New York Mets vs. Atlanta Braves – Box Score – August 03, 2010 – ESPN.
I hate my life. Jeffy Francoeur hit a go-ahead, ninth-inning leadoff homer against Billy Wagner, thereby securing the win for Manny Acosta and, incidentally, cutting the Braves’ lead over the Phillies to two games.
The Braves had a ridiculous number of chances to break the game open. The Braves managed to score a run in the second after Gonzalez was hit by a pitch, Ankiel singled, and Melky tried to hit into a double play but Ankiel slid hard and broke it up to score AAG. Derek Lowe pitched as well as he has all season, and for the first time all season didn’t walk a batter. But he had an episode in the third, losing the lead on a bunt single by The Remains of Luis Castillo and a double by Reyes.
The Braves blew several more scoring chances until the sixth, when Melky hit a routine single to right that Jeffy totally misplayed into a triple, scoring Ankiel. Bobby hit Diaz for Lowe, trying to get Melky in from third with one out, but Diaz popped up and Omar Infante couldn’t pick him up.
Bobby brought in Kyle Farnsworth, and for the second time in as many outings (five years apart) Farnsworth blew the lead in unlikely fashion, walking Jeffy on four pitches, then after a bunt allowing a game-tying single. Yeah, good to have him back. Several blown Braves chances later, Jeffy hit his homer, then Omar swung at ball four as the leadoff man in the ninth to ground out and Heyward and Chipper couldn’t do anything.
The Braves left ten men on base, and Glaus hit into one of his patented pinch-hit GIDPs in the seventh. The Braves had six hits and seven walks; the top four men in the order reached a combined eight times but none of them scored or drove in a run. This is pathetically similar to last year’s struggles.
The ultimate humiliation.
I really missed Prado tonight.
baseball…i dont get it.
Can we just keep our head above water until Prado gets back?
This game never happened.
I don’t understand why Glaus hasn’t been placed on the DL. He’s a freaking corpse out there.
Chuck Dowdle is going on about how nice it was for Frenchy. Pleck.
I’m taking a break from this team if they lost tomorrow. No more of this “we’re on the road, life’s hard” bullcrap.
Pelfrey has an ERA of 10.02 his last 5 starts.
He might throw a no-hitter against us.
Perfect game alert…
I’m glad Heyward is back and everything but is he ever going to hit another HR? Because those help alot. Down by a run in the ninth watching him take a fastball down the middle trying to work a walk…that’s a Gregor Blanco move. Put the ball in the seats and tie it up.
I’m concerned for Heyward’s lack of HR power, too.
Heyward is .333/.443/.439/.882 since the break. I wish he hit more HRs too, but that’s a pretty sporty line.
I would much rather Heyward try to get on base for Chipper and McCann than try to hit a HR with 1 out in the bottom of the 9th down a run.
Farnsworth didn’t just give up the tying run…he looked terrible doing it.
Kyle, you better get your shit together.
Sucky loss. But that’s baseball. Let’s win the series tomorrow.
i dont know if its already been mentioned on here….
but apparently in Glaus’ contract if he gets 31 more ABs he gets a 350k bonus. and then for every 50 additional ABs the rest of the year he gets additional bonuses ranging from 350-500k.
DOB thinks this might be extra incentive to release him…just sayin’
Glaus is a big reason we’re in first place, whatever that means at this point. It’d be awful brash to release him.
There’s no reason to release him. He’s hurt, put him on the DL.
Alex Gonz sure has whiffed some plays in the field lately. I know he is low key guy but his body language is just depressing. What happened to his defense?
as a completely stupid random comment – my least favorite Joe Simpson “ism” is “Bird Dogging”
This is why I love baseball.
Always the best when the managers really get involved.
I’ve never been to a game that has a brawl, and it’s something that I really want to see.
I dunno. I think if you’re going to have a brawl, have a brawl. This was more of a bench-clearing discussion.
Good night and forget about it.
