Atlanta Braves vs. Philadelphia Phillies – Box Score – May 08, 2010 – ESPN.
I suppose anything’s possible.
As usual, the Braves were no-hit for the first four innings. Kris Medlen started and had a weird game, giving up nine hits, but all of them singles, and not walking anyone in four and a third. The Phillies got a run in the second when they put three of those singles together.
Basically, you’re thinking “that will be enough” as the Braves hadn’t shown any sign of scoring. Medlen broke up the no-hitter himself in the fifth (and was immediately erased on a double play). But suddenly, without warning, the Braves got singles from Chipper and McCann leading off the sixth. Glaus struck flew out, but Hinske (playing left field) followed with a double to score Chipper and tie the game. Melky, of all people, singled in McCann, then Hinske came in on a sac fly by Infante to make it 3-1.
Meanwhile, the Braves’ bullpen thrived as the Phillies metamorphosed into the Braves, unable to get a hit against four and two-thirds innings of relief. O’Flaherty finished the fifth. Kimbrel was super-wild and got one out against two walks in the sixth, but Moylan got a double play to get out of it. After Moylan’s control broke down in turn in the seventh, Venters came in and got Howard with two on and two out. Saito and Wagner finished the game with no problems, the latter with the benefit of an insurance run driven in by Glaus in the top of the ninth.
World Series, here we come.
FWIW, Glaus actually flied out in the 6th, with Chipper advancing to 3rd on the play.
Venters seems to be pretty good.
Before his 9th-inning RBI single, Glaus was 0-4 with 9 LOB.
good win. not necessarily the turning point i forementioned b/c mccann didnt wear his glasses and medlen wasnt dominant, but a win nonetheless. it’s got to be entering bobby’s mind to atleast consider medlen as a regular starter.
Hell of a job by Medlen. He deserves some serious credit for this win.
Willie Harris has more home runs than Chipper Jones. It’s just been that kinda year, I guess.
Medlen absolutely deserves the rotation spot if JJ’s out for a while. But Lowe’s got to continue his run of ineffectiveness a while longer before you move 15 million dollars to the bullpen. Maybe that shouldn’t be a factor, but it is.
The Braves could still move KK to the bullpen as well when JJ gets back.
Medlen deserves a spot when JJ comes back and Lowe should get moved to long relief
We can’t move Lowe to the bullpen, that’ll hurt his valueHAHAHAHA, I’m sorry. Almost got through that.
We used 7 relievers, counting Medlen, to keep the Phillies offense to one run. Since our pen has been so strong, maybe we should try that strategy a couple of times a week.
Mark Bowman needs an editor. Seriously. This should not be one sentence:
” Instead of fretting about the fact that he entered this spot start in place of the injured Jair Jurrjens without the benefit of throwing more than 44 pitches in any of his previous 12 relief appearances this year, Medlen proved strong into the fifth inning and gave the Braves a chance to benefit from a sudden sixth-inning eruption that carried them to a 4-1 win over the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park on Saturday afternoon. “
Henry Blanco hit a walk off hr to win it for the Mets. That puts his season BA at .300 with an .810 OPS. I think the likelihood of him finishing the season like this (barring a season ending injury tomorrow) is about the same as the Braves finishing the season with the a similar or worse BA and OPS than they have now (.231 / .667). Just sayin’ things gotta get better – they can’t get much worse from a hitting standpoint.
Francoeur’s BA and OPS of .243/.756 indicates that the guy is coming down to earth. I predict .263/ .722 for the year, although that’s looking kind of high given his recent struggles.
Lowe’s contract = sunk cost. If using him out of the bullpen nets the team more wins, you do it, regardless of his salary.
Off-topic. I’m in need of a new laptop behind the recent death of mine. Any recommendations? The most complicated software I use is either SQLyog or a molecule drawing program, so I don’t need anything fancy. Just needs to be well built.
I used to be good about keeping up with the latest computer technology, but I quit paying attention about 4 years ago, so my opinions are most likely dated.
11 – Remember diagraming sentences?
