Braves 7, Nats 6

ESPN – Nationals vs. Braves – Box Score – July 18, 2008

That was a lot closer than it should have been. The Braves had a 6-2 lead after three, but Hudson just didn’t have it tonight, and they had to hold on for dear life. Ryan Langerhans — Langerhans! — had four RBI for the Nats.

The offense was mostly what it was in the Padres series — McCann and the Batboy. Li’lbridge had a two-run double in the second. After the Nats tied it up in the third, McCann hit a bases-clearing double in the bottom of the inning to make it 5-2, then came home on a single by Kotsay. (Francoeur, who sucks, could have brought him home from third with less than two out, but he failed, of course.)

The Nats cut it to 6-3 in the sixth, but KJ singled home Lillibridge in the bottom of the inning to get the lead back to four. Unfortunately, the offense went into hibernation mode. It was 7-5 in the seventh by the time Bobby got Hudson out of there. Boyer and Ohman did their job, but Gonzalez had some wildness issues in the ninth, and it was second and third with one out after another failed Brave, Willie Harris, doubled. The Nats got one of those in, but Gonzalez finally got the last out to end it.

The Nats actually had three ex-Braves in the lineup, but Johnny Estrada was 0-4. Harris and Langerhans suck against everyone but us, which means that if we got rid of Francoeur (0-3 with a walk) he’d probably slug 1.000 playing the Braves.

57 thoughts on “Braves 7, Nats 6”

  1. I have been very surprised by how well little Brent has been playing since his first home run.

  6. I just realized that I didn’t change the weather from San Diego. Bummer. Anyway, a tropical depression has formed south of Charleston; I don’t know if it will affect Atlanta or not.

  9. Remember when we there was horrible rumors spreading around other Brave sites that Langerhans/Harris might replace Andruw someday in center….man, those were the days.

  10. Man, Andruw played worse tonight than I think I have ever seen him before, which considering last year. is saying something. 0-2 tonight with 2Ks and I don’t think he got within a foot of any pitch it seemed. He made an bad error in center as well that let in a run. It’s really getting painful to watch him go through this. I can’t believe that Torre can keep running him out there everyday much longer. I know its hard to feel bad for a guy making $18 mill, but I do, it’s gotta be a pretty lonely feeling for him at this point.

  11. Also, you wanna talk about things that just don’t look right, Don Mattingly in his first game as Dodger hitting coach, just does not look right appearing in a non-Yankee uniform, just weird.

  12. Francoeur didn’t walk; he was hit by a pitch. None of these accidental displays of competence for Frenchy, nosiree.

  13. Anthony Lerew pitched tonight at Richmond. I always thought he is out for the entire year…I guess I am wrong…

  14. …and in one week, the batboy has significantly increased his trade value for Wren…

  15. I liked Lerew, I am glad he is getting to throw this year.
    Soriano updates sounding good, if we can add him to the bullpen in 2 weeks that will be a real beast of a pen.
    Now we just have to give them the lead a lot more often.

  16. …and in one week, the batboy has significantly increased his trade value for Wren…

    Forget that. Keep Lillibridge, trade Escobar.

  17. When Francoeur was hit, he hesitated and appeared to be contemplating charging the mound. Instead he gave the pitcher the stink eye. He’s been hit 7 times this year. This is because he can’t hit up-and-in pitches, so this is where pitchers go. He also complained to the umpire about a called strike at one point during the game. It’s always someone else’s fault, isn’t it Jeffy?

  18. “This is because he can’t hit up-and-in pitches”…true, but he also cant hit pitches high and away, low and in, or low and away. I would like to see the Hot Zone chart on Frenchy. I also love it when he swings at a pitch in the LH batters box and then complains on the next pitch about whether it was a ball or strike. Oh, thats our Frenchy…

    I also dont see how Torre can send Druw out there much longer either.

  21. I can only speak for myself, but I truly think Chuck James will be better than Morton, in the present and over the long-haul. I’d rather trade Morton.

