Arizona Diamondbacks vs. Atlanta Braves – Box Score – May 15, 2010 – ESPN.
Ack. The game was closer than that most of the way, but the Braves only really had one opportunity to take the lead. They didn’t grab it.
Tommy Hanson actually pitched well, for the most part, striking out ten and walking none in seven innings. He allowed a solo homer in the first, and in the fifth the D-Backs put a bunch of hits together with the help of shaky defense to take control, 5-0.
The bullpen, however, did not pitch well. Kimbrel did what he’s done so many times in the minors, pitching one inning and allowing a run on one hit and three walks while striking out two. Chavez, meanwhile, was hopeless, allowing five runs on five hits including two homers; his ERA is now 8.22.
The Braves one run came on an RBI groundout by Prado in the seventh. They had a golden opportunity to get some runs in the second, loading the bases with one out, but McLouth struck out and Hanson grounded out, and they rarely threatened after that.
minors….
Resop 7IP 1H 0ER 1BB 8K
Schafer 1-4
Freeman 2-4, 3B
Blanco is hitting in the 3 hole, nuff said
Kimbrel has a lot of maturing/learning to do before he’s ready to take over 9th inning duties in ATL
Mike Dunn may be replacing Chavez pretty soon
I think I hate Kelly Johnson more than I ever hated Francoeur.
Francoeur was just a jerk who was bad at baseball.
Kelly Johnson was good at baseball, and despite that fact, he punished the Braves by making tons and tons and tons of outs, taking our money, and going and being good at baseball somewhere else.
Ack is a good word for it. I’ll go with blech.
@2 saying KJ “punished the Braves by making tons and tons and tons of outs, taking our money” makes it sound like he played poorly on purpose. Maybe he did, but I’m skeptical. I think he just struggled.
I don’t particularly care if he did it on purpose.
Seems we used up all our luck last night.
Johnson’s OBPs in 2007 and 2008 were quite good. He wasn’t an out machine outside in any full season here aside from 2009.
KJ got too expensive for us to gamble another season on him. That’s all.
KJ was not too expensive–but the Braves did not have any money left after paying Lowe….
FWIW, I also think that it would have done Kimbrel more good to stay at AAA for at least half a year. Giving him half a season at Gwinnett might give him a bit more confidence when he has to face big league hitters….
On a positive note, Frenchy 0-4 with 2K again. Down to .215/.269/.369. He’s on a 3-for-35 roll, his last multi-hit game came April 16th.
“Definitely a keeper”, as Omar would say.
@8 Stephen, you could have use the same sentence but plug Chipper’s name in there instead!
We will need to sign Hanson to a long term deal at the end of this season, I think.
I would talk to Yunel, too.
And maybe Jurrjens.
This means we start committing the salaries of Lowe, Chipper, KK, and Huddy after they come off the books, leaving something for Heyward next year.
I do not see how we can add much talent from outside the organization unless we finally increase payroll.
#9–It does not look like Frenchy will get the last laugh….
#10–I have not given up on Chipper and I would not place him in the same light as Lowe. Given what Chipper has meant for the Braves, it is painful to watch. Lets hope that he gets back to being the hitter he was at the beginning of last season….
@12,
Chipper’s production is still at least above average for a 3B…his injury problems aside, we don’t need another hole in the lineup, and the idea that infante could replace him is borderline insane.
http://capitolavenueclub.com/?p=2653
derek lowe has something to build onthis outing. bobby’s going to have to be a little quicker on the hook on dlowe. his stamina seems to be an issue so far this season. his era is 7.20 in innings 4-6 and 4.50 in innings 1-3.
for his career, this has been a non-issue and should be monitored closely. derek might be our 2010 version of a 15 million dollar chuck james.
btw, i dont understand the promotion of bret clevlen. he’s been ice cold at AAA and mitch jones has been tearing it up. with diaz going to the dl, i’d love to see how a hinske/mitch platoon would work.
i didnt see his abs last night but it seems like mclouth might be breaking out a bit with 3 xbh in the last 2 games.
Game thread is up.
McLouth did hit some balls hard last night, but taking that called strike three with the bases loaded and one out with Hanson on deck…the crowd was not pleased. Nor with the ball he evidently lost in the sky that hit 60 feet behind him.
Can Jones play CF? I suspect the idea is to call up a backup CF and pinch runner so that Schafer can get as many ABs as possible in AAA. I don’t think Mitch Jones is a CF.