This team just ruined my breakfast. I wake up gently at 6:30, and while my toasts were being toasted I checked out the scores. Good lord I thought I was reading it backwards!!!!
I hope that it will at least trick the Mets into playing JFK even more. By the way that tool has 10 home runs, how many guys on our team have that much?
Off to a painful commute now.
Please destroy Pelfrey, boys.
The Angels give almost nothing up for Danny Haren and then move Torii Hunter to right field to accommodate Peter Bourjos. They did the latter, of course, despite the wrong-headed conventional wisdom that Hunter is still (or ever was) an elite CF. It’s hard to imagine the Braves making moves like these.
@27 The last thing we need is another starting pitcher.
This is rock bottom right? It can’t possibly get any worse than losing due to walking Jeffy on 4 pitches then giving up an opposite field homer to him — can it?
The point about Heyward is not that he should have particularly tried to hit a home run in that situation but that he has shown little ability to drive the ball since he got off the DL. He should be producing more power than this. Of course, it’s a lot to expect a 20 year old to carry the team, but being a singles hitter, even if he gets on base a lot, is not what the Braves need. But who the hell does drive the ball on this team?
Yes, by all means let’s blame our recent struggles on one of the guys least responsible for them. Didn’t he hit three doubles just the other day? Hasn’t he hit .310/.463/.452 in this 4-7 stretch? His six doubles in those games extrapolate to 88 over a full season. That’s a singles hitter?
DL Troy and get Dunn. That idead looks better and better everyday.
Mike Lowell anyone? Him, Glaus and Chipper could rotate 1st and 3rd.
Every day we don’t get Dunn I die a little inside. He solves so many of our issues.
Why are people attacking Heyward? If anyone should be hitting the ball with more authority, it’s our “slugging” shortstop, Glaus or Chipper. Heyward is doing exactly what he should be doing in the two hole.
#33 Mike Lowell sucks and is owed over 5 million dollars.
Whoever the new manager is next year, I really hope he has a better feel for injuries than our current one.
Last year they kept running Schafer out there with what ended up being a BROKEN hand.
This year, Heyward was obviously hurting and it takes them almost 100 ABs before they DL him, thereby compounding the injury and zapping him of his power. He is the best thing we have had come up since Chipper, don’t just tell him to rub some dirt on it.
Now Glaus is obviously not right physically and they keep running him out there. He really did carry us for a month or two. He did all we could ask of a guy. I hate to see him go down like this. It is painful to watch.
As much as I love Heyward, he has to get the bat off his shoulders in some of these spots. I wish he would look for some more pitches to drive.
The braves do a great job of getting walks and getting on base and all, but they have NO ONE that can make the pitcher pay for mistakes on a regular basis. McCann and Glaus lead the team in HR with 14. We have two guys in the lineup that have not homered since mid June. Our slg. % is down to .397. Pitchers have figured out that all they have to do is pound the zone and the braves can’t make you pay.
I didn’t think the braves were as bad as they were in April, or as good as they were in May and June. They are what they are, a below average team who beat up on some weak sisters in May and June.
@34
I have decided that a lot of people hate most every player on the team. If that is the case, shy are they still fans of the team?
We are just in a down turn. I think we will be fine. This is a very streaky team, eventually we will get hot again.
@36
The Reds, Twins, Phillies and Tampa are terrible teams.
I wish people would stop panicing. We knew we would have this dip and the Phillies would have a run.
I totally blame my son for that loss… as the game went to commercials before the Mets came to bat they showed the next three due up. My son says “Francoeur will hit a home run”. I told him he was grounded if he did. So naturally Frenchy hit the homer and now my son is grounded until the Braves win again. I am sorry he caused the loss; hopefully he will be better behaved during tonight’s game.
28,
I disagree.
33,
Yes.
FORGET DUNN. The Nationals are not trading him, at least for anything the Braves would consider. This is the team;the cavalry is not coming to the rescue.
