ESPN – Braves vs. Marlins Box Score, June 30 2007 – MLB
Kali saves the day!
Two games in one, really. For the first five innings, the Braves were completely stymied by Byun-Hyun Kim, held to one hit — by Andruw, of all people. In the sixth, Willie Harris singled and stole second, Renteria walked, and Chipper singled Willie in to tie the game at one.
Game Two began in the eighth inning, when basically everybody started having problems. The Marlins’ defense and pitching were screwed up, the umpires went blind, and the Braves kept trying to run themselves out of a big inning only to get bailed out by said bad defense and umpiring. Armando Benitez was pitching for the Marlins, which won’t surprise anyone who’s seen Armando Benitez pitch. Harris led off with a walk, then stole second again, but this time Renteria doubled over Amezaga’s head in center to give the Braves a 2-1 lead.
Chipper grounded out to short, but Renteria broke and was thrown out, only to get called safe. (Actually, he was out twice, the throw beat him and then he came off the bag.) Andruw lined out, then McCann was walked. Francoeur singled up the middle. The throw to the plate was cut off, even though they might have had a play on Chipper. McCann was called out at third but the umpires then said that he was interfered with and so he was safe. KJ then doubled off that stupid wall to make it 5-1, Saltalamacchia was walked, and Diaz singled to make it 6-1.
It might have been better if KJ could have scored on that play to make it 7-1. Soriano gave up a solo homer to Uggla to make it 6-2. Wickman came in to pitch the ninth and had nothing. He allowed back-to-back doubles to make it 6-3, then after getting one out allowed a homer to make it 6-5. Bobby had seen enough and brought in Yates, who struck out Hanley Ramirez and then got Uggla to fly out to end it.
The Braves were outhit 11-9 but drew five walks to the Marlins’ one. Francoeur probably had the best day, with two hits, one run scored, and two RBI… Hudson had a good game. He allowed seven hits, five of them singled with two doubles, but struck out six and walked only one. A lot of the hits were leadoff, but he kept getting out of jams.
While Edgar was definitely out once, he wasn’t out twice, as Cabrera didn’t keep the tag on him. I don’t really get why you’d say that.
Also, free Salty and Buddy Hernandez
Great win today. With TBS being the only outlet for me to watch Braves baseball, I got to watch this game without having to leave the house. Good to see Hudson working out of jams, pitching well when he needed to, and bringing a good K/BB ratio.
I think we can also close the book on any hope of a Mark Buerhle-to-Atlanta deal. While we could probably out-bid anyone in the league, there’s no way this cat’s coming to Atlanta. I was listening to Game Night on XM (great host, by the way), and Mark Buerhle turned down a 4 year, $56 million contract with Chicago because of Kenny Williams not offering a no-trade clause. I know this has been mentioned before, but not only does JS not give no-trade clauses, but there’s no way we can pay a pitcher $14M per year. Now, if Liberty Media increases payroll by about $6M, giving up some room to add a center fielder this offseason, then I would trade what it took to get Buerhle and sign him to a 6 year, $84 million deal (same money per year, but with two additional years). I would love the idea of having Smoltz/Hudson/Buerhle. But, we can pretty much close the book because this isn’t gonna happen.
Good thing Yates saved that game or else my TV would have had a couple holes punched threw it.
Let’s hope we kick ’em when they’re down and get the sweep tomorrow.
Buddy V. D-Train? By golly, I think we can do it!
Let’s Go Braves!
That tag was kind of iffy anyways, at least from one angle. I’d still say 85-90% out, though.
5 SB’s, 3 by Willie (maybe 4 if Chipper’s was Def. Indiff.). Mr. May (Treanor) seems to be limited offensively, and clearly isn’t a plus defensively. Surely they aren’t just keeping him around for the “team functions”? (Just occurs to me that BHK and ‘Mando have odd/slow deliveries, I think Chip mentioned running on Treanor specifically, though)
Fielder’s interference is rare, and there wasn’t a great angle of it. Leads me to believe that it was probably legit, or the Marlins pissed the umps off.
Speaking of,
Game Two began in the eighth inning, when basically everybody started having problems… the umpires went blind,
Must have been that 7th inning stretch!
Ba-dum-bum-bum-bum…chhhhhhhhhhhh.
Obstruction, rather (Wikipedia):
Type B obstruction occurs when the obstructed runner is not being played upon. The ball does not become dead; rather, the umpire calls “That’s obstruction!”, but play is allowed to continue. While play continues, the umpire privately decides what base the obstructed runner would have reached without the obstruction. The obstructed runner is now “protected” until he reaches that base. When playing action stops, the ball will become dead and the runner will be awarded that base if he has not reached it. If he was put out before he reaches that base, that out will be nullified and he will be awarded that base. If the runner reaches that base safely, the obstruction is ignored. If the runner continues past that base, he does so at his own risk, without protection. There is no minimum base award for type B obstruction.
What’s the deal with Soriano and Wickman when the games aren’t close? I was having Kolbesitsma flashbacks. Kali should have thrown that whole inning anyway. I know Bobby wanted to get Bob some work in, but that was just scary.
Stapler, my TV was also fearing for its well-being.
I would agree that Franceour played a huge role in the win. I’m disappointed in his power lately, but I still don’t get all the vitriole against him. He is a very young player and continues to improve. I think the HRs will come soon. During his recent struggles he was getting deep in the count at times, but almost seemed to be afraid of taking a walk when he had 3 balls. I think the walks will also come back (still not at the desired rate) in time.
