Philadelphia Phillies vs. Atlanta Braves – Box Score – April 22, 2010 – ESPN.
So much for Derek Lowe’s run support. Well, it’s one more run than the Braves would have needed last night, but still. The Phillies played more incredible defense (other than back-to-back screwups by Utley in the fifth to allow two of the Braves’ runs to score) and Lowe was Lowe. Bobby will blame defensive breakdowns on the Braves’ part that helped three runs to score in the third, but the reality is that Lowe simply isn’t very good.
It was 5-0 after three and in my opinion, despite the breakdown (a throwing error on a possible DP by Prado) it was mostly Lowe’s fault. He just allows too many baserunners, and up against this team, he was doomed. Six hits, two walks, five runs, four of them “earned” in five innings. Let the record show that the Braves’ starters all had short outings in this series, but that Lowe was the only one knocked out of the box. The other two just got worked over by the Phillies’ plate discipline.
Meanwhile, the Braves were making Jamie Moyer look like, well, the other two Phillies starters in this series. They did get two “unearned” runs against him, and a lot of it was the defense. They got another run late, but it was already 8-2 at that point after they’d gotten a run off of Medlen and two off of Moylan, so it didn’t really matter. Chavez looked pretty good, though.
Right now, it’s not hard to tell which team is the contender, and which the pretender.
@1 What the hell?
btw Melky continues to get worse and McLouth is putting together a couple of good swings
Melky has been horrible, but Diaz has been lost against RHP. Either way, McLouth needs to play CF every day, both offensively and defensively.
BTW, Tebow is now a Bronco. I laugh at the Broncos. Laugh and laugh.
Tebow will be successful
#5 – agree…its about time to try an Infante/Hinske platoon in LF until Diaz and Melky wake up. Nate does need to be playing and leading off. We need some speed and Id like to see Heyward moving on the bases some too. Got to take care of the Mets with no Santana going
Diaz should start against LHP. He’s too good against them not to. Cabrera has no such defense, and I’d rather see Infante as the LH portion of that platoon as well.
Tebow will be successful. Carrying a clipboard around is hard work.
“Lowe simply isn’t very good”–Mac you have a gift for understatement….
People, Omar Infante is a career .264/.310/.390 hitter with no platoon split. There is a very good reason he’s a utility player, he’s not good enough with the bat to play every day. Period.
8,
Cabrera has no such defense, and I’d rather see Infante as the LH portion of that platoon as well.
Infante is a right-handed hitter….
I fully support a Hinske/Diaz platoon in LF, by the way.
Tebow will be successful
He’ll command some pretty good speaking fees someday but the Broncos essentially flushed a first round pick down the toilet.
The Phils pretty much beat the hell out of us this series, we were obviously very lucky to win the one game. Not promising.
Prado only had three hits tonight. I’ve seen enough of Matt Diaz for a while. His Jeffy impersonation is dead on.
We lost, everybody else won. Not such a good day for Braves baseball. However, it’s still very early and our pitching is too good not to contend. If only we could start hitting…
Tom–I think that Lowe is going to have to pitch better for us to be a serious threat. It is certainly not out of the bounds of possiblity that he can be league average for 2010….
If Bobby’s standard MO holds up we’ll have to endure smelky until the end of May.
Odds of Lowe being replaced by Medlen in the rotation, 15 million to 1?
I’ll take not getting swept by the soon-to-be 105-win NL east pennant winners. Time to go get healthy against the Mets.
Why can’t I win one of these?!?!?!
Another month of this and the drumbeat to cut bait on Glaus will be fairly audible I would think . . .
http://gwinnett.braves.milb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20100422&content_id=9497184&vkey=news_t431&fext=.jsp&sid=t431
Freeman is still only hitting .254/.279/.458. Glaus may lose his spot, but Freddy is still far from ready.
Tebow will also see Eric Berry twice a year, that doesn’t help Tebow any.
@19
Of course he’ll see Berry twice a year – from the sidelines.
Will be in Flushing tonight & tomorrow. Anybody else going?
Lowe and Melky. Can we fire Frank Wren now? Oy.
Brutal (long, anyway) road stretch coming up. Need to regroup or we’ll be clawing our way to be relevant in the Wild Card race again.
Last year was not fun. Don’t want a repeat but it’s got that feel, doesn’t it?
I don’t know what to think about Tebow’s chances. If he ends up doing well does this say anything about how UF prepares QBs for the pros?
@21: Buy me a plane ticket and I’ll grace you with my presence.
Wow, looking at the schedule, we do have a rough stretch coming up with 7 on the road (NYM and STL) 3 at home (HOU) and then another 9 on the road (WAS, PHI and MIL). If we can go 10-9 over that time, I’ll be happy.
I had great seats to the Braves game last night – 3rd row, right behind the Phillies on-deck circle. I can report that it is excruciatingly painful to watch the Braves’ offensive struggles right now, especially when combined with a predictably bad Derek Lowe start. As hittable as Lowe was, without Prado and Yunel blowing a guaranteed double play ball from Ibanez, he would have gotten through 5 innings having only given up 2 runs.
