Atlanta Braves vs. Houston Astros – Box Score – June 11, 2011 – ESPN.
Brian McCann is the best catcher in baseball. After a rough time in regulation (popping up in the first with two on and no out, and hitting into a double play to end a threat in the seventh) he did what he does to the Astros in extra innings, a three-run homer with nobody out in the tenth to win the game.
Mike Minor had a weird start. With one out in the first, he allowed a triple and two doubles down the left field line to make it 2-0. After that he allowed only three other baserunners, on a hit and two walks, and struck out four.
Dan Uggla had a rare good game, getting two singles and two walks. With two out in the third he scored from first on a double by Chipper Jones to cut the lead in half. In the fourth, Eric Hinske homered to tie it. But the Braves couldn’t get a lead to win the game for Minor.
Eric O’Flaherty allowed a couple of baserunners on a hit (that really should have been an error on Uggla) and a walk but pitched out the jam in the seventh. Jonny Venters allowed a little flare single after striking out the first batter in the eighth, then got a double play. Scott Linebrink also allowed a hit and a walk in the ninth but somehow got out of it.
Jordan Schafer led off the tenth with a single, then stole second, followed by an Uggla walk. McCann then turned on a pitch and hit a long homer to right field to make it 5-2. Hinske singled in Chipper with two out to make it 6-3. Craig Kimbrel pitched the tenth because, What the Hell, and allowed back-to-back one-out doubles to score a run before settling down.
The Braves are now, indeed, .500 all-time. Let’s move over tomorrow.
Watching the Orioles-Rays game. The Rays play some extremely smart and fundamentally sound baseball. They’re a pleasure to watch.
Honestly, this is the first time this year that it seems that Uggla looks comfortable at the plate. Of course, if he hadn’t gotten on base four times today, I’m sure I wouldn’t be making that statement.
(My apologies if this has already been covered in other threads.)
Unless I’ve done my math wrong, this is the first time the Braves have been .500 as a Franchise since June 3rd, 1923…
Only five-hundred-ish games behind the Giants. They’re a MASH unit. We can make up ground!
What will become of “ban the Dan” if Uggla starts playing like pre-2011 Uggla?
500 games behind the Giants? That’s going to take at least 30 years to catch up, if we play extremely well and they don’t.
I just want to make it to 10,000 wins before 10,000 losses. I would like to be able to rub that in my Phillie acquaintances.
@4 I’d worry about that bridge when we get to it. His current goal should be the Mendoza line
No Prado, no Heyward, no Nate, no Moylan, no Beachy, too much Fredi, and Uggla has been awful. How is this team 9 games above .500?
Tommy Hanson vs. Brett Myers tomorrow for the sweep…which probably means Houston’s backup catcher will hit a 5-run homer and Myers will pitch a perfect game
maybe fredi isnt asleep everytime his eyes are closed. maybe…just maybe…he is a decent manager. time will tell i guess. leave it up to sabermetricians are wrong. lets hope so.
#8 – nah, its a 4 game series.
Linebrink hasn’t given up a run in a month.
Venters has only given up 1 run since April 3rd.
Venters’ ERA is down to .45. I love pitchers with ERAs that double as bullet calibers.
@12
True, but nobody complains about Venters coming into a game.
Also, I forget who brought up the idea of getting Betemit back from the Royals, but KC brought up Moustakas yesterday. Hmm….
Anyone who followed the Braves in the 70’s and 80’s (except the glorious 82 and 83 seasons) never figured this franchise would get to .500. The team of Sugar Bear Blanks, Pat Rockett, Rod Gilbreath, and Mickey Mahler dug a pretty big hole for Chipper, Maddux, Smoltz and the stars of the 90’s on.
New proposal being discussed.
-Two 15 league teams
-No divisions
-Top five teams in each league make the playoffs
Interesting.
I’m for any proposal that has us playing the Astros 150 times a year.
If this proposal doesn’t include that, it should be tabled indefinitely.
It’s really strange to read that MLB is considering that… six weeks ago a local radio guy here (in Fort Myers, FL, of all places) that had a fully drawn out plan based on that same idea. More to it, but I don’t remember his whole shpiel.
Great win tonight. If only this is the start of something for Uggla. I doubt it a little bit because he did not hit the ball hard, but at least he made contact and showed some patience. Way to go, Dan.
Regarding the MLB proposal: Question is, which team would be willing to move to the AL? Would they take the Brewers back?
And 5 teams in each league in the playoffs? How is that supposed to work? I believe you need an even number.
i think its part of a plan to incorporate another wildcard team. the two wild cards would play sort of like a play in three game series to advance to the divisional series. at least thats what ive gathered
“Top five teams in each league make the playoffs”
One of the better things about baseball is that the regular season means more than it does in the NFL and especially the NBA. Sad to see them wanting to dilute it with more playoff teams.