Frankly, I’m more upset about Wagner than the hitting. We knew the Braves had offensive problems but the bullpen was supposed to be rock solid and it has not been. You would expect the Braves to win some 1-0 and 2-1 games but they have rarely done so.
No one is “blaming” Heyward but it would be nice to see him drive
a ball out once in a while.
I agree that we had to expect a lull and a Phillies surge but given the state of the team now you have to wonder how much the Braves have left.
I don’t see how anyone can complain that Heyward isn’t “driving” the ball. Have you seen him hit since he came back? Driving the ball doesn’t necessarily mean home runs. I’d be terrified to play the infield while he’s batting.
“The last thing we need is another starting pitcher.”
Wasn’t my point. You’re being too literal. My point is that the Braves are too comfortable and prone to conventional wisdom. I want to see Lowe and Kawakami out of the rotation too, and I don’t advocate buying another SP. What I want to see is some creativity. Instead we’re selling assets at the low point of their value and refuse to get creative to deal with the OF situation.
Look at the lineup. It’s awful. And it’s not going to change, save for Prado’s re-insertion.
A couple weeks ago I’d have seen the tied score in the 7th and been confident we’d win it. With our hitting lately I saw it and was disheartened that we wouldn’t win it… but then I remembered it was the Mets so OUR crappy hitting had to be better than THEIR crappy hitting right? I didn’t watch the 8th or 9th though… just so I could enjoy my foolish optimism for a couple more minutes.
I’ll throw my support behind the “standard solution”:
Glaus to DL
Hinske to 1st
Diaz/Melky/Ankiel platoon in LF/CF
Hinkse has been awful lately as well, esp since he really only faces RH’rs
June .260/.329/.397/.727
July .212/.300/.442/.742
Aug. 0-6 2K’s
either way his bat needs to get hot again. Id almost rather see Prado at 1B and Infante at 2B over Hinkse and Glaus. Still Freeman and Glaus platooning may not be the worst idea. Troy has an .846OPS vs LH’rs and Freeman can probably hold his own vs RH’rs
Mac, new poll request: Do the Braves panic and call up Freddie Freeman?
We’re 15-16 in 1-run games.
Wagner’s pitch to Frenchy last night was a good pitch, a 96 MPH fastball on the outside corner with good fade. Frenchy happened to make contact with it. Good for him. Happens about once every 10 games. Doesn’t make him good or Wagner bad.
For all this talk about how horrible out line up is we’ve scored 4.75 runs per game since the break. We’re not doomed, calm down.
Yeah, Slow Bat Jeffy anticipated the pitch. That’s what he does — he guesses what pitch he’ll be thrown. Occasionally, he guesses right.
Frenchy beat the team by himself yesterday. A walk and run scored off Frans and the HR off Wagner. I still believe you through Jeff pitches off the plate. He’ll get bored up there and swing at something
38 – No, but you had a lot of games vs. the likes of Houston, Brewers, Pittsburgh, and KC. You also caught the Rays, Phillies, and Twins when they were starting bad stretches. Just like good teams can play bad, bad teams can play well for stretches.
47 – By my math it is 4.22 runs a game since the break. (76 runs in 18 games). Take out the 11-6 game vs. the dregs of the Brewers staff, and the 8 run inning vs the Fla. Bullpen and that number goes WAY down. Even throwing out the 0 the braves put up against the nationals the average is 3.8 a game since the break. (57 total runs/15 games)
That sure looks alot more like the April Braves vs. the June/July Braves. Also alot of us, like myself, root for the front of the jersey. I dislike a ton of the guys on this roster, but I love my braves. I panic because I see what ownership and the incompetent Frank Wren is doing to my beloved team, and I don’t like it, I haven’t liked if for about 5 years now. I didn’t like what J.S. was doing at the end of his tenure either.
Besides panicing is what keeps blogs in business.
