Atlanta Braves vs. San Diego Padres – Box Score – April 25, 2011 – ESPN.
Believe me when I say there was no way I could stay up for all of that. After tying the game at 3 in the seventh, the Padres joined the Braves in Hibernation Mode for six innings before getting a walkoff homer from Ryan Ludwick.
Jason Heyward opened the scoring with a solo homer in the first. But the Padres tied it on a groundout in the second, then took the lead with a solo homer by Ludwick in the third. The Braves took the lead back in the fifth. Freddie Freeman doubled and Alex Gonzalez singled him home. Gonzalez went to second on a groundout by Nate McLouth, and Derek Lowe singled him home in turn. And that was it for the offense.
Lowe, as usual, went six. Eric O’Flaherty came in to pitch the seventh, and walked the leadoff man, who was bunted to second. He got the next guy, but Fredi went to Scott Linebrink, who allowed a run-scoring double to tie it. After that, the Braves got good relief work from Jonny Venters in the eighth and Cory Gearrin in the ninth and tenth. Cristhian Martinez threw a 1-2-3 11th.
In the top of the 12th, Chipper Jones led off with a double. Fredi had Brandon Hicks run for him, because that’s how Fredi rolls. Sure enough, Hicks got thrown out at third on a Brian McCann groundout, which was followed by a Dan Uggla single and two straight strikeouts. If Hicks had stayed put, the Braves almost certainly would have scored. The Lisp threw another perfect inning in the twelfth. In the thirteenth, he was still out there, and allowed a one-out walk, then the homer.
How bad are things that people are now wishing that Todd Redmond, Stephen Marek, and Diory Hernandez on the roster?
BTW, everybody clammoring for Stephen Marek, are you sure you want this guy? It was a couple of years ago when Freeman and Heyward were still in Mississippi, but I saw Marek pitch in Chattanooga. At the time he was toting a spare tire and about a 6.00 ERA. He was nothing but a fat POS with below average stuff. Unless he has improved greatly since then, he won’t help us.
@1: I remember when people used to clamor for Lance Cormier. So, yeah…
@1
That is because he had to pitch against the mighty Lookouts.
Did anyone else watch the MLB Network’s analysis of Game 7 of the 1992 NLCS as the 4th greatest game of the last 50 years? Bob Costas and Tom Verducci (who should stick to writing) talked with Lemmer, Sid Bream and Andy Van Slyke.
It was interesting to hear Van Slyke speak more about comments he’s made in the past about that game. He confirms what we’ve known for a long time: Bonds is a douche and should have been playing in on Cabrera’s single.
Here’s hoping MLB Network ranks Game 7 of the 1991 World Series as the #1 greatest game.
Can’t blame the Lisp too much for that one. He was obviously out of gas in his third inning of work.
I’m really sick of Sherrill being on the roster. He has logged a grand total of 2 innings in 14 days and hasn’t pitched since last Thursday. This is a good thing for the Braves, but why waste a roster spot on the guy? Marek should definitely be able to give us more than Sherrill – if not, his roster spot can be filled by one of about 10 guys in AA/AAA with better results.
On the bright side, Cory Gearrin looked great.
Do we collectively think that there’s any possibility of Fredi learning from his mistakes as the season progresses?
Agreed, Gearrin had good stuff.
1 – He has improved greatly, yes. He posted a 1.13 ERA and FIP under 3 last year between two levels of the upper minors. And so far he has 13 strikeouts and no walks in eight scoreless innings in AAA. Maybe he sucks, but shouldn’t we at least find out before we give the ball back to Scott Linebrink in a high leverage situation?
Also, was it odd that O’Flaherty came in to face three right-handed bats and was THEN taken out? Is there any logic or reason at all in Fredi’s bullpen management?
Finally, over at CAC Peter flagged this illuminating post-game quote from our brilliant tactician. It’s regarding the decision to let Lisp hit for himself while the team’s best right-handed bench bat languished on the bench:
“The worst thing that can happen, happened: he got on base. It’s a double-edged sword, because if you use Rossy [backup catcher David Ross] there, your last position player, in an extra-inning game to bunt, to do the same thing … like I said, the worst thing that can happen, happened.”
The idea of letting David Ross swing away against Luebke never even crossed his mind, not even after the game. This possibility was, for Fredi, literally unthinkable. He was always going to waste the out, and so he decided to let Lisp hit. Get it?
Gearrin was great. Glad to see another local kid doing well.
@7
That would only be possible if Fredi actually made mistakes. Fredi is the manager though, and the manager always knows best.
@7
Fredo Bozo manages his bullpen like an Enron executive.
The only hope we have is that MLB figures out that he is betting on the games and bans him for life. (That is the explination for all this, right? It has to be.)
I’m ready to trade Teheran for Joe Maddon.
I actually thought EOF was a decent call — it was nice of him to bring in an actually good reliever instead of Linebrink and Sherrill. (I had the faint suspicion that he wanted to avoid using Linebrink before Venters/Kimbrel.) Gearrin might have been a better choice, because he clearly had no intention of bringing Gearrin in with runners on base.
