Atlanta Braves vs. Pittsburgh Pirates – Box Score – May 22, 2010 – ESPN.
This game was not televised, which was probably for the best. If you doubt me, take a look at this:
“B McCann struck out swinging, B McCann safe at first on wild pitch by J Hanrahan, M Prado scored, J Heyward to third, C Jones to second.”
Just bitter failure all around there. The game was delayed for an hour and a half (or how long it took the Yankees and Mets on Fox to play the third inning) by rain, so presumably even fewer people saw it than usually show up for games in Pittsburgh. Those who did saw a starting pitcher go five innings in which he walked four men and allowed five hits, and his team manage only three runs, two of them “earned”, off a starter who entered the game with an ERA over nine. And that’s the team that won.
Melky hit a homer, that’s how weird and disorienting this game was. It came leading off the second, and was followed by Prado scoring on a bases-loaded groundout from Chipper following the Pirates’ usual defensive miscues. The Braves got another run in the third on a solo homer by Hinske (starting at first) but after that it was Hibernation Mode time. Against Charlie Morton, who, from all appearances, can not pitch at all.
Derek Lowe, of course, just knows how to win, for all that he did his best to lose. Like in the fourth, when he gave up a double and a triple leading off the inning; the Pirates then bunted in the tripler to make sure that the inning didn’t get out of hand. He walked three men in the next inning, but was bailed out by a line-drive double play. He’s awful.
Bobby Cox, meanwhile, doesn’t think there’s enough work for Craig Kimbrel. You know, Robert, it’s possible that the reason there isn’t enough work for seven pitchers is that you only trust four of them enough to pitch in a one-run game against one of the worst teams in the league. He used Moylan to pitch the sixth, then to start the seventh, followed by O’Flaherty, then Saito, and then asked Saito to pitch the eighth, too. Those three innings were a tightrope the whole time. Wagner had a little more room in the ninth thanks to the abovementioned gross incompetence. Tomorrow’s game will be televised, though I am not sure that this is wise.
perfect type of game to not be televised. Braves win, but struggle against a guy thats 1-7 with a 9+ ERA coming in. With Lowe on the mound and our offensive problems against bad pitching, great win. Sweep tomorrow
I ask, if a Melk Dud home run occurs, but nobody was there to see it, or nobody saw it on tv, did it really happen ?
Comment from our radio braintrust:
“This is the kind of game this team has been manufactured to win.”
Ahem.
3,
What does that even mean?
I dont mind seeing relievers go more than one inning. Kind of wish Bobby would do that with the older guys and make sure they get the following game off, that wont happen though
Lowe: 5.30 ERA, 1.55 WHIP, 28 walks, 33 strikeouts.
3rd in the NL in wins.
#2 – I didnt see it or hear it…Im assuming it didnt happen, unless Sportscenter shows it
We got the fever, we’re hot, we can’t be stopped.
If we had to have a bad game, this seems like a good series to get it out of the system.
Not that Lowe is any good, but I wonder if it is optimal resource utilization to have him go back to back with Hudson.
#9 – talking with a friend today about the very same thing. Seems like it would be in the Braves interest to get someone like Hanson or Medlen in between the two sinker ball pitchers. Seems like teams will be able to have a little more success in back to back games with the same type pitcher going
He’s awful.
I laughed out loud at that.
In fairness to the 9.00 ERA thing, Charlie Morton did play with Martin Prado, Chipper Jones, Brian McCann, Yunel Escobar, and Omar Infante. Morton’s former teammates went 2-12. Maybe Charlie had a decent scouting report on them.
@11 Lowe was worse than the line indicates. Hinske saved him big time. I happened to be able to watch the game to see how awful Lowe actually was.
@12 We looked stupid against Morton. Nate kept swinging at the high fastballs. Thank goodness the non-Braves did enough damage.
I, like most others on here, tend to overrate Braves prospects in my own mind, but I’m surprised that Morton has been this horrible in the bigs. Well, I was surprised until I went back and looked again at his minor league numbers. I guess I shouldn’t be that shocked that a guy who had a lifetime minor league ERA of 4.29 and a WHIP of 1.49 has struggled at the major league level. Really he just had that one good year in the minors. I think the Braves expected more of their former third round pick too.
Just watched Melky’s homerun on the mlb website to make sure it did, in fact, happen. It was as unimpressive as I had imagined.
After tonight’s 0-4, Francoeur is now .215/.274/.369 for the season.
Weren’t we supposed to rue the day we traded him to the Mets, according to some of their fans at the time of the trade?
15 – Carl Everett thinks the moon landing was a wild unconfirmed conspiracy and I think that this talk of the Melk Dud hitting a home run is a wild staged event that possibly couldn’t happen in real life.
@14 We were hoping Morton would follow the same development path as Millwood. Millwood also had a very unimpressive minor league career until he reached AAA.
Here’s a video of that run-scoring strikeout. I especially like McCann’s super-man style fall after he touches first base.
kc, good point. I remember the comparison being made now. I remember thinking that after his first couple starts. Kyle Davies even thinks Morton sucks these days.
@16
All Winter I heard from Met fans about what a horrible trade we made shipping Jeffy to them, all the while I would just sit there and say “Just wait”. Now the waiting has come to fruition and they see what they’ve got.
PS Crank That Brian McCann
Francoeur is now .215/.274/.369 for the season.
For 5 million bucks. Nice work if you can get it indeed.
Would you rather have Frenchy and $10m or Derek Lowe?
Hey, Derek has won 21 games in less than a season + two months since he joined us. Who can actually claim that?!
Think about what Jason Heyward is doing and then think that Albert Pujols started in A ball when he was 20 years old.
@25 We are seriously looking at a Pujols/Bonds/ARod/Griffey kind of talent here. If he doesn’t get tired by the end of the season, he is already showing, at the age of 20, 30+ HR power along with .300 batting average, ability to draw 100 walks with excellent BB/K ratio, and OPS of around 1.000. Are you kidding me?
In couple years, we will be complaining Jason for not being another Hank just like we complained about Andruw for not being another May…or like Cards fans complaining about Pujols for not being a “clutch” player.
The Braves now have Heyward and Hanson to build around, and we have plenty of premium pitching talents (Teheran, Delgado, Vizcaino, Minor…just to name a few) coming up. What we are lacking is another righthanded power bat to complement Jason, Mac, and potentially Freeman. Maybe we will take care of that through a free agent when Chipper retires.
I think the future of the Braves looks amazingly great.
it does.
however, those Rays are the best team in baseball AND have the best farm system. They’re going to be good for a LONG LONG LONG LONG time.
Any way to pry McCutcheon (sp?) away from the Pirates? He’d be our leadoff and CF for a decade.
We could send Nate back to Pittsburgh, coupled with one of our minor league starters who’s last name doesn’t start with a T.
Although, I doubt the Bucs would make that deal, as they plan to make McC the centerpiece of Rebuild Project XXIII.
@19,
Thanks for that clip. None of the replays had a really good angle so it was hard to tell if he was off the bag. He did look like he was side stepping it to get out of the way of Brian.