Wickman is cursed in Florida.
rob,
as much as i would love to see Buerhle here in the near future, there is no way i’d sign him to a six year deal. he has too many miles on him to not expect a break down sooner or later. 4 years sounds a lot better and i’d pay an extra half M dollars a year not to have worry about having to deal with a Pedro type situation.
i still think Visquel might be the better acquisition from the sox.
@9
how awful would that have been if wickman would have blown another one of huddy’s games?
Pretty awful.
I am sure that’s what Bobby is thinking. That’s why he brought in Kali…and I can not believe Kali’s ERA is lower than Sori…
We don’t have to sign Buehrle to anything. Just take him as a rental for 2007 and let him leave via free agency.
Williams might pull a Bowden (Soriano last year) and keep Buehrle for the draft picks if they aren’t able to get a new contract done, but I think Williams will take a prospect or two and send him away by the trade deadline.
The White Sox aren’t years away like the Nationals, so it makes much less sense to settle for the draft picks.
Not that it made perfect sense for Bowden.
Boras wants a 9 game World Series:
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=ap-nine-gameseries&prov=ap&type=lgns
I think that I have to agree with Derek Jeter, but at least this is good material for a poll…
I agree that it would be better to rent Buerhle than sign him to a long term deal….but then I would not want to give up too much to get him…
2 more WS games only if they play the extra 2 (or all 9) in warm weather cities. Those games in 35 degree temps. where the fans look like they are in LambEau field don’t appeal to me. 2 more games=3 more days toward winter, for the last games…no thanks.
Frenchie’s pitches per plate appearance have gone up only slightly this year..it is improvement, but I think it needs a little more. Last year-2nd to last in the league-thie year 5th to last in the league. Last year he was right below replacement level; this year, a tad above it. He is getting slightly better, but he is nowehere near there, yet, despite all of the RBI’s and the .290 average.
Any up for trading Andruw now? Half way through the year at .199 means to get to his “normal” .265, he has to hit .321 the second half. Anyone out there want to bet on that happening?
A trade with the White Sox should be a piece of cake:
Yunel Escobar for Mark Buehrle. Done.
White Sox 2B Tadahito Iguchi is a free agent after this season. He is 32 years old and decent enough, but no star.
Escobar is 24 years old and should be able to provide a similar caliber of offense to Iguchi’s .280 avg/.350 obp/.420 slg right now, while costing the league minimum. In fact, Escobar has a .305 avg/.345 obp/.415 slg line currently. He can also handle 2B defensively.
And Escobar seems to have the tools to develop beyond Iguchi, so why resign the Japanese 2B when he’ll want more than the $5 million he’s making now?
Good for the White Sox. Good for the Braves. Perfect.
If they would go for it, so would I….
@17 -While it’s unlikely that Andruw would hit .321 from here out, I also wouldn’t want to bet the mortgage against it either. He IS a streaky player.
And Buehrle for Escobar? I’m sure Kenny Williams is thinking that he can get a lot more than an Escobar in return from Boston or either New York team.
Bfan,
With Andruw, it’s possible. He’s a really streaky player and if he gets his head on straight, he could do so. I’m not saying that he will (I rather think he won’t unless the contract thing is resolved). It certainly would be nice if he did, for if he hit .321 the rest of the way, it would go a long way in helping this team offensively. A big if, though.
Also, I checked out Baseball America’s Top 30 prospects for the Chicago White Sox, and they don’t even have a middle infield prospect until #19, #20 and #21. Nothing special.
For the record, Yunel is listed as our #10.
I would hate to lose Yunel because he’s given us a spark and is great to have as Chipper insurance, but as others have said many times, we have the middle infield prospect depth and Kelly Johnson is our 2B for the next few (several?) years anyway.
There’s no reason this deal shouldn’t get done unless someone comes over the top with a better prospect package.
Cary–I think that is Seat Painter’s point. Quality starters are hard to find and at least for trades Kenny Williams is in the driver’s seat.
Maybe it will happen: Escobar and a young arm such as Dan Smith or Will Startup. Williams might still want Parr, Harrison or Reyes which would be harder to bear….
In the two years previous to this one (so we are taking 2 and one-half seasons into account), the two HIGHEST averages Andruw has hit for any month are… .317 and .283. So his BEST 2 months over the last 2 and a half seasons, give you .300. He has never hit .321 for even a month over that period; not once, and has only hit near or over .300 only once.
I think Andruw is a sreaky HOME-RUN hitter. I think he could hit 30 for the year, and maybe he will (18 in a half-sesaon seems doable).
But hitting .321 the second half to get to .260? Not going to happen, and on the basis of that, I would bet the mortgage…
Isn’t it time to give some props to Kali? He is pitching awfully well. Maybe Bobby knew something after all.
As for Soriano, giving up a solo home run with a five run lead doesn’t bother me at all. His ERA is higher because of a couple of bad outings but he is fine. I think he should close rather than Wickman, although arguably, it might be better having him in the 8th inning to get out of jams. I count this as a blown save for Wickman although technically, he didn’t blow it.
And, did you notice that since the Tigers started playing AL teams again, they are losing? What does that say about the Braves?
Actually, I think that speaks to how bad the National League is as a whole.