I hope our pitching is rested and ready to go…
Yeah, I liked Fontenot too, but DeRosa is obviously going to get a chance to go Neifi on them with that contract.
The Twins have a National League-style lineup–a couple dangerous hitters and a bunch of guys who can’t hurt you.
Well, it looks like I picked a good game to go to. It was an exciting game and apparently the ESPN announcers were insufferable.
First of all, there’s really no doubt in my mind that Lilly was throwing at him. The count is 2-0 and he misses that far up and in with a fastball? I think not. The umpire, however, was an idiot. I’m generally not a big fan of the immediate warning, but given that the game was about to get out of hand and that it was a carry-over from the night before, I think that even that was alright. But for what reason he threw Lilly out, I do not know. Also, I’m pretty sure that if Edgar had gone elbow-up on anybody other than a rookie just up from AAA, it would’ve gotten ugly. The game was teetering precariously on the brink as it was.
Having said all that, Buddy Carlyle is a better man than I. I don’t think I would’ve been able to resist throwing at Soriano in the seventh when he was intentionally walking him and it was the last hitter he was facing.
As for everything else:
-Renteria had better not be out long. If he is, we are completely screwed
-Chad Paronto is the luckiest man alive. Why are we still using him in those situations?
-While Woodward does suck, I would hope we would send Orr down instead of him. If nothing else, Woodward can play all four infield positions, whereas Orr can play two. I have this feeling it will be Woodward who goes out, though. After all, clearly we need an impotent left-handed bat off the bench
-Somebody should start shoving Francoeur down a flight of stairs every time he swings at the first pitch. I don’t care if he hits it 600 feet. It’s ridiculous. New rule for Francoeur only (although it threatens to be a team rule if the rest of the team doesn’t take heart, because they’re all pretty bad at this): Francoeur is not allowed to swing at the first pitch for the rest of the year. Ever! If he does, he’s fined the same way that somebody running through a stop sign at third would be. Oh wait, probably more…I’m sure by now when that happens, the offending player is rewarded with a fruit basket or something and Snitker is fined for being a moron.
Anyway, all in all a very exciting game and a lively crowd with all the jackass Cubs fans in attendance.
I have no complaints about Francoeur this year. He is really turning it around
This is from a few days ago, but here’s the video from that fight Mac was talking about….
“Renteria had better not be out long. If he is, we are completely screwed”
Probably. But I’m reading that Chipper is looking at coming back as early as tomorrow. If he does and he isn’t THAT rusty we’d be fine shifting Escobar over to short… if he can handle it that is.
You might have noticed that ever since he started on this ridiculous swinging at the first pitch every time thing, he hasn’t done squat.
Speaking of Francouer…I hope his power outtage doesn’t make him think he has to go after the 1st pitch. On Matt Diaz…I notice that Diaz recently has been doing very poorly with RISP, I wonder…well nevermind.
Anyone remember what Chipper did in his first game back last year?
Re the utility infielders:
Orr’s OPS = .447
Woodward’s OPS = .532
Tony Pena, Jr’s OPS = .660
Looks like the Braves should have kept TPJ and not pissed away $800k on Woodward.
Not to mention, Pena is the best defensive player of the bunch, which is really the good reason to have somebody like that.
The only good reason, I should say.
TP Jr. is getting regular at-bats, which definitely helps his numbers. They are all terrible, but TP is the better defensive player, and the only one that could get something of value in return, even if it is a pitcher with tommy john surgery.
Bottom line: they are all terrible.
The umpire had the best view of the pitch and saw that Lilly was throwing at Renteria face. He probabbly had visions of Renteria being maimed, dead or destroyed as player ala Tony C of the Red Sox
Or Joe “Ducky Wucky” Medwick.
As for tonight’s game, I must quote Randy Newman: “I love L.A.”
239.
Joe Morgan hates the Cubs ever since Ryne Sandberg got into the Hall of Fame, and Ron Santo inching ever closer, and possibly before that. I was suprised he was defending the Cubs in any way, shape, or form. But please. It has nothing to do with him.
Yes, I know that Lilly tried to brush back Renteria. But as an umpire, you can’t say you “were waiting for it” without a warning. If he knew he was going to do it, why didn’t he issue a warning.
Why didn’t Tim Hudson get ejected for hitting Alfonso Soriano for playing well the game before? There were warnings, but that was it.
Why didn’t Edgar Renteria get ejected for approaching the mound and starting this mess? Why didn’t Renteria get ejected for that obvious hard slide forearm first into Mike Fontenot on his ML debut? Fontenot is lucky he didn’t start bleeding. What the L?
And how about before calling The Cubs lineup full of scrubs, how about you look at our record with them up from AAA.
The umpires might have put on braves uniforms because the Cubs got hosed.
Is anyone gonna follow up?
As far as Soriano being hit by Hudson, Bobby claims they were simply trying to move him back off the plate since he leans in so much (honestly! accoring to BC). I have also heard that the HBP was more for Soriano trying to stretch a single into a double in a blow-out game, then the 3 homers.
Yea right. Renteria hovers over the plate just as much and it just brushed him. Also, Lilly wouldn’t have been thrown out if it wasn’t for Renteria walking towards the mound. And, the ump got played by Bobby Cox. You actually buy Hudson accidentally hitting Soriano? Even if it was intentional, at least Soriano didn’t throw a forearm into a rookie’s face. The picture is on desipio.com . That is NOT an accident. There are much cleaner ways to break up a double play. We would have won that game if Lilly stayed in because we wouldn’t have had to leave the descision of the game to… ugh … Ryan Dumpster. Don’t even try to justify what Renteria did, or what that umpire did.