Houston Astros vs. Atlanta Braves – Box Score – May 16, 2011 – ESPN.
Another 3-2 win, this time behind Tommy Hanson and… Joe Mather? Oh come on, be serious.
Anyway, the Braves loaded the bases in the first with one out and in the second with two out, and didn’t score either time, even though Brett Myers was throwing absolute garbage. It took until the fifth inning for anyone to score, and that was the Astros on a solo homer. But in the sixth, Hinske and Gonzalez singled on back-to-back pitches, setting up first and third. Freeman‘s groundout moved AAG up, and then Mather singled to left field, scoring both and giving the Braves the lead, though they blew at chance at more runs after the Astros screwed up Hanson’s bunt and let him reach when Prado hit into the second of his three double plays on the night.
Prado, playing third base, did make a fabulous run-saving play on defense in the first, but gave it back in the seventh, when he threw away a ball for a two-base error. Hanson buckled down and struck out the next two (he had ten Ks on the night) but then gave up a double to tie it.
In the bottom of the inning, however, McLouth walked leading off, and after a McCann strikeout Uggla walked as well, then Hinske singled to score the go-ahead run. O’Flaherty had no problems in the eighth (the only unusual thing being he was given the role while Venters had the night off) striking out two in a 1-2-3 inning. Kimbrel struck out the side in the ninth, but gave up a flare single and needed 21 pitches; presumably, tomorrow Venters would get the ninth.
The hit Kimbrel gave up was luck. He was nasty
Boy, when McCann sucks he does it epically. He sucks like a Big Orange, he sucks like Kentucky’s defense on third down, he … well, you get the idea.
It’s a good thing the Diesel was doing work.
—————-
Kimbrel needs another pitch.
—————-
Is there a good, new stat for “clutch”. Or is it simply BARISP?
—————-
Hey, Carlos – shut up and play.
BTW, anyone who ever wanted Ned Yost as a manager needs to go check out KC/Cle boxscore tonight. Please explain how a reliever is capable of giving up 14ER in 2.1IP…
V Mazarro – 2.1IP 11H 14K 3BB 2K
Kimbrel doesnt need another pitch. He just needs to command his fastball a little better. Wagner did just fine with two pitches.
As Rany pointed out on Twitter, they acquired Mazzaro, straight up, for David DeJesus.
LOL.
Most runs in 2.1 innings in baseball history.
Mazarro came with Justin Marks, who’s been bad as well though. DeJesus has sucked too, .228/.313/.346
#3 – edit: thats not 14K, its suppose to be 14ER
It was a Kyle Davies start. Anything is possible.
Royals’ reliever Vin Mazzaro gave up 14 earned runs in 2.1 innings tonight against the Indians, and saw his ERA go from 4.50 to 22.74 as a result.
That ERA, if considered celsius, is a nice, comfortable 73 degrees fahrenheit.
Ah, my mistake. Still a horrific trade.
What’s more amazing is that MLB is 40 games into the season and the Royals pitching staff’s ERA just went up 1/2 a run for the year.
Kyle Davies pitched 1/3 of an inning in his start. I smell a DFA.
edit: nevermind, he got hurt.
I just ventured to the Royals’ home site and this was the headlines…
“Royals need a big rally late against the Indians”. lol
Stu, I will never stop making fun of you for wishing we’d held onto Davies.
I think the Braves need to do some prospect swapping with the Royals. Wil Myers could be the answer to so many woes next year if Chipper were to retire. A backup catcher that we could stick in left field everyday.
Responded to a Bill Shanks tweet. He hasn’t changed at all.
I guess Mycal Jones has been busted for a DUI. In response, I have instituted Furcal Rule II: I don’t give up on you until the second DUI. However, he will henceforth be known as Mycalob Jones.
Chipper’s going to test the knee tomorrow and if it responds well, he plans on playing.
14—And I will never stop making fun of anyone who thinks we couldn’t have gotten better than 7 2/3 sore-armed innings from Octavio Dotel.
Does anyone know a player with a name that goes something like:
_ _ t t l _ r k _ e
Bought a “lottery ticket” baseball for $2 to sell after the guy couldn’t figure out whose signature it is. But I can’t either. The signature on the front belongs to former NL President William D. White, which probably indicates a player that played between 1989 and 1994.
Joe Posnanski » Posts The Worst Pitching Performance Ever «.
