San Francisco Giants vs. Atlanta Braves – Box Score – August 17, 2011 – ESPN.
Was this game as close as the score indicated? Well, the tying run came to the plate in the person of Brian McCann in the ninth, so I guess it was. But it wasn’t for most of the way.
The Braves had lots of chances to get early runs. After the Giants took the lead with back-to-back doubles in the first, the Braves loaded the bases in the bottom of the inning on two hits and an error. But with one out, Freddie Freeman struck out. Chipper Jones drew a bases-loaded four-pitch walk to tie it, but Jose Constanza flew out to end the threat. In the second, they left two on, and in the third Dan Uggla doubled leading off, went to third with one out on a throwing error, and was stranded. The Braves had five hits and a walk against Matt Cain in the first three innings; they would not get another of either for the next five.
Meanwhile, in the fourth, the Giants got a couple of bloop hits and Jair Jurrjens then imploded, and by the end of the inning they had four hits and a walk and four runs. With Cain cruising, that looked like it. Cristhian Martinez did his thing for two innings, and then in the ninth Scott Linebrink did his neo-Proctor thing, allowing two runs to make it 7-1. Wouldn’t matter, right?
The Braves got a couple of baserunners, then with two out Jason Heyward singled in Freeman. Michael Bourn reached on an error to score Julio Lugo to make it 7-3. Then Martin Prado doubled them home to make it 7-5. McCann struck out (after taking a 3-1 pitch that sure looked inside to me) to end it. To be fair, the Giants would have handled the inning differently with a four-run lead than with a six-run. But sheesh.
Who is Cristian Martinez?
Minor (basically a rookie) against Lincecum tomorrow night. Not promising.
Yeah, I had high hopes that we could take this matchup, because Minor vs. Lincecum is a toughie no matter how bad the Giants offense is. Really don’t want to split this series, especially after losing 2 against the Cubs. I was looking at this stretch before AZ as a way for us to assert ourselves. There’s still time to make that so, but we really gotta start making shit happen.
The best thing I can say about going to the game tonight is there were no beer lines.
So JJ’s first pitch was in the vicinity of Ross’s belt buckle. Let’s hear it from all the non-pansies…was that enough for you?
This team doesn’t have to make very much happen. They could have a losing record the rest of the way and probably still make the playoffs.
I hope you’re right but as of now my aspirations are higher than losing our way into the playoffs.
Once we were where we were, I can’t complain about using Linedrive. I really wish Fredi’d yanked Jurrjens.
I agreed yesterday with the “Where we are right now, we are trying to win every game, had to yank the kid” rhetoric.
But tonight with Jurrjens, it was like “Well he’s a pitch away from getting out of it.” “Well, he’s still a pitch away from getting out of it.” “Well, now we’re down 4. No sense burning the bullpen.”
What happened to trying to win every game?
Just looked at the Lisp’s game log. In three consecutive appearances on May 10, 13 and 20, dude had 8 2/3 innings of hitless relief, only giving up 1 walk in that period. Struck out 9 guys. (In that appearance on the 20th, he did wind up allowing 2 singles and a walk that led to a run.
Anyway, that was a long time ago, before he got sent to the minors because we “didn’t need a long man” but did need Scott Proctor. I’ve been heartened to see his usage increase over the last 10 days.
Hard to imagine the Braves doing much this postseason without Jurrjens and Hanson pitching well, so let’s hope they get healthy.
@Adam M – anything can and will happen over the short run of the playoffs; hell, Lowe was our “ace” last fall. On balance I would feel better about the Braves’ chances if we could get our full starting rotation back, but it’s certainly not out of the realm of possibility that, say, Hudson and Beachy lead us deep into the playoffs.
Linebrink was used in a game where we were down 4 going to the 9th. What did you want him to do? Use Venters or Kimbrel? Thats the perfect spot to use him and no one knew we’d put up a 4 spot in the 9th when we were only able to scratch 1 across for the previous 8 innings.
10: Has anybody bitched about Fredi’s move to bring Linebrink in? Maybe someone did and I missed it. I think it’s Linebrink’s performance people are griping about.
#116 – game thread
12: Ahh, ok. Yeah, as far as that comment goes, I’m with you.
@3,
No.
Smitty wants blood, and nothing else will do.
One weird aspect of last night’s game — as we were walking to the ticket booth, we noticed a line of people waiting for someone’s autograph. We wandered over to see who is was, and….Lou Brock. Which was cool and all, but why is Lou Brock signing at a Braves/Giants game?
Can’t blame Fredi for having to use Linebrink, but you can blame Wren for activating Linebrink when, as DOB had reported, he hadn’t even thrown a bullpen session after injury and prior to activation. Why they would do this is beyond me.
Maybe JJ should have pitched in rehab assignment. He was a bit high too often. Linebrink too.
@16, they mentioned it during the pregame radio, with no rationale offered. It struck me too.
Hmm, odd. Maybe Lou thought the Cubs were still in town.
I’m sure they asked Linebrink and he said he was ready to go.
JJ gave up a ton of warning track shots last night. He needs to get the ball down some.
16: Lou Brock was in town serving as a spokesman for a diabetes awareness campaign of some kind. My guess is he’s visiting all the ballparks to deliver his message and sign autographs. Hey, he may not be a Brave, but if I rounded the corner and saw Lou Brock hanging out I’d be, like, “Cool!”
@22
Excellent explanation, thanks. It was definitely cool to stumble across him, and he looked great.
The Royals signed Francoeur to a 2 year extension. ‘scuse me for a second…
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAAAA
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAAHAA
HEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEH!! Oh boy.
Lou Brock may not have the all time SB record any more, but he’s got the dubious distinction of being the worst first ballot Hall of Famer.
@25
Wow. You’re right. I never realized how mediocre his numbers were and his stolen base ratio was only 3:1. Not that great.
Does anyone else think Miami just was trying a little too hard to get an SEC invite?
Feel sorry for Golden and Larranga.
he’s got the dubious distinction of being the worst first ballot Hall of Famer.
I’d probably go with Puckett, but yeah, not the best moment.
“Smitty wants blood, and nothing else will do.”
Nothing short of a Braves’ pitcher turning Cody Ross into a modern-day Ray Chapman will do.
Nah, he’d settle for Robby Thompson.
spike, I can’t agree with you on Puckett. We was superior to Brock both as a hitter and as a fielder. The only knock against him was that he retired at 36 due to glaucoma, but I wouldn’t penalize him too much for that.
@29,
I hate Puckett, but Bill Mazeroski is the worst HOFer.
I want Cody Ross to be like Evander after Tyson got him. A bloody ear.
Actually, we’re just talking about first ballot Hall of Famers, so Maz doesn’t qualify for this debate.
Maz did hit HR that sank evil empire
Puckett wasn’t a HOF defender in CF, or a HOF hitter anywhere. When Brock was enshrined, at least you could legitimately say he was great at SOME facet of the game, however overvalued it may be. And right after the rush to shove in Kirby for a Hallmark Hall Of Fame moment, turns out waiting a while is a good idea for a lot of reasons
Austin Kearns just got cut. I say we give him a AAA contract at let him and Smlems battle it out to be the RH bench bat.
Recapped.