  23. Morton has 4 pitches, Chuck has two. If Morton can get his control down, he’ll have a better career in my opinion

    “Forget that. Keep Lillibridge, trade Escobar.”

    easy there, that .279 OBP for Lilli is pretty scary. Its a small sample, but he K’s alot and doesnt draw walks. I hope he continues this little streak so his value will rise though

  24. JC–I saw the Francoeur hesitation too–I joked with my son who was watching with me that if Francoeur charged the pitcher that would get him out of the lineup for a few games while serving a suspension–of course 3-5 games of Norton might actually make one miss Francoeur

  25. It’s not that I have so much overwhelming confidence in Chuck James, it’s more I get the strong feeling that Morton is going to be a big bust.

    And “number of pitches” is hardly a compelling argument. I mean, Glavine only had two he ever really used and he turned out well. I know Glavine had a curveball he barely threw, but that’s basically the same thing with James and his slider, he has it but just rarely throws it.

  26. Nothing Morton did in the minors foretells big success at the Major League level. Why would anyone be surprised if he’s not a bust?

  27. we have 5 people who could be activated by middle of next week:
    1. soriano
    2. diaz
    3. infante
    4. acosta
    5. bennett
    who leaves? i say it’s time to cut ties with gotay. also, it was time to release tavarez before we signed him. i hope wren makes the right moves this time. i bet batboy, no matter how well he plays, will be sent down once again.

  28. I think Diaz ends the Norton experience. Infante will send Lil’bridge down, Acosta won’t be back. Bennett and Sorriano will will replace Tavarez and Nunez.

    We actually migh get better soon. I think Diaz is going to be religated to the bench and Sorriano will fill in the setup role.

  30. I’m certainly not defending Frenchy but let’s be fair. It hurts when you get hit. It’s natural to be pissed when you get hit even if you know the pitcher isn’t doing it intentionally. It just hurts to get hit with a major league fastball guys. I think to conclude that because he glared at the pitcher that he is “blaming” someone else is stretching it a little.

    Some of the criticism of players, frankly, gets a little silly. It often takes the form of criticizing them for acting like human beings. It was like this with Andruw last year, where, because he wasn’t playing well, people made it sound like he was an ax murderer. It’s now become this way with Francoeur where ANYTHING he does is proof of his lack of character or something.

    Same with Hampton. The fact that he gets hurt is taken apparently as evidence of a character flaw.

    These guys make a lot of money but they are still human beings.

  34. Getting back our real roster will let us eliminate a lot of the dreck that’s on it currently.

    It’d been good to see Lillibridge playing well, but I’m starting to think he may end up similar to Infante as a player. Which is not the leadoff man/starting SS we were all hoping for, but it’s not chopped liver either. I mean, their skill sets seem similar: strong defensively, capable of playing multiple positions (Remember when Lillibridge was going to get moved to CF and start there for us this year? Well, it’s not like he couldn’t play competently out there.) but isn’t that much with the bat despite some decent pop. I would expect full-season lins on the order of .260/.300/.430, which is fine for a guy you can stick out there at six different positions and has good speed, though it’s obviously not someone you’d want starting every day if you can avoid it.

    Heck, they’re even both right-handed and both kinda short! I really do like this comp.

    I guess I should add that this probably means it’ll be a little redundant to have them both on the bench next year…. But it’d probably be a superior option to, say, Gotay and Prado. :-) Just add a LH bat to play in LF/1B/3B from time to time and hit well, and we’re on the way to a decent bench.

  35. Also, I just clicked over to Yahoo!’s page to see when the Braves were playing tonight, and in the box where they always put some player who’s leading the team in some statistic, there was this:

    M. González
    #51, Relief Pitcher
    Leads team with 4 SV

    Yep. 4 saves. Nice.

  36. So if he went on like a two week streak, said sorry, we might start to like him somewhat?

  38. What does Francoeur have to do to get in the good graces again?

    Again?

    And after his whiny tirade, I’m done with him. Done! And if he wasn’t such a whiner, I wouldn’t care if he took offense to getting hit. I wonder if Phil Gramm is a Braves fans (he’s from Georgia), because I think Jeffy may have inspired his comments.