Todd Stottlemyre, maybe?
Saw that poor Mazzaro kid get a spot start (for Bruce Chen) at Yankee Stadium last week.
He was all over the place, threw 94 pitches in 4 IP & gave up 6 hits & 4 BB—but only 2 runs. Yanks couldn’t get a big hit, plus A-Rod had a GIDP & Gardner got picked off first (which he’s been doing a lot lately).
Somehow the Royals won 4-3 in 11 innings, despite only getting 4 hits themselves. A very weird baseball game.
BTW, you gotta see this 10th-inning-ending DP by the Marlins. Tie game, Mets had guys on 1st & 2nd with 1 out when Justin Turner hits this bullet to short that takes a bad hop on Hanley Ramirez & bounces off his shoulder.
It looks like the ball is going to ping into CF, maybe plating the winning run. Instead, it goes right to Omar Infante, who’s already covering the bag. He tags it & completes the DP.
And now a Marlins pitcher (Burke Badenhop) just drove in the go-ahead run in the 11th.
If the Mets didn’t have bad luck…
@20
Ellis Burks?
@20, post a picture of the signature.
Without a picture, my guess is Matt Mieske.
@20- Darryl Kile? A stretch, maybe the r’s look like t’s?
Just noticed that the Braves are tied with St. Louis for the best run differential in the NL and for second overall (thanks in large part to Cleveland’s 19-1 win tonight). Even with the great pitching I didn’t expect that. Hopefully that bodes well for the next 3/4 of the season, especially if Chipper’s injury isn’t bad and Heyward comes back strong. Optimism abounds!
An arguably interesting tidbit:
Amongst the various former Braves enjoying a Royal resurgence, Kyle Davies is NOT one of them…
1-6, 7.46 ERA, 57 hits allowed in 41 IP
Wil Myers is one of the best hitting prospects in the minors, even if he doesn’t stick at catcher. It’s easy to forget how good he is because the Royals have a bunch of other amazing prospects, but he’s pretty equivalent to Mike Moustakas, Jesus Montero, and Julio Teheran. His price will be unimaginably high.
11-4 on the month so far. Best record in baseball for May. Go Bravos!
@31
yes, it will.
@31,33 – If you really thought he was the one, then that’s exactly the kind of guy you would pull the trigger on. You’d need ice water in your veins to trade a blue chip pitching prospect, but they are the most valued commodity in the game right now and I wouldn’t be opposed to using one to answer a long term problem. The Royals have a half dozen or so high quality pitching prospects of their own though, so not probably a good match.
Moylan’s having his surgery today.
That’s the thing. If the Royals were going to trade any of their amazing prospects, they’d pretty much need to get Roy Halladay in return. Like Avatar, there may be nothing we can give them that they want.
According to twitter, Chipper is playing today.
Career opportunity for Diory Hernandez!
Does anyone remember the SNL commercial ‘Big Red’? It was a red viking toy and kids loaded the viking horns with red paint. When you turned the viking on, it would spin and fire red paint everywhere.
I can’t find this video online, but I would love for the Braves to show this during Hanson starts on the HD board in center field. This will be my #1 goal until Hanson signs a lucrative free agent deal with the Red Sox in a few years.
I had no idea this was an afternoon game. Yes!
The gang’s all here:
Prado 7 Heyward 9 Chipper 5 Uggla 4 Hinske 3 Ross 2 Gonzalez 6 McLouth 8 Lowe 1
I can’t wait for Heyward to sacrifice Martin Prado over to second!
Wow, I had no idea that Aaron Douglass was found dead last week. He was suppose to come in and play right away for Alabama this season. He’s had some off the field issues, but its sad when someone that young passes away.
So, uh … Joe Mather is currently sporting a .300/.333/.450 line.
43—Extremely sad story. Meth is no joke.
@42-Love the optimism. I was picturing him popping out to first on the attempt because he’s never had a manager stupid enough to actually ask him to bunt.
EDIT: I guess the qualifier “until now” is appropriate somewhere in there
I just cut Kenshin Kawakami. So I have that over the Braves.
When I read DOB’s last tweet at first glance I thought Chipper’s quote was “I’m ready to strap it on and find out”
RIP Harmon Killebrew
If you asked Twins fans today to rank Killebrew, Carew, and Puckett in terms of popularity, what would the result be?
Depends on the age of the Twins fan I’d say. Older fans would say Killebrew. 25-35 year old would say Puckett no doubt.