We do know that if Freeman is called up, he is “Captain Marvel Jr.”, and Heyward automatically becomes “Captain Marvel”, right?
oh look, Nate hit another HR last night. Thats nice, godd for him.
50,
My bad.
I should add they’ve actually hit better in the 2nd half, just haven’t scored as much. Weird things happen in small samples.
Why would you throw out the Brewers/Marlins games, though? They actually happened.
Regarding calling Wren incompetent, I guess turning an awful roster with an awful farm system into a contender with one of the best farms in the game within 3 years isn’t quite competent enough. Tough crowd.
DC > Marvel
Batman alone makes this so.
Both companies have a Captain Marvel. Captain Marvel Jr. is DC.
On Freddie Freeman’s nicknames, I prefer “Jackalope”.
can the braves put nate on waivers even if he’s down in AAA?
its funny how hard it is to obtain hitters of any power these days.
There used to be an abundance of them, now a mediocre guy costs a fortune in money or prospects.
Look who got moved and really would have helped us?
Ludwick? Berkman? Nothing that went was all that special, the names look good, but they are not the players they used to be. And do we really want to give the Nats 2 good pitching prospects for Dunn who could be a FA and go right back to D.C.? They have a solid young nucleus that I dont want to add to.
This is the team we got and it is not going to change much. L ets hope they pick it up.
If I’m optimistic, they lose. Every damn time I think they will win, they lose. If I’m pessimistic, they win. Thus, for the good of the Braves, I will be pessimistic. It’s over, we’re doomed, we will be lucky to finish fourth.
Is there a dumb comedy about a fan who superstitiously believes what he does affects whether or not his team wins, only to find out that he actually has the supernatural powers he thinks he does? Seems obvious…starring Jim Carrey.
I can’t make myself get angry at Wagner. 1.77 ERA, 66 Ks in 46 IP. He’s still a beast, and I’m glad he’s a Brave.
I’d hate to see a bloop hit into shallow right when Freeman is called up. It’d be Freddie vs Jason II.
#53 – totally agree, tough crowd.
#50 – you are entitled to your opinion but:
We are in first place.
We boast 3 of the best young major league pitchers in the game.
We have incredible pitching depth in the minors.
A couple of high risk high reward acquisitions in the off season have resulted in a contending team.
And all that on a very limited budget.
Not bad for an incompetent GM.
@60,
In my case, I assume that the universe is out to get me personally so that it will screw with my expectations, whether good or bad. This is a way of outsmarting Chaos.
Johnny makes a good point about Wren. Wren has done a very good job building a contender on a limited budget–but the team has little margin for error. It was always clear that things would have to go right for this team to win and it has for most of the year. It may be the best team money did not buy.
He is also constrained, I think, by the fact that the Braves can’t trade prospects and then go out in the free agent market. Chief Nocahoma (naturally) mocked keeping the prospects, but the fact is, given this budget, if you are profligate with trading prospects, you eventually will end up with nothing at all. As much as we don’t like it, Wren has to balance winning this year with remaining competitive in the future. Milwaukee went for it a couple of years ago with CC Sabbathia but what have they got to show for it now?
The problem is, as well as Wren has done, this team’s talent base is fairly limited, especially given that Chipper has not rebounded, McLouth has been a disaster, Yunel was a disappointment, Heyward was hurt, and Lowe has been mediocre at best. They have to do things right, such as getting runners in from third, which they have not been doing recently. The reality is, as I have mentioned before, is that the Braves do two things well: get on base and pitch. They do not hit for power, they have no speed, and their defense is suspect. Given those limitations, I think you have to say they have done as well as anyone could possibly expect.
Tonight’s lineup: Infante – 4 Heyward – 9 Chipper – 5 McCann – 2 Hinske – 3 Diaz – 7 Ankiel – 8 Gonzalez – 6 Medlen – 1
No Melky no Glaus and we always seem to win when Medlen starts. Let’s take the series tonight boys.
