New York Mets vs. Atlanta Braves – Box Score – May 18, 2010 – ESPN.
Thank God. I don’t think I could have taken it if the Braves had lost the game after Jeffy tied it up on a homer. Maybe that’s just me.
For the first three innings, Johan Santana was clearly laboring for the Mets, while Kris Medlen was cruising for the Braves. The Braves only got two runs off of Santana, both coming on a homer by Glaus in the third.
Then in the fourth, the two teams exhanged roles, and the Braves wouldn’t have another baserunner until the ninth. And in the fifth, Ike Davis and [sigh] Jeffy hit solo homers to tie it up. Medlen got through the sixth okay, but allowed two baserunners with one out. Moylan came in and Francoeur came through in a more normal way, grounding into a double play to end the threat. (I will never stop making fun of Jeff Francoeur. It’s in the blog mission statement.)
Saito cruised through the eighth. The Mets almost got a run in the ninth, getting a runner at third with one out (and Bobby ejected in the process) but Wagner struck out Wright and Davis to end the inning. McCann led off the bottom of the inning with a single, with Clevlen running for him. Yunel walked, and then Melky couldn’t get the bunt down but hit a two-strike chopper towards third which Wright threw away allowing the winning run to score. Thank God.
3-2 loss, 3-2 win. We’re pretty even with the Mets. It’s hard to think of a way where that’s a good sign.
I wonder if the Mets are going to be that team that just gives the braves fits every game they play this year. The Mets are not very good, but they match up really well against the braves. Some teams just match up with better against other teams.
I am kind of like Robert, I am not sure if wins like this are a good sign or not, but I will take it. 8 or the next 11 vs. the NL central, time to make some hay.
(I will never stop making fun of Jeff Francoeur. It’s in the blog mission statement.)
Hilarious!
The Mets ran out 2 pretty good pitchers in this series against our back-enders. I’m pretty happy with a split no matter the scores.
And another solid start by Medlen.
I give the MVP of that game to Brian McCann.
He’s having a tough time out there—it’s obvious. But he took one in the privates, then led off the “rally” with a hit in the 9th off a tough lefty. Way to go, B-Mac, I know that hurt.
One of the poll answers should be, “His mothers’ basement.”
Swing away Melky!
Slogan for a new tee shirt, whose interested investing?
@7
or another response could be…
“A poster on Bravesjournal.com”
Frenchy will absolutely be a Royal.
Praise be to you-know-who.
Damn I hate the Mets.
dont think Wright made a bad throw on that one, Davis didnt move at all and kind of short armed the attempt to catch it
Wright probably should have put the ball in his pocket. A perfect throw gets Melky, but it would have had to be perfect, and that’s very hard under those conditions. I do think that the “error” was largely Davis’ fault.
Royals – never heard of them. Texas League? PCL? Japanese Central?
Yeah McCann is the man. Clutch single with a pair of busted nuts.
not that it matters, but Yunel had Castillo out at 1B. That play shows me why he should be starting over Infante, now for his hitting
I still think the perfect name for Melky is Melk Dud. I thought we were doomed for a dp after his failed bunt attempts. I’ll definitely take it, but wonder if we would have been ahead already if Hinske would have started.
Medlen should be given Kawakami’s rotation spot, yesterday.
6 – Medlen has to get the game ball, no?
Medlen is a starting pitcher. I don’t understand why the Braves have to put him in the bullpen. Just because he is short?
@19
completely agree. he’s a starter and deserves the opportunity to stay.
I love this quote from Medlen:
21—Incredible quote. Literal LOL from me.
@21, Perfect.
@21, Hilaripus. Sums it up beautifully.
If Medlen keeps up like this, I’d be awful surprised if he’s moved back to the pen when Jurrjens comes back. The only real question is whether Lowe or Kawakami moves to relief.
I vote Lowe. Not only has he been worse than Kawakami this year, he’s shown in the past that he can be extremely effective in relief.
Not that it’s saying much, but I’ll take Lowe over KK in the rotation.
Lowe’s last 2 starts have been acceptable—5 ER, 10 H, 5 BB in 13 IP. Not exactly Walter Johnson, but (from him) I’ll take it.
Why couldn’t you go with 3ip from Lowe and KK every fifth day? Seems like they would both benefit from a short leash, and if they happen to be on, stick with them for an extra inning or so?
Wouldn’t you want more than 3 innings a week out of each of those guys?
Why would a 3 inning appearance preclude them from working another day?
