ESPN – Braves vs. Indians Box Score, June 16 2007 – MLB
Is two games a win streak? Technically, I guess so. At any event, the Braves have now won two in a row, this game behind Smoltz, the bullpen, and Edgar Renteria. Renteria went 5-5, driving in two and scoring two. He was stranded after a first-inning single. In the third, the Braves moved into the lead with two runs; Renteria’s single in that inning came after those runs, but Chipper and Andruw struck out with a chance for more.
After the Indians’ lone rally, three straight hits in the third followed by a double play to tie the game at two, KJ tripled, Harris singled him home and stole second. Edgar doubled to make it 4-2, then came home on a McCann groundout. He singled again seventh but was stranded, then hit a homer to left with two out in the ninth to make it 6-2.
Smoltz allowed four hits in the third but only three in the other five innings he pitched, struck out seven Indians and didn’t walk any, and threw 86 pitches, 61 of which were strikes. He’s clearly still somewhat sore and trying to pitch efficiently, and doing a remarkable job of it.
Kali needed only eight pitches in the seventh. Soriano walked a guy but got out of it on a DP, and after the save wasn’t in order Moylan pitched a 1-2-3 ninth with two strikeouts.
Yes, hats off to the bullpen today & to Edgar, especially for negating Wickmania. Hopefully, we’ll need him tomorrow.
It’s a 7-9 month and we’re 1.5 out. Crazy.
It’s October ’95 all over agin.
Excellent win, Braves! I enjoyed that one even though the fox affliate here thinks that I care about the SF Giants and Boston. I also like the top 4 in the lineup today–moving Renteria to the 3 slot and inserting Willie is a great idea as it increases the chances of first inning strikes. And like many of you, I’m ready to see Andruw moved down to 6 at least, if not 7, until he works things out. But, that grousing is for another day. Today, the Braves win and all is good.
If not for the Wickman meltdown Thursday, the Braves would have won 3 in a row.
We needed this one badly. Just like we need the next 10 games:) The Twins series sucked plain and simple. The last game ripped us up. Good to see the Braves on a roll (uhm, two in a row).
Go Braves!!!!
The bullpen really shut down the Tribe today. And Moylan was throwing some nasty stuff there in the 9th.
Ron, if not for someone melting down, we would win all of our games.
not true, sometimes you just get out played.
Yeah, I was being sarcastic, but there’s always someone who doesn’t play well that causes you to lose. Whether the team is better or not is not the point.
Looks like Blaine Boyer’s first experience as a starter didn’t turn out too well – 2 IP, 5 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, and 1 SO. Though Trey Hodges had a nice relief outing with 4 IP, 0 ER, and 6 SO. Is the answer to be our 5th starter?
Just kidding about the Hodges thing. Now, which version of Kyle Davies will show up tomorrow? And, if he does poorly, does he get another start or will the Braves shake things up with him?
This might be old news–I’m on family vacation–but it looks like the Cubs are up to their fighting tricks again. Apparently the cause was Soriano acting like a hot dog again, though I think the Pads should have plunked him instead of Derrick Lee. Lee is supposedly a decent guy so don’t plunk him over what his a$$hold teammate does.
Trey Hodges isnt the answer to anything…..
The pitcher threw at Lee head just as Lilly threw at Renteria’s head. The bruise caused Renteria to sit out game and a half and in three games before today’s game he had gone 1-10.
Don’t throw at batter’s heads
Plus the Fox announcers were excited that Indians’ relever was throwing so well while down 3 runs. It is much easier to pitch when down as compared to close game
I don’t know, Paul, he looked really good until Renteria’s homer. Lefties with that kind of stuff are rare… At any event, if the Padres were going to throw at anyone, they’d throw at Soriano, who always deserves it.
any pitcher who allows Thorman to crank one to the wall loses a bunch of points in my book. Reverse the wind, and he allowed a HR to the worst hitter in the ballgame, and everyone wouldnt think he was such hot stuff
I know it’s just one game and he’s only pitched 18 innings so far, but from what I’ve seen, I wouldn’t mind the Braves trying to make a trade for Rafael Perez. He may not be the answer, but definitely would be a better answer than Hodges.
Does Wedge’s use of the bullpen so far appear odd to you guys? In the 1st game of the series he appears to have no confidence in his bullpen and let’s Sabatahia pitch to about 3 too many batters in the 9th (and 116 pitches). This game he pitches Perez for 4 innings. I know the DH makes the AL game a lot different, but is this normal even for the AL? I thought the trend was toward one and two inning specialists. – especially if the starter lasts 5 or more innings.
Thorman is struggling to be sure. And he’s unlikely ever to be one of the greats in the game. But he’s not the worst hitter in the game, not even close. Heck, he’s not the worst hitter on the Braves. That title goes to either Orr or Woodward (though I go back and forth as to which one is worse than the other).
I definitely think Thorman is better than how he is playing. With that said, I wish he would heat up so the Braves could get good value out of him if they decided to trade him. I really don’t want to see Salty traded, and I would love to see Thorman traded for some pitching with Salty at first.
We want the sweep!
We want the sweep!
We want the sweep!
PS. Woodward is still the worse hitter…
No way. Orr is definitely a worse hitter than Woodward.
Actually, Andruw is giving Orr and Woodward a run for their money lately. 69 strikeouts in 68 games! When will he break out of it? Thor only has 21 SO’s in 55 games. Of course Thor is the King of Pop-ups.
Sorry – Thor has 38 SO’s in 61 games. That’s still a lot better than AJ at this point.
Wait, wait, does that mean that 17 of Thorman’s Ks happened in 6 games?
Thorman is struggling to be sure. And he’s unlikely ever to be one of the greats in the game. But he’s not the worst hitter in the game, not even close.
I think Avery meant the worst hitter in this particular ballgame. Looking at the 18 hitters who participated in this game, I’m comfortable characterizing Thorman as the worst.
Does Wedge’s use of the bullpen so far appear odd to you guys?
Yup. Between eschewing the closer and going for a CG in the opener, and using Perez as a long man tonight, his bullpen management is about fifty years out of date.
yes – i would take Thorman over Orr and Woodward for sure, but they werent playing. Kelly Shopach might give Thorman a run for his money though.
The Indians had a bullpen nightmare similar to the Braves last year, and have Borowski as the closer this year. Understandable why he is not shy abt CC pitching CGs.
Bobby is overusing Soriano and Yates IMO.
I guess he figures they won’t be needed tomorrow with Davies pitching
Ouch, Godot. 🙁
It’s almost July and the Braves’ starting pitchers have a grand total of zero complete games. Kind of pathetic.
The Cubs didn’t have a complete game until late September last year, and I think they were the team nearest to ever going a full season with no pitchers on the team throwing even one complete game.
Robert, the reason Wedge didn’t use the closer was because Joe Borowski was unavaiable on Friday. He asked Sabathia if he could go one more inning and he said yes. It wasn’t a bad decision, it just didn’t work. If Borowski had blown the save, people would probably be wondering why he didn’t stick with the pitcher who just blew through the Braves in the seventh and eighth innings.
Dan,
the complete game has gone the way of the dodo bird. Now its quality starts. All a pitcher is expected to do these days is to get to the 7th inning.