  40. would Frenchy get the same suspension if he charged the mound only to swing and miss?……………nevermind , thats what ALL ballplayers do.

  42. If Frencoeur started hitting and became a productive player, all of the complaining about his behaviour would stop. If he had 25 home runs and 960 OPS or something, no one would care if he was the biggest baby in the world.

    I bet when Smoltz was 2-12 in 1991, if there had been blogs, the talk would have been about what a gutless loser he was.

  43. What numbers does Francoeur need to have in the second half to get people off of him? I’m just wondering.

    Something like .300 15hr 45rbi .375obp?

  44. Francoeur is one of the few players capable of having an unproductive season with 25 home runs. A 960 OPS ain’t happening, but if it did he would definitely get some slack. The combination of poor play and bad attitude is not going to win fans.

  45. It wouldn’t even take that…just average performance from an OF – 280/360/440 – IOW not sucking. Would it be so much to ask?

  46. if he had 960 OPS then we’d just say that’s “Frenchy being Frenchy” if/when he whined or swung at one in the LH batter’s box… and laugh it off.

  47. i hope Frenchy gets it together. i also hope he never apologizes to anyone. when i was a kid, i used to wonder why ballplayers were so goddam boring. they sure didnt seem like any adults i knew. i think they were given a list of Ward Cleaver-like quotes in spring training and unless they were a designated “character” like Yogi, thats all they were allowed to say………i just spent 35 years in the construction business and saw a lot of people, reassigned, demoted and fired. not 24 yr. old kids either. grown men with families to support and not one of them took it well. zero. they sure didnt puff themselves up with false humility and make some half-assed vow to “do better”…………..in Bob Horners second year, they sent his fat butt to Richmond after he couldnt move 20 feet to catch a pop-up and he flat out refused to go. he just kept showing up and they kept playing him. a couple weeks later, he actually stole a base …….. (on the radio) …..Pete……. ” now Horner has done almost everything as a major leaguer”…….Skip……..”except report to Richmond”.

  50. I agree with the sentiments expressed by a lot of people in this thread about Jeff. While I like to think I’m a principled individual, drawing lines in the sand and getting enraged over issues of character like Frenchy’s recent off-field bitchiness, in reality, who am I kidding? I’m easy. As someone else said, if he were putting up .960ops, while I still might roll my eyes at what a coddled,Joel Osteen-loving douchebag Frenchy seems like, I wouldn’t care. Shit, I liked Sheffield when he was here. (How could you not? Dude was puttin up 1.000+ OPS!) So while my feelings about Frenchy have definitely been amplified by his off-the-field douchiness in recent weeks, I really think I would take him back with open arms if he would just start hitting again. He’s sucked this year, plain and simple (Not the first time), and for any athlete, that’s a lot to overcome.

    I guess what I’m saying is that, whether I like it or not, I, like most fans, went to the angry mob school of fandom – one in which free passes are lavished upon those that perform, and those that fail are stripped of their dignity, publicly crucified, and humiliated. Man, this crucifixion talk is getting me all hot and bothered. Where’s my torch and pitchfork? I hope he goes 0-5 tonight.

    :wink:

  52. I don’t remember too well how we treated Smoltz in 1991 — I was 7, after all — but my impression isn’t that the entire city of Atlanta hated his guts. He was really down on himself, said all the right things, he went to a sports psychologist, and harnessed all that talent we knew he had.

    Francoeur really hasn’t admitted that anything’s wrong, or showed any humility for his situation. He’s just complained about the way he’s been treated. I don’t think the situations are analagous.

    Although, in fairness, I hope he goes 5-5 tonight.

  55. For the record, I don’t actually hope he goes 0-5. I was makin a funny, or trying to at least.

  57. I don’t think JC’s comments are beyond Human Being. At least, I’d like to discriminate between hot water and cold water even though hot water gets cold.

    And JC,
    Are you ready for my 100% faith?

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