Yeah, but how soon after a 3-inning stint?
I’m not saying it’s impossible. There are tons of examples of relievers who pitched their asses off & often. (I love those guys in APBA, people like Wilcy Moore of the ’27 Yanks, Pedro Borbon on the Big Red Machine & Ramiro Mendoza of the ’98 Yanks.)
It’s just that modern pitchers aren’t worked like that (certainly not guys who make starter salaries). A reliever goes 3 innings and it’s either an extra-inning affair (in the AL) or a blowout. Then, the guy doesn’t get on the mound for 3 days.
Fredi Gonzalez in Atlanta 2010-11… I’m sold.
So, if my math is right… and we keep playing as well as we have since our 9 game skid, we’ll end up a 94 win team (Somebody check my math? we’re 11-6 since that losing streak, and 19-20 over all. 11-6 is a .611 winning percentage, we’ve got 123 games left, that would be another 75 wins). Which would have won the NL wild card last year.
#21 – Good stuff. Pretty funny. However Sandoval obviously makes better contact.
@27 – Because Lowe going 5 innings every five days and KK being on call every day for 1-2 innings, is better than the two combined giving you 6-7 innings every five days and the possibility of an inning each every second or third day after a start.
I’m kind of with spike on this one. Teams survive all of the time with an 11 man pitching staff. The Braves carry 12. If we split one “starter” role into two guys, it’s like we have an 11 man staff with some spare relief innings from the split starter as a bonus.
Outside the box: We could move both Lowe and Kawakami to the pen and go with a four-man staff. Lowe and Kawakami can work in multi-inning relief of either Hanson or Medlen if their pitch counts get too high in a given start.
I think the 8th & 9th innings from the previous 2 Yanks/Sawx games lasted longer than both Braves/Mets games.
Headed to The Bronx tonight to see the mighty Rays.
Heading to the game tonight to see if Kenchin can get off the schneid.
There have been geological epochs shorter than your average Red Sox/Yankees game.
@ 12 – I thought so too, but they never replayed it. In any case, the 1B simply MUST knock that ball down.
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I’m convinced McCann purposely called that pitch to help Francouer.
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Rondo rules!
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Fredi rules!
I was being semi-facetious in that A: I don’t think it will be done, B: there probably would be some net loss of “innings available” if you did it that way and C: I am not sure it’s the best solution in this case. But given how infrequently the Venters/Kimbrel/Chavez group pitches surely there’s enough room to where the lost “available innings” wouldn’t be a big deal.
I like the 4 man rotation idea, or at least skipping #5 whenever possible, and going with pitcher Holstaff when you can’t. I think that’s probably what I was really thinking about when I posted #27.
I’m convinced McCann purposely called that pitch to help Francouer.
If it had been a blowout, I would be tempted to believe that.
I was kidding about McCann.
Anybody notice how Yunel approached his assignment to bunt? Horrible approach to the point where it was obvious (to me) that he was trying to get to two strikes so they’d take it off.
Melky’s approach was not so much insubordination as it was incredible suckitude. How can you go through that many Spring Trainings and not know how to bunt?
I wonder if Francouer is sort of like the wealthy uneducated gamblers the poker books warn you about. If you have resources to keep playing them, you’ll take their money, but on any given hand they may beat the odds. He’s going “all-in” with every swing and occasionally he’ll get lucky with his hack & slash method and knock one out of the park. Kind of like Adam Dunn without the ability to recognize the pitches he’s swinging at.
I didn’t see the pitch, but I’d guess it was an educated gamble that he wouldn’t be able to do anything with it… 9 of 10 times he’ll swing and miss (at anything), but that 1 time he has a shot at pounding it out. Just because he got lucky, doesn’t mean you don’t keep playing the odds…
I don’t get the argument that Kenshin is doing that much better than Lowe. Not that I’d stick up for Lowe or argue that he’s doing well. I’d say its pretty close but Lowe’s doing a tad better. The only thing Kenshin seems to be doing better is walking fewer.
Comparing the stats:
Lowe, 5-4 record (Run support I know), 51 innings pitched, 5 homeruns allowed, 28 strikeouts, 24 walks, 9.5 hits per nine, .9 homeruns per nine, 1.529 WHIP.
Kenshin, 0-6, 37.1 innings, 6 HRS, 23 SO, 12 BB, 10.4 H/9, 1.4 HR/9, 1.473 WHIP.