@14 – In my opinion, they are a commodity. So many of the parts are either interchangeable or manufactured at the same facility, there’s just not a lot of difference between brands anymore. Price and features are really the only discriminators, in my view. Having said that, I and my colleagues have been issued Dells for the last decade and found them to be extremely reliable, and this is with toting them around the world for work. I think their support has been good as well. Strictly anecdotal, of course.
On computers, my opinion is that it doesn’t make much difference what you get. Just get one at a good price and get the extended warranty if it’s a laptop. I don’t usually recommend extended warranties, but it’s saved my tail a few times with laptops. The biggest threat is usually a virus, although I had a cable surge kill one of mine one time.
@14: Price range? On the low end (<$700), Toshiba (they build and ship from China, so you’ll need to wait two weeks at least) and Dell make solid, reliable machines. On the higher end (>$1200 or so), Sony Vaio and MacBook Pro are about as good as they get.
I’d also recommend popping Ubuntu 10.04 into the dead laptop… it may be salvageable.
Lowe has been a sunk cost since the minute of his signing.
If Frank Wren wanted to use him as one of the girls that dance on the dugout hardtops through the game, so be it.
Although, his garbage innings haven’t quite been that of Shane Reynolds from a few years back.
The very idea of winning 2/3 in Philly… nah.
Can’t quite go there.
ububba, no chance at that esp with the braves facing another lefty….how sad is it that Bowman/Braves think a 3 run inning is a “sudden sixth-inning eruption.” Any chance Hinkse gets more playing time?
schafer went 2-4 today
Peter,
Have to second what sdp said — try to stick Ubuntu (or another user-friendly linux distro like LinuxMint) onto your laptop — it will definitely respond a lot faster than any XP/Vista OS you had on your current laptop. If you’re doing something with molecular modeling, you should look at something that has some kind of graphics chip on it too (Nvidia or ATI). You can’t go wrong with Toshiba, and I’ve actually had really good luck with Compaq laptops. (Compaq has some low-end priced laptops that have Nvidia graphics cards built in, that will work really well if you’re looking to spend less than $500-$600).
Thanks for all the insight on Capitol Ave. Club, by the way — I’m always jonesing for a new post from you, because it’s always in-depth, and you never know when you might be dropping some righteous f-bombs. Hells yeah!
Had a couple of beers, feel like I’m tonight’s billy-jay. Is it really possible the Braves won without Big Pun in the lineup? (Can’t believe that nickname hasn’t caught on w/Heyward, it’s a perfect fit.)
Peter, I use a Macbook. As has been stated, Windows notebooks are like toasters these days. I have to say that the Dell I bought 4 years ago and have since handed down to my daughters is still running like a champ. Screen size, graphics needs, hard drive space, portability are the things you will weigh in your choice.
Nice to see that the Yanks Bosox got rain delayed. I got to watch the last few innings of the game. Ventors has some velocity and was clutch against Howard. Nice game ending catch by Diaz. Everyone is right, Lowe is sunk cost however he’ll have to suck even worse than he is now before he is supplanted in the rotation.
I bought a Dell Latitude D630 two years ago and it’s been great. It’s a business laptop, so it’s built to withstand travel abuse (and I’ve delt it my share, traveling back and forth to Korea several times). If you have tree-hugger inclinations, as I do, then you’ll also be interested to know that the Latitude D630 rates well in terms of environmental friendliness: http://www.pcworld.com/article/175151/dell_latitude_d630.html
And I third the Ubuntu suggestion too – I’ve solely been running Ubuntu on my laptop since January and it’s been so much more enjoyable than Vista. Ubuntu is so fast and so hassle free, once you get past the initial setting-everything-up stage.
Thanks for the advice everyone.
My last one was a dell and it lasted me four years, so I think I’m going to do that again. Doesn’t seem like the brand is particularly important and I’m already familiar with Dell. I just hope I don’t turn into this guy.
I am feeling optimistic today.
McCann is going to find his groove and it is going to let everyone else relax and they will all start hitting the ball better.
7-3 in the next ten.
Now, i am going to go buy a MegaMillions ticket for myself.
before you get a dell, check out this website…
http://dodtracker.com/
this site consolidates all of the “deal-a-day” sites across the internet. it’s really useful for anyone shopping on a budget.
my personal favorite computer is ibuypower. it doesnt come loaded with a ton of crap.
Game thread.