I loooove afternoon games. Go Braves!
I’m no Twins fan, but I fall between 25 and 35 and I’d pick Killebrew.
Nice catch Chipper!
Descending into AGONy once more
Well, I’m a Braves fan and if someone asked me if I was a bigger fan of Chipper Jones or Eddie Mathews, I’d say Chipper just because that’s who I grew up watching. I doubt most twentysomething Twins fans could tell you their 10 favorite Harmon Killebrew moments. JMO.
Derek is looking good.
There might be a lot of people like me who watched Puckett play, found out how big of a dirtbag he was after he retired, and would give the nod to Killebrew. Both men, RIP.
But what if someone asked you if you were a bigger fan of Chipper Jones or Hank Aaron? That’s kind of what Killebrew meant to that franchise.
48 — Just asked my supervisor, who is a big Twins fan and he went: Puckett, Killebrew, Carew.
He never saw Killebrew play (but had lots of esteem for him as a type of grandfather of the Twins) and is young enough that he remembers Carew as an Angel.
Watched a few “innings” of the old Home Run Derby between Killebrew and Mays during lunch. Good times.
Tony Oliva, an unbelievable hitter whose career was slowed by injuries, was a pretty popular with Twins fans back in his day, too.
In fact, those teams with Killebrew, Carew & Oliva in the lineup & Jim Perry & Jim Kaat in the rotation & Ron Perranoski in the bullpen were pretty damn good.
Okay… time to wake up now.
Can we stop treating Wandy Rodriguez like Livan Hernandez and start treating him like Cliff Lee?
@57
I don’t think the answer changes for guys like me who watched Chipper from his first year to present. Even though I appreciate what Aaron did, and is still doing, for the Braves, I’m still a bigger fan of Chipper Jones.
Can we just fast forward to the end of this one? Its one of the most boring games that I can remember.
So now Derek Lowe will give up a run, and then in the bottom half the Braves will either respond, or won’t. And so will go the game.
I don’t think Derek will give up a run today. He’ll go 7 nice innings. The Astros look as bad at the plate as the Braves tonight.
It’s true that he’s facing a AAA lineup, but Derek has been quite good today. He’s been solid in general this year. I hope it lasts.
Okay so maybe not. Thought I’d seen this one before..
Fact: Astros are 5 of 15 in save opportunites this year.
Brave fandom: It’s tough because I did see Henry Aaron play & play well, so he’ll always be No. 1, but I kinda break it into eras.
Post-Aaron, it’s Niekro. It’s gotta be Murphy after that, although I liked Horner, despite all that entails.
For The Great Run (91-05), it’s Maddux. Post-Maddux, it’s probably Chipper. (And what can you say about Glavine & Smoltz?)
Lowe is dealing today. Let’s get some runs.
Here we go. Come on now!
Okay, now BUNT!
Good feeling about Uggla. Not.
Ya know, if Heyward had bunted…
Dunggla
Uggla back in form.
Ouch
Even if the Astros are a bad team they are still middle of the pack (NL wise) in runs scored.
Aaaand typing that jinxed Derek, sorry.
Get some damn runs, guys.
So I was an inning early on that giving up a run thing.
“Proctor and Sherril loosing up in the Atlanta pen”… NOT what you wanna hear.
Story of the season continues to be great pitching and awful hitting.
jj, hope you’re right about this part of your sentence, too… “and then in the bottom half the Braves will either respond”
GDMF. Letting bad teams hang around ensures you are going to lose some of those games and burn out your bullpen. Win or lose, this game is a shining example of what good teams should avoid.
Braves just need to get into that Houston bullpen.
Yeah, but the Disastros are about to get into the sucky half of the Braves’ bullpen, because Fredi doesn’t believe in using good relievers when he’s one run down.
Wow. Eric Hinske is really slow.
But the good half has been used a lot, and if Scott Linebrink can’t get Angel Sanchez out, he should be run out of town on a two-dollar mule.
This is when I wish we had a speedy guy on the bench who could steal a base.
Won’t help if no one else gets a hit.
Wanda is going all 9 innings.
87- True. The only way our benchies, and most of our starters, can steal a base is by breaking into the equipment room.
“It’s a Wandy day in Atlanta.” — Chip Caray
What does that even mean? Is it supposed to be a play on “windy”?
Oh come on.