So Lowe’s leading in ERA, fewer hits and homeruns per outing, and innings he lasts a game. Kenshin leads in walks allowed and I’d assume strikeouts per nine. And I guess having less of a bad contract.
@42 – Melky has laid down several good bunts – to the point where I thought he was the best bunter on the team (this is the only thing he was doing well). Last night was not a good night bunting for him, but overall if he was as good at hitting as he is at bunting he might crack .300. Escobar should never be asked to bunt – he either can’t or won’t do it.
yeah I agree, I was watching the box score last night and wondering why it seemed to take two hours for them to play two innings. Its gotten ridiculous, but apparantly their fans love those types of games and I dont have to watch them so Im good.
I do wish ESPN would pick up a game every night and quit showing the 2002 World Series of Poker each night. They really suck, ESPN that is
#44 – true, but we have no idea what Kenshin would pitch like with run support. He’s having to grind out there and try to pitch perfect because he knows that we wont score for him. It probably doesnt make a huge difference, but I think we’d see a different Kenshin with a 5 run lead
As for the bunting, it seems as if the guys are good at bunting when trying to for a hit. However, when asked to sacrifice they just cant get the job done. Btw, is Kris Medlen the only SH pitcher out there? He swings it pretty good
Larkin goes off on Hanley Ramirez
http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=8087083&topic_id=8877454&c_id=mlb
@23
What worries me, though, is the Braves’ record against teams with winning records: 8-14.
It’s tough to say what KK would do with some run support, but in ALL his starts combined we’ve only scored 17 runs… one more than we scored on opening day for Lowe’s first W of the year. And he’s going tonight against one of the hottest teams in the NL right now…
BTW, I heard on the radio the other day that Jo-Jo is in Gwinnett being stretched out to a starter… Is that just so we can trade him as a starter instead of reliever? I can’t imagine they see a spot in the big league rotation for him in the next few years.
@49 how many of those teams only have winning records because they played us when nobody was hitting?
if anyone isnt aware, the braves set their opening day roster…
http://chop-n-change.com/
alex, what gives?
Marcus Thornton, Mr. Georgia Basketball, signs w/ UGA:
http://tinyurl.com/28msq3f
At last, relevance for Georgia hoops!
Reds have won nine of their last 10 games, batting .301 with a 2.20 ERA in that stretch – DOB
great, perfect timing
Salty can’t throw the ball back to the mound… Wasn’t that part of the plot of Major League 2?
Tonight’s lineup: Prado, 4; Heyward, 9; Chipper, 5; McCann, 2; Glaus, 3; Hinske, 7; Escobar, 6; McLouth, 8; Kawakami, 1
@55, He and Ankiel would make quite the battery.
We’re going to crush the Reds tonight – I can feel it in my bones.
foxsports top 10 players who need to live up to expectations
#6 – melky
#3 – vasquez
#2 – frenchy
Melky Cabrera, Braves
Cabrera was supposed to be a key part of a revamped outfield in Atlanta, but he hasn’t delivered thus far. First and foremost, he’s slugging .229. When your slugging percentage would make for a bad batting average, you simply have no power. In a related matter, Cabrera has been losing playing time of late. But if the Braves are going to challenge for the NL wild card (let alone the division title), they need Cabrera to hit a little. Soon to come: The other half of the trade that sent Cabrera to the Braves.
Jeff Francoeur, Mets
The Mets’ right fielder and painfully enthusiastic Delta Airlines spokesman is struggling badly in 2010. Francoeur started off hot this season, but he’s been unspeakably bad in May (he’s got a revolting batting line of .100 AVG/.145 OBP/.100 SLG for the month). He’s showing very little in the way of raw power, and his plate discipline is as bad as it’s ever been, which is … quite bad. His career numbers against right-handed pitching suggest Francouer is, at best, a fourth or fifth outfielder who should be used only against lefties. But this isn’t the prevailing view in baseball, so he plays every day and racks up outs by the truckload. Unless Francouer heats up again and stays that way (or gets benched), the Mets will struggle to get back in the race.
I recall pontificating about a month ago that I’d eat my shoe if Frenchy had an OPS over something like .800 at the ASB. Amazing how quickly good fortune (and that’s all it was) turns bad for him.
csg – Who is #1?
Well, snide comments about Fox notwithstanding, they were the only ones who thought “Cabrera was supposed to be a key part of a revamped outfield in Atlanta.”
All in favor of just intentionally walking Votto all the time, raise your hands.