The problem is, Fredi had no plan B, and so when EOF walked the first guy, he basically had no idea what to do.
“This man has no concept of failure because he’s paid so well for it.”
-Charles Bukowski on Fredi Gonzalez
Could it be that Fredi has never managed a team that was “built” to win? His teams in Florida were a collection of whatever the organization could afford. He actually has veterans who know how to win, and can (or should) perform in certain situations. Maybe he’ll adapt, maybe not.
Lest anyone think of me as too pollyannaish, I’m willing to basically spot Fredi the first month so that he can get to know his roster. After that, if he keeps this shit up I’m going to go ape. We’ve already underperformed our Pythagorean by two games.
whoa whoa whoa…
How many of you actually stayed up for that game? It seems not many saw the circus that was the Lisp:
1) Failed bunt attempt
2) Got doubled up on a fly ball to RF (He was running towards second as if there were 2 outs AND when running back to first he STOPPED because his brain exploded)
3) Gave up walk-off homer
The write-up of this game is grossly lacking the chaos of that inning of hilarity.
14 – I’m not criticizing the decision to pitch O’Flaherty there at all. I’m just asking why Fredi took him out of the game when he did. He wasn’t in there to face lefties, obviously, so why take him out for the 4th righty?
There may well have been a reason to do it, wrong headed or savvy. I just can’t figure out what it was, and was curious if anyone had a theory.
18 – all of which totally validates the decision not to lift him for a pinch hitter with a man on base and nobody out.
He should have left EOF in. After the walk he was looking solid and, as Adam said, if you’re going to let him face all the other righties, why not let him finish since he was on a roll?
I’m more frustrated by the offense completely ignoring what they did well in SF (patience) and deciding to regress back into what they did the earlier this season.
Yeah, I saw the Lisp. His baserunning and bunt were horrible. I had less of a problem with the pitching. He’s a decent garbage time pitcher who’s going to lose you some ballgames in extras if he’s the last man out in the pen.
Adam, I see what you’re saying. And I’d forgotten that EOF had actually struck out the previous hitter before Fredi brought in Linebrink. I think Fredi may have gotten it into his head somewhere that Linebrink is a good situational pitcher. That was the first time Linebrink had ever faced Hundley, and O’Flaherty has never faced him, so it couldn’t have been a straight matchup thing. You got me, dude. It’s mystifying.
@20-
The SD pitcher was serving up some fat pitches early in the count, even the announcers caught it. Uggla and Freeman both barely missed HRs.
just one of those nights
Andy Van Slyke is an expert on d’bags, being a renowned one himself. He was ever jealous of Bonds, and once scraped the Maple Leaf off his helmet during Gulf War I because, in his words “Canada is a pacifist, socialist country.”
Report on Vizcaino is that he has a sore back.
@18 – I fell asleep with Gameday audio running sometime around 1230, so when I woke up this morning I saw the score and checked the play log. My first sounds of the day were cursing and the second were chuckling at the Lisp’s impressively complete ineptitude. It was a very anti-Ruthian performance – he greatly reduced our probability of winning as a pitcher, batter, and baserunner all in the same game. Ruth complained about the excessive burden of pitching and hitting at the same time, so maybe anti-Ruth thinks the burden isn’t great enough. More responsibilities for the Lisp please! Maybe he could manage…
24—Whew!
Sherrill needs to go.
While we are talking about Vizcaino (yes, a relief) does anybody out there know why Cory Rasmus was put on the DL?
Otherwise, the Lisp’s lack of baseball fundamentals were so well exhibited that he produced one of the more memorable innings of the young season….
D1 Graduation Rates:
http://stanford.scout.com/2/1066657.html
The Lisp’s baserunning was bad, but to be fair, I don’t think you could expect a whole lot more from a pitcher who will probably get 5 to 10 PAs all year if he’s lucky. The right fielder (Denorfia?) made an excellent play on the ball and it looked like the ball bounced (it was actually the player bouncing on the grass). The bunt was also bad, but again, we’re talking about a guy with no hits and no walks in 7 career at bats over 3 seasons.
Given how tired Martinez already was, I still think you could at least pinch hit with a starting pitcher who has a clue about how to bunt (Hudson, Lowe). If you don’t get it done, you still have Sherrill and Kimbrel in the pen.
@30, Heck, a relief pitcher is lucky to get 5 PAs in his career. Yes, Martinez looked really dumb out there, but that’s what happens when you run out of bench players and have your mop up guy hit for himself.
As someone else said in the last thread, Lisp was clearly gassed in that 13th inning. It’s tough to win extra innings games on the road and that out at third Hicks made was a tough break. I was pissed that I stayed up until 2 to watch my team lose, but it’s understandable. Go get ’em today.
