ESPN – Marlins vs. Braves Box Score, September 18 2007 – MLB
Jo-Jo Reyes picked up his first career win, though he might want to be a little more efficient next time. Reyes went only five innings, but threw 100 pitches — 55 of them strikes. He did strike out seven, but walked three and allowed three hits. He gave up one run, in the third; after loading the bases, he gave up what looked like a double, but Diaz made a good play to hold it to a sac fly.
The Braves had taken a first-inning lead on Francoeur’s two-out single to score Escobar. Another two-out single, from Renteria, scored Diaz in the third. Another two-out single, by Escobar, scored Diaz in the fourth. And yet another two-out single, from McCann, scored Chipper in the fifth. Where were all these two-out singles when we needed them?!?!?!?
The Braves needed four pitchers to get through the seventh. Kali got two outs but left with two men on. Ring faced one man, who singled to load the bases. Acosta gave up a two-run single to the only man he faced, and Mahay had to finish the inning. Soriano pitched a 1-2-3 ninth for the save.
Chipper was 0-3 with two walks, and stands at .337, falling one point behind Holliday for the league lead. Renteria had two hits and is at .335, good for third. Diaz is also hitting .337 but isn’t eligible.
I’m really rooting for Chipper to win the batting title. Not only would it improve his HoF resume, but it’d be really nice to be able to take away something positive from the season.
But we’ll see. Holliday’s a great hitting in a great park.
Have to wait and see. 🙂
I’m with mraver. I want Chipper to take it, even over Edgar, if for no other reason than the HoF resume. I’m hoping Holliday goes on the road for the rest of the season so he can’t use the colorado crutch.
BTW, on Mets Blog, the Mets fans are turning on each other. It’s hilarious, classic internet stuff. If the Mets lose it, the NYFD better start watching for people jumping out of windows.
Also, I can’t believe these morons on Braves Vent in the AJC that don’t like Chipper and want him gone. Yeah, get rid of Chipper–that will really improve the team.
good for jo-jo
The one positive I take from jo-jo is that he seems to have found a way to strike batters out. If you remember his first few appearances, he seemed to get 2 strikes on alot of hitters, but could never finish them off. But now he seems to have an out pitch. If nothing else, he has improved in that aspect.
I still feel like Jo-jo is major league pitcher. If you look at his stats in the minors he never was this inconsistent with his control. I think he will come around and be a good pitcher. I think he is starting to show some improvement.
I too would love to see Chipper get the batting title. There have not been that many better switch-hitters in the history of the game.
Cardinals used 11 pitchers last night, Phillies 8. Wow.
Well.. here’s what we have:
If the Braves want to make the playoffs, an 11-0 finish is pretty much a must. But if the Braves are able to do it, we might have a chance.
That would put the Braves at 89-73. For the Mets to tie, they’d have to go 6-6 over their final 12. (4 WAS, 7 FLA, StL)
For the Phillies to tie, they’d have to go 7-4 over their last 11 (StL, 7 WAS, 3 ATL). That’s assuming the Phillies lose a game outside a necessary Braves sweep. Phillies are absolutely on fire right now.
Same in the Wild Card. We’re really chasing the Padres and have to pass the Phillies, so we’d have to go 11-0, Padres 6-6, Phillies 7-4 to all tie.
Personally, I’ve always wanted a year where there was a 3-way tie in the division and a separate 3-way tie in the wild card..
Let’s say the Brewers and Cubs tie for the NL Central.
The Mets, Phillies, Braves all tie for the division, which is the same record as the D’Backs and Padres, and all 5 are tied for a division victory.
Yeah. What happens then? Padres play D’Backs, winner gets division. Mets, Phillies, Braves play round-robin double-elimination? But who gets first round bye? And then the two NL East losers do the same thing with the West loser?
Mac,
You forgot to mention Andruw’s great catch in the 8th. It may be one of the last great plays we get to see him make as a part of the Braves’ outfield.
Yeah, some of the people on that AJC vent are just idiots. As if the Braves would really be better without Chipper’s .337/.425/.604 line.
These left-handed starters are going to kill Chipper Jones in the batting title race. Chipper is hitting in like the .220’s when he’s batting right-handed and in the .370 range when Chipper bats left-handed. The 0-3 last night for Chipper was all against left-handed pitchers, meaning Chipper “had” to bat right-handed. And tonight it’s Dontrelle Willis too.
IF we win out and everyone in front of us plays about.500 ball, we would make it
Dontrelle will be knocked out of the game before Chipper’s second at bat.
On the bright side:
Having Teixeira on board for 2008 means an offseason with none of the “move Chipper to first base” BS.
This team hasn’t won 4 in a row in forever. Forget about winning out. It isn’t happening.
It was good too see Reyes pitch well enough to get his first win, but I’m still concerned about the future of a pitcher who can only manage to go 5 innings even when he pitches well. James and Reyes in the same rotation would be bad news for the bullpen. We need more groundball/short inning pitchers like Hudson.
I will cry if the Braves can finally pull off a sweep. They haven’t done that since the season opening series against the Phillies…
“They haven’t done that since the season opening series against the Phillies…”
I think the last Braves’ sweep this season was of the Pirates right after the all-star break.
I thought Dontrelle was already scratched from tonights game, thats what Jordan said on Braves live last night
the braves have had two 5 game winning streaks all season, never gotten 6 in a row. Winning 11 in a row to finish the season is, ummmm, very very unlikely.
#15 – we swept the Pirates and then turned around and got swept by Cincy at home
I thought we got killed by Pittsburgh in the Sunday game after taking the first three. Followed by the Cincy sweep.
Thanks csg, no wonder why I forgot about the Pirates series…
Seat Painter, Dan is right…so the Braves achieve a sweep to start both the first half and the second half…
It’s not Dontrelle tonight. It’s Daniel Barone. They’re “saving” D-Train for the Mets.
I have a decent chunk of cash on Braves winning over 84 that I bet before Hampton, Gonzalez, and Andruw decided not to play. I thought I was done for a week ago, but a 6-5 finish and I win. I’m a little more optimistic with 4 more starts out of Smoltz/Hudson.
Tom,
I think you’re gonna win, now that nothing is really at stake but your bet.
Tom, when did you make your bet and with whom? I would have said before the season there was no way we’d lose 78 games.
It was the first series with the Pirates in May where the Braves won the first two (to get to 12 over, their high water mark) and then lost on Sunday. The next series with the Pirates, they swept.
We suck worse than Phil Fulmer getting to the center of a Boston Cream.
Attn: College Football Fans
Got my Sports Illustrated in the mail today. Southern Cal football is on the cover.
The subhead reads: Pac 10 or SEC: Which Is Stronger?
Should be a fun read.
It was a preseason bet I made back in March. Yeah I thought it was pretty much free money when I made it, but they sure made it interesting in the last few months. Its the only thing that keeps me watching the games every night.
Oh AAR, I have an account on an online betting site with local pickups that may or may not be legal…