ESPN – Reds vs. Braves Box Score, July 17 2007 – MLB
This sucks. Jo-Jo Reyes pitched pretty well, and probably earned another start, but gets hung with a loss. He allowed a couple of runs in the fifth while the Braves’ offense was getting shut down. In the seventh, he allowed a couple of singles and a sac bunt, then gave way to Moylan. Unfortunately, Moylan, after striking out the first guy, gave up a walk and a couple of singles to score both of Reyes’ runs and two of his own.
The Braves rallied off of Mike Stanton in the eighth, getting two runs on an Andruw homer and two more on a KJ triple. In the ninth, Chipper singled in Renteria with two out but Andruw flew out to the track to end it.
Reyes had no strikeouts at all. He’s got a bit of the Horacio in him, it seems, and that doesn’t work in the long term. Hopefully it’s just a phase; he’s struck out plenty in the minors… Saltalamacchia started at first base against a lefty for the first time, but went 0-4.
Final score was about what you’d expect for a Reyes start although Jo-jo really pitched fairly well. Bobby probably should have pulled him after 6 but you can’t blame Bobby for trying to get another inning after the bullpen when 9 the day before. Everything is set up perfectly for Smoltz to come back and save the day tonight.
I can’t help thinking this is just a .500 team give or take a few games; not much different from last year except they avoided the long losing streak. Win a few, lose a few. With all the problems with the pitching, the offense is no great shakes either. Scoring five runs late after being down by 6 is meaningless. I guess Bronson Arroyo is really Bob Gibson in disguise. At least, it looks like Bobby is making the Salty move and it seems he is getting disgusted with Kyle (“I wasn’t wild, I was just missing”) Davies.
Arroyo is not Gibson, but anybody can be Gibson if a hitter doesn’t make adjustments.
I watched the Fox broadcast of the game last night. Chris Welch is no genius, but he’s seen how matchups work when it comes to batters.
By the time Andruw, then Francoeur, came up against Blondie the 3rd time, Welch was embarrassed for them.
As kindly as he could, he pointed out that those 2 always have trouble with sliders that run away from them. Thom Brennaman asked if they’d adjust this at bat.
“No,” Welch said. Then the two batters struck out, both looking bad.
Andruw came back later, but it sure wasn’t against somebody with a good slider.
Dammit, if everybody knows it, why don’t they adjust? Welch also said that anybody who throws Frenchy a first pitch strike ought to be fined.
Kevin,
Those are excellent points. The Braves offense is inconsistent because they have too many hitters that cannot make adjustments. So, there will be times when they pound the ball but other times when they struggle. If you look at the score,you think, oh, they scored five runs so the offense was not the problem. But, in two games against the worst pitching staff in the league, they have scored eight runs. There are too many guys on this team that will get themselves out.
As for why they don’t adjust, I’m sure that’s easier said than done. I’m sure they are trying but they are aggressive hitters, which is what the Braves always seem to go after–athletes rather than hitters.
“Welch also said that anybody who throws Frenchy a first pitch strike ought to be fined.”
He’s right. And the crazy thing is that Francouer seems incapable of just taking the first pitch.
I think Bill James pointed out that a hitter’s batting average goes up something like a 100 points when he takes the first pitch for a ball.