I’m sure the Braves’ offense will bounce back, but they just look terrible right now. Moyer caught every Braves hitter off balance and guessing wrong; nobody looked comfortable against his 76 – 84 MPH slop. Glaus earned plenty of boos from the home crowd after his 2 K’s, though he at least had the grace to be visibly frustrated afterwards (suggesting he expects better of himself).
In terms of the relievers – Medlen was fighting himself the whole time, and Moylan was off with his location too. Chavez, on the other hand, looked great. He has good deception and was throwing 95 with movement and a nasty slider. Chavez has been pretty hittable (and HR prone) to this point in his career but if he can keep the ball down in the zone, he’ll be quite valuable.
It could be worse. We could be the proud owners of a Jake Peavy.
It’s probably not time to give up on the season after fifteen games. But, it’s frustrating to see the same kind of performance we saw much of last year. But if you stay close and get hot in the second half, that’s ok.
@27, Yes, and the Padres would be the proud owners of Hanson and Yunel.
This has got to be the dumbest story in the history of baseball.
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/recap?gameId=300422111
There’s an unwritten rule that you don’t run across the pitcher’s mound? Why? This is what this guy is upset about? I think he should be trying to worry more about staying in the big leagues than about the path A-Rod takes to get back to first.
@25 – That schedule looks okay to me. Good chance to sweep the Mets, especially if Pelfry isn’t himself in game 3. Four against the Cards is tough, so look for a 1-3 or 2-2 split at best. The Astros are bad. The Nats have their moments, but their pitching is still really spotty. Phillies again (ouch). And don’t be fooled that the Brewers are a good team – they beat the PIRATES, afterall, 20-0.
I’d bank on something more like 12-7, and that’s if we only get 1-2 wins in the Cards/Phillies series.
Unfortunately getting a morning off means that I have to watch this stupid Dallas Braden/A-Rod feud about 10 times, and it really is stupid. Who cares? Dallas, worry about getting hitters out. You have a career losing record.
@29 Hanson was never going to be part of the deal.
And on the seventh day, Heyward rested.
Tim McCarver sided with Braden so Braden must have an argument, right??? http://tinyurl.com/234zhf5
31
I think you sell the Brewers short a bit, they’ve got quite an offense and Gallardo’s a stud, but my main concern is the 16 of 19 on the road. That being said, maybe we’ll loosen up a bit away from the Ted. The offense has been quite dreadful since opening day.
How long before Hinske get a shot at playing first base?
@24: I think you need to talk to dude linked @16.
There’s nothing wrong with the Braves that 3 games vs Mets’ pitching can’t cure.
@16
If I hadn’t seen the url, I would have bet money this was an Onion article. Lottery Winner, southern MO, tatoos, no front teeth, kids from different parents (and no mention of marriage), $100 car payments.
Sadly, he’ll be broke within 5 years. At least all the kids are getting a Disney Trip up front.
@30, 35 – it’s a reason for people who already hate Rodriguez to hate him more. Virtually any other player and it’s a total non-story.
/after reading the McCarver story, it’s just astonishing how every few years McCarver has to remind everybody what a giant asshole he is in a story that includes Bob Gibson. I never hear about Gibson telling McCarver stories – Tim should take the hint.
RE Falcon’s pick:
I’ve watched almost every game Weatherspoon has played. He’s very very good; the stuff about him not shutting up is just talk. It’s just the way the guy is wired. He was the hardest worker on the team and is pretty much universally loved in Columbia. Character is the furthest thing from an issue. The only flag I would raise is that he has some issues shedding blockers. When he does, he’s got the raw talent to blow up a play (and did so quite often), but I saw a few too many times a single guy take him out of the equation. Wish him none but the best though.
Also, is Berry as good as the talk? Here in KC, he’s being hyped as the safety version of Jason Heyward. I figure if there are any weaknesses to his game at all, this is the board that would know.
If the kid dusts A-Rod next time he faces him, then we have a story.
Berry’s terrific, but the Ed Reed comparison is ridiculous.
The music fans on here might appreciate this. In the NYT article about the making of the new National album, the bandmembers are talking about a song that just isn’t working:
“ ‘Lemonworld’ is on the border of getting left behind.”
“It’s the runt,” Bryce agreed.
“It’s Melky Cabrera,” Aaron revised.
It’s nice that the guy we traded JV for is now shorthand for something that isn’t working.
Seems like the players and coaches who mouth off to the press about “the way the game should be played” are the ones least likely to do something about it between the white lines. Brenly never dusted Ben Davis the next day IIRC.
Actually, having paused to look up his stats, Braden’s not a bad bet to become a pretty good pitcher. 3 years of his peripherals trending the right way, just 26, and off to a good start this season.
Game thread is up.