Bunt you, Fredi!
I hate Cheryl. I hate Fredi. I hate everyone and everything.
Jesus… I hate this.
Boy our manager is stupid!
Might be a good time for a poll–who leaves to make way for Teheran? Probably one of Diory, Sherrill, Linestink, Proctor?
Even PEANUT is mocking Fredi’s use of Sherrill.
Sherrill obviously has more success against left-handed hitting pitchers.
What are the odds that MLB organizations instructed their International League affiliates to purposely fail against Scott Proctor, just to get the Braves to use him in meaningful games?
Might have got him at 3rd
Sheesh.
Cheryl cannot even succeed in his designated POOGY role.
We weren’t scoring against Wanda anyways. Cheryl just thought he’d do everyone a favor by killing the suspense.
I kinda thought the Ass-man would walk in a run there. Still time, I guess.
Proctor tried really hard to give up the grand slam there.
How often does Fredi do that annoying gleek/spitting thing? Every time the camera cuts to him he does it… Anyone else want to punch him in the teeth every time he does?
Does Proctor have anything in his arsenal other than “meatball”?
EDIT: I honestly can’t believe no runs scored. The Astros are terrible.
Come on, Proctor!!
That shouldn’t have worked. But it did, so let’s take advantage of it!
Scott Proctor????!?!??!?
Proctor thinks Cheryl should be demoted. I agree.
At least we have fun nicknames for our awful relievers.
Sherrill has the worst 2.25 ERA I’ve ever seen. I guess in fairness the pitcher didn’t hit the ball that hard.
Alfonso Marquez, by the way, is incompetent.
Wandy Rodriguez > Tom Glavine
How many guys are going to strike out with the bats on their shoulders?
Wandy’s definitely fooling ’em.
He’s at 113 pitches after 8. Who closes for them?
Wandy’s got a jacket on. He’s probably gonna come out for the 9th.
We are going to get complete game shutout by WANDY.
Melancon is in now, Wandy is done
Damn it. Well, plays like that are why Uggla is under the Mendoza line.
We’re really going to be shut out, at home, by the Astros, aren’t we?
I already hate the upcoming “tip your hat” comment from Fredi.
I think Marquez has a bus to catch.
Ugh-gla.
Nooooooooo!
Parish, Uggla got totally robbed of a single by Downs, who made a great diving play to stop the ball and then throw him out.
FCK!
GO GO GO GO DAMN.
what happened now?
Seriously, WTF is up with this strike zone?
Well, at least Fredi decided it was time to pinch hit with his best bench hitter. It only took him a month and a half.
YESS!!!!!!!!!!!!
Wheeeew!
UNBELIEVABLE!!!!!
BRIAN MOTHER——- MCCANN!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
MCCANN!!!
BMAC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
UNBELIEVABLE!
McCain has no power this year. LOL!
OMG, yes.
Now let’s beat them in 18!
I can’t believe that I’m overjoyed to play another extra inning game against the Astros, but at least we’re not going to get shut out by them at home.
what happened with Hinkse’s AB?
Does it count as extra baseball when the previous 9 innings have offered so little regular baseball?
Freeman’s reaction was hilarious. He’s still such a frickin’ kid.
And our bad relievers have already been used!
EDIT: except for linebrink. Crap. Fredi can still loose it.
Really nice pick by Chipper on that one.
@142 Caught by Pence at the top of the wall
All these extra inning games are draining our bullpen.
However, rather have this problem than a 1-0 loss.
Eric O’Flarety has been so good for us this year. He looks like the 2nd coming of Mike Remlinger or something.
Hinske hit the ball to the wall in right field, Pence made a leaping catch to haul it in.
146—Yeah, somehow. He didn’t even bend.
It’s really weird to think about this, but I think O’Failurety might be our third-best lefty reliever after Remlinger and Venters.
Will the Braves now get better stike ball calls after game is tied?
This strike zone. It’s really starting to piss me off.
Changing subjects, I think I’m going to start taking a vacation day every year on Brian McCann’s birthday.
151—Wags is up there, though he only had the one season, of course.
I’ll say it: I love EOF!
In our elation, let’s not forget the clutch pitching of Cheryl and Ass-man keeping the deficit at one.
Well, Cheryl did give up 2 hits without recording an out.
156 – All a part of the plan.
How many seconds until Nate’s thrown out trying to steal?