Sorry, but I blame Hicks far more than the Lisp for this loss. You expect a guy who’s only strength is being a pinch runner to actually know how to run the bases. He HAS to wait for that ball to get past the pitcher — ESPECIALLY in that situation. Even if he isn’t able to make it to 3rd, we’re ok, he’s still in scoring position. But instead he goes “the Lisp” on us and tries to make it. Bad breaks are one thing, stupidity is another. The unanswerable question remains: WHY is he in the Major Leagues??
OK, guys – I’m completely flummoxed.
Why don’t the Braves score more runs?
I look at the lineup and the guys I had concerns about (McLouth and Freeman) are actually contributing more offensively than I expected.
The numbers don’t really speak of a team that is quite this impotent, do they?
I don’t get it.
@32,
Hicks is from the Lonnie Smith School of Base Running. He gradutaed Cum Laude.
@33
We score runs when we draw walks. Seems simple. But Parish and Fredo Bozo don’t get it.
I’m reminded again what a great bench we had last year.
Braves don’t score runs because they are constantly managed for one run innings, giving away bunt outs, yet the lineup and player skills aren’t attuned to one-run innings. Fredi must think every game is being played in the old Astrodome.
Low walks, lots of bunts, lots of cought stealing and busted hit&run. Low pressure on the other teams’ pitchers and pitch counts, other than the game against The Freak. Seems distracting to most Braves batters too.
Everybody is floundering under this kind of management. They need to relax and start getting 2 and 3 run homers. One inning of that provides as many runs as a whole game of Frediball.
33 –
Almost everyone has done worse than expected. Prado and Uggla have both been downright awful at the plate this season, McCann and Freeman have been mediocre, and neither Chipper nor Heyward have been great. McLouth and Gonzalez, meanwhile, are both well below average hitters overall, and both are still underperforming career norms.
So basically there are no great hitters in this lineup. In fact, so far, Heyward has been the only very good hitter while Chipper has been the only good one. Everyone else is average or below average:
Heyward .379 wOBA
Chipper .351 wOBA
Freeman .338 wOBA
McCann .324 wOBA
(Hinske .310 wOBA)
McLouth .288 wOBA
Prado .286 wOBA
Gonzalez .286 wOBA
Uggla .264 wOBA
(Ross .225 wOBA)
It’s tough to win when your lineup includes four black holes and two other guys no better than average.
As for the walks issue, the Braves’ walk rate of 8.6% is pretty much in the middle of the MLB pack. The bigger problem has been their BABIP. To wit: the Braves’ .257 BABIP is second to worst in the majors. If that regresses to .300 or so by the end of the year, I expect the team to score a lot more runs.
They’re also going to need McCann’s power to return.
I don’t know what you guys are talking about. The Braves are in the top two in walks in the NL. The problem isn’t their approach or Freddy (he’s hurting at the margin, but it’s not killing the team). The problem is that Atlanta has the WORST BA IN BASEBALL. It’s that they aren’t getting enough singles. For chrissake, Uggla’s hitting .180. Heyward and Freeman are in the low/mid .200’s. Chipper’s hitting .275. Prado’s still around .260. It’s not baserunnng or anything like that. The Braves aren’t scoring because singles aren’t dropping in. Case in point: first hit out of the pitcher’s spot the ENTIRE season came yesterday. You don’t expect much production out of that spot in the lineup, but 1 hit per month is a bit low, yeah?
Anyway, it’ll equalize eventually. The strikeouts aren’t overwhelimng, and if the Braves keep hitting for power like they have been and keep walking, this offense should finish top 5 in the NL easy.
edit: Yeah. What Adam M said.
The Braves are actually fifth in the NL in walks, 14th in batting average. This is not hard to find out.
Oh top of what MRaver said…the Braves also probably have the slowest team in the league.
There are going to be a lot of offensive droughts this season.
It’s funny b/c Van Slyke, Bonilla and Bonds were all known as a-holes around the league.
Also, the Braves are five-for-thirteen in stolen base attempts, easily the worst in baseball — the Braves are the only team with more times caught stealing than stolen bases. (Of course, some of those are tied to failed hit-and-runs, that failed suicide squeeze with Tommy Hanson, etc.) That might be one reason that they’re also tied for the league lead in bunts. This team is insanely stupid on the bases. A lot of that is Fredi’s fault for calling terrible plays, but a 38 percent stolen base success rate is basically everyone’s fault.
I’m just asking why Fredi took him out of the game when he did. He wasn’t in there to face lefties, obviously, so why take him out for the 4th righty?
As always, Fredi was just guessing.
Is that two walk-off home runs in a row now for “the Lisp”?
They walk alot in San Fran, and won.
They didn’t walk once last night, and lost.
Adam is right about the team being built for the three run homer. You have to have two guys on before you hit the three run homer. As of now they are not getting on and hitting solo shots.
@43–I’d be happy if Fredi were guessing–he’d get more decisions right that way.
Nate Schierholtz is available. In the fourth outfielder universe, he’s much better than Matt Young, certainly. Should we trade someone who can actually play baseball for him?
Every team is built for the three-run homer.
Game thread.