Seems like a bad idea to me. Assuming they go to a(n almost) completely balanced schedule, and they have each team play every team in the opposite league three times a season, that leaves 7.8 games each for their own league. This will basically kill rivalries and vastly reduce the chance of having contenders in the same league playing each other at the end of the season.
I seem to remember that when Arizona came into MLB, Bud Selig let them enter the NL, which is what they wanted, but he reserved the right to move them to the AL at a later date. So you could move them. You could move Houston since their closest geographic rival is in the AL (although in most situations like that, there’s one team in each league). You could move Milwaukee.
For the record, I think the realignment proposal is a great idea. They meant well with the unbalanced schedule, and if you’re going to have divisions, it makes some sense, but in the end, it gives us way too much of the same matchups over and over again. And with ease of travel today, divisions are really pretty unnecessary in an entity like MLB. All they do is fail to ensure that the best teams in the league make the playoffs every single year.
As far as the five teams per league thing, I assume they’re going to enact the play-in game or series between the two wild card teams (or in this case, the two worst playoff-qualifying teams) that’s been talked about recently.
“Seems like a bad idea to me. Assuming they go to a(n almost) completely balanced schedule, and they have each team play every team in the opposite league three times a season, that leaves 7.8 games each for their own league. This will basically kill rivalries….”
It’s also a bad business decision, as all the appeal and extra cash inter-league play brings in now will stop. It’ll cease to be an “event.”
And, to a lesser extent, you could say that about the All-Star game under such a thing too.
I don’t understand how the All-Star Game would be at all changed by this. People have already claimed that interleague play has taken all the “mystique” out of the All-Star Game. I’m not sure why this would further it. They could still do the cockamamie winner gets home-field advantage thing.
Also: how does the DH thing work? Home ballpark? Are NL teams going to need an expensive DH? Will AL teams be paying for a costly DH they won’t need as much? Is this a backdoor method of bringing the DH to the NL?
Maybe keeping Uggla in second hole isn’t a bad idea on a long term basis. And we don’t need Nate anymore. Perhaps he will be our expensive fourth outfielder going forward.
When are the Braves going to teach thair players to slide feet first?
I would hate getting rid of divisions and the unbalanced schedule. As F said, it would completely destroy the notion of rivalries. I like facing the Phillies, Mets, et al throughout the year, and knowing the arc of their seasons nearly as well as the Braves’. I like hating Victorino and Wright, and I like dreading Bryce Harper.
Now that pitching has caught up to hitting, I think it’s time to expand to 32 teams, have 8 4-team divisions, and get rid of the wild card altogether. But that’s not the way the wind appears to be blowing.
I’d actually like to go to 2 divisions with the two best teams who don’t win their division qualifying as Wild Cards.
27- No, I think McLouth deserves a chance to reclaim CF. Schafer hasn’t been that good, and Schafer’s skills make him a very useful fourth OF/ bench player.
As for Uggla, let’s wait till he approaches the Mendoza line, then we’ll talk.
My surgeon is pretty sure that the fever is not surgery-related, so if I have staph I did it to myself.
I never understood why Bud was so hot to move the Brewers to the NL in the first place. He had sentimental reasons attached to his old Braves fandom, but the Brewers and White Sox had a nice rivalry going, and the Brewers would never have that with the Cubs.
The problem with McLouth is that he hits like a 4th outfielder too. Yes, he’s a little better than Schafer at the plate, but he gives that away and more with his horrible defense in center field. I guess I’d rather see Schafer play center, at least when Hanson, Minor, and Beachy pitch.
If they make any drastic changes to baseball…then the DH must be eliminated.
Bud Selig is a wuss.
I actually think that Bud is the best commissioner in sports. At any rate, he’s the only one who isn’t facing a work stoppage.
Game thread!
True, Mac, although the low level of the competition depresses me.
I agree with the arguments presented as to why the 15-team leagues and balanced schedules aren’t going anywhere soon. I’d like to see eight four-team divisions, maybe with a wild card, but I doubt we’ll see any expansion, realignment, or other significant shift.
The Dan seems to be figuring it out. Maybe he can still be the Man, or at least not the Man Who Crippled Our Offense.
And on that note, MCCANN!!
“Top five teams in each league make the playoffs”
What is “how to reduce the number of interesting races to two per year,”Alex?
Well, I think Hanson’s figured the Astros out.
“But being that this is a .44 ERA, the most powerful relief pitcher in the world and would blow your head clean off, you’ve got to ask yourself one question: ‘Do I feel lucky?’ Well do ya, punks?”