EDIT: I somehow didn’t consider the pinch-bunt option. WHY WASTE CONRAD TO BUNT???
Sure would be nice to see Nate steal a base here.
Nah, it’s pinch-buntin’ time.
Oh dear God, not this bull*** again!
Why not send jurjens or hudson to bunt?
Prado’s the one I wanna see here.
If you’re going to bunt, why not use Hudson?
Stu, I know that Wags was good for one year; so was Rocker. I was thinking more in a multi-year sense.
Rocker has to be ahead of O’Flaherty.
Pinch bunting with a non pitcher is….
I really wish the Braves fans were more into it.
Wow, that was surprising.
Let the Ol’ man finish it.
You’re right Stu, this strike zone sucks.
We might need Hudson to actually get a hit later…
165—OK, but that’s a pretty weird criterion. I mean, Venters is on your list and has pitched like a year and a month.
This Fulchino guy has a great photo on yahoo.
swing the bat.
I seriously wouldn’t mind leaving Conrad in for Chipper on a double-switch, here…
No shit..wondering why Chipper even bothered to take his bat with him the last 2 at bats.
Well, true. Anyway, O’Failurety has been good.
Ugly AB by Chipper.
So Chipper likes himself in RBI situations. Once again, its hard to do anything with the bat on your shoulder.
It’s a little weird to see Roger McDowell back on the team.
How does Fredi not suffocate in his sleep? How has he not drowned himself in the rain?
You never see that called.
They never call that, but that was absolutely correct.
He doesnt sleep, he’s playing his next “bunting” attack.
Wow… an umpire actually called a guy for not trying to get out of the way of the ball. That’s awesome.
On the other hand, it’s a pretty ridiculous call. He wasn’t leaning into the pitch. If I was an Astro fan, I would be livid.
OMG I love that call.
Well, this is going to suck.
@186 What are you talking about? He stuck his elbow out as far as he could and put it right in the path of the ball.
Nah, he stuck his arm in the way of the ball.
Man, Cory!
Awesome.
Let’s win this damn game already.
Beauty!!!
Good grief, this game is going to kill me.
I thought that was a hit for sure.
Wow.
I mean, he stuck his elbow out involuntarily. Usually, that rule is designed to prevent people intentionally trying to get a free base.
Well, the Stros offense outsucked Gearrin and our defense. Now let’s win this thing already!
Haha, yes! Cheryl and Proctor bumble through an inning, and then Gearrin loads the bases and hits another guy and gets out of it with a double play.
Offense needs to step up with some improbable performances (I’m looking at you, Doug Uggla).
Uggla, Hinske, BMac need to save the team from Fredi’s managing this inning.
Since Kimbrel is unavailable, only the Lisp and Linebrink are left (unless Gearrin goes another inning), so it would be good to win it now.
Brian, don’t take any tips from Chipper today!
He wont ask McCann to bunt will he?
Pinch-run for Hinske?
Never mind, he can probably beat McCann’s trot.
@196 There was nothing involuntary about that. Not even close.
Lisp is good for 4 perfect innings. Im not worried.
Yeeee-haw!
McCann 3, Astros 1
Now that was a fun day at the office.
AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!
HOT DAMN!
Awesome.
BMAC!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Had it all the way.
YESSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ohhhh-hoooo!
Congrats to Cody Gearrin, Rhea County’s finest on his first mlb win.
Congrats to Brian McCann for a. winning the game for the braves, and b. giving my fantasy team a huge and unexpected lift today.
Honestly surprised that McCann didn’t bunt there.
Good thing he didn’t.
I believe he hit that HR on his own and will be benched for not bunting.
The only guy who could hit today was the guy who didn’t enter the game until two out in the bottom of the ninth.
Fitting, for this offense.
Fredi Gonzalez at a SABR convention is like Roseanne on America’s Next Top Model.
Well, this team does hit some HRs.
So who gets Brian McCann’s ASG starter spot? Molina or Outs McGee?
Id love to hear the arguments of why Bmac isnt the best catcher in the game.
Well done, Brian.
@223
Because Posey is sooooooo great! Molina throws so well, he changes the game!!!!!!!!!!
Which hitter didn’t get away with trying to get the free base? Was it Lee or Wallace?
UPDATED: It was Downs, right? I can’t keep all this straight.
Downs, yes.
Long recap for a 3-1 game is up.
Holy crap! Cheryl got 3 outs!