Rowland’s Office suggests Greg Maddux as Bobby’s replacement, and (I think) msnbcsports named him as the all-time greatest starting pitcher. I sure would rather he be a Braves’ employee than a Cubs’.
53 – Incompetent was too strong a word for Wren. Good point by you, but Bobby Cox desevers alot of that credit, and the scouting dept. deserves alot of the leftover credit. Alot of the fixes have come from in house sources.
Wren has done some good things, but he has still has not addressed the OF issues, and he over compensates for the other issues, like in 2008 when he overdid the bullpen instead of dealing with the rotation. Then last year he went out and spent our way into a corner by giving Chipper 13 and Lowe 15 mil a year until two years from now.
I threw out the two big games to show a point, the braves explode a couple of times a month and pump the averages up.
Our long national nightmare is over. (ESPN Held Hostage, Day 14) http://es.pn/b010MH
Well not really. They’ve got this whole Brett Favre thing to obsess about again.
One nightmare at a time.
I like Alex Rodriguez, baseball player.
I try not to watch ESPN too much and when I do it’s often with the sound off just so I can get scores.
However, the one sure way to get me to click back to the Shark Channel or Civil War Channel or the Hitler Channel is to show me Brett Favre.
#63 Marc even if we wanted to trade top prospects for performance, which was John Schuerholz’s MO, I just don’t think the team can take on a large increase in payroll.
You are right. The margin for error on this team is razor thin. A lot of things had to go right. Glaus had to be good, McLouth had to not suck, Heyward had to be at least league average, Chipper had to bounce back, Prado had to be for real and so on. A lot of that has happened. Some of it has not. We are in 1st in the division that has the best team in the NL. Were doing good.
I should say that we have 4 of the best young pitchers in the NL. Jonny Venters has been awesome this year.
I’m a little old to let the revealed conceits of athletes or rock stars bother me, but Favre’s self-absorption bothers me as much as Don Henley’s when he refused to let Michael B. appear in the video.
Both used to be among my favorites.
Sigh. Human nature.
Everyone and their mother can see Glaus is hurting, as we saw with Heyward…why is it that the braves “brains” cannot see the obvious. Heyward’s power may not return until the thumb is completely healed during the offseason, and it’s really sad. Now we will have to watch Posey take the rookie of the year award.
Speaking of power, is it possible that the Braves may have no one hit 20 homers this season? Wow…
About tonite’s line-up, I would rather have Cabrera in there against a right-hander, we know right-handers are Diaz’s kryptonite.
#35, you don’t actually think we’d be the ones paying that do you? Much like if we got Manny Ramirez, we wouldn’t be paying the full $7m.
Lowell’s salary this season is 12.5 extra large. He has played 32 games. His slash line .214 .305 .381 .686
Why? Where do you play him?
Even if Boston pays a part of the remaining contract, IMHO, the Braves don’t even have the money to pay whatever is left. Even if they do, is it worth it? Are you suggesting the the Sox would pay the 5.5 million dollars or so left on his contract just to clear a roster spot? He is DFA material at this point.
No More Zombies!
Actual In-Game E-Mail Blast from Yankees.com:
ALEX RODRIGUEZ HITS 600th HOME RUN!
Three years to the day that Rodriguez hit his 500th home run, he became the seventh player* in Major League history to hit 600 home runs in his career with a first-inning blast off Toronto’s Shaun Marcum at Yankee Stadium.
*—That’s 7 total players. Of course, we’re pretty sure that the legacies of 3 of these guys will be more rooted in the human chemistry experiment they conducted than in their compiled statistics.
But if you’re not cheating, you’re not trying, right? On to 700!
So, anyway, “A-Rod #600!” coffee mugs, T-shirts, DVDs, jerseys, caps, license-plate holders, refrigerator magnets, tanning butter, and mouse pads all available at the Yankee Store.
Thanks Ububba. So glad I know longer have to sit through any more of steroid’s boy at-bats.
Thread up. Feel the Diory Excitement!