Atlanta Braves vs. New York Mets – Box Score – September 08, 2011 – ESPN.
Well, Thank God for Mississippi the Mets.
The Braves jumped on top with three runs in the top of the first. Freddie Freeman had the big blow, a two-run double to score Chipper Jones and Dan Uggla — Uggla should have been out but the catcher couldn’t handle the throw. Martin Prado, at last moved down in the order, drove in Freeman with an infield single.
But Mike Minor, after getting the first two Mets of the game, gave up two hits and a walk to load the bases, then a grand slam by Jason Bay, and just like that the Mets led 4-3. But in the third, Chipper tied it with a solo homer and Jason Heyward drove in Freeman with a two-out single, and it was 5-4.
It stayed that way for some time. Arodys Vizcaino bounced back with good work in the sixth and seventh, and Eric O’Flaherty finished the seventh off. In the eighth, the Braves loaded the bases with two out, and Michael Bourn was hit by a pitch, making it 6-4, but Chipper couldn’t get the hit this time.
Jonny Venters clearly isn’t right; his first six pitches after coming in for the eighth were balls. He allowed a hit and a sac fly after the leadoff walk to cut it to 6-5. Craig Kimbrel gave up a leadoff single to Jose Reyes, who surprisingly stayed at first base. Kimbrel got two strikeouts and a flyout to end it.
Winning by HBP is like winning by own goal.
As long as your making fun of Mississippi just please pick Southern Illinois tomorrow.
Wow! The Braves really want to win. All the regulars are playing with the exception of Ross. If anyone thinks this team doesn’t care, they’re nuts.
Well, jonnys only pitched inlike 100 games, so we should be shocked, SHOCKED!!, at his age that his arm has given out. Who could have seen that coming?
I know bobby would wear out a bullpen arm but jeez, no need to do that to a 24 yr old lefty fireballer.
I take it medlen’s done till next year?
It is “misting” at the tennis center.
Lineup is:
Bourn/ Chipper/ Freeman/ Uggla/
Heyward/ Prado/ Gonzalez/ Ross/ Teheran
Ryan, I hope you’re right; otherwise, the only other explanation is that Fredlot just doesn’t trust anyone on the bench.
Bourn applies some of that there pressure to the defense.
Edit: … and Dan makes it pay off. Good start, guys.
Jose Reyes could not care less about the end of this season, it would appear.
What’s the magic number against St. Louis now?
Thirteen.
I happened to notice this line in the yahoo write up when I was looking for the box score:
Way to do something crazy.
I’ve been hoping for years to see Chipper hit 2nd in the lineup (though I know that he’s been against it). Hope it sticks.
11—In other words, Fredi shakes things up by trying to win. That sounds about right.
I was talking to one of my professors today about football, and it came up that he taught a class with AJ McCarron and a few other players, and he was not bashful in stating that AJ McCarron was a tremendous jerk and all around annoyance in the classroom.
Oh hey, the Braves are playing baseball.
@11, maybe if the team sweeps the doubleheader, typical managerial small sample reinforcement will mean better lineups for the rest of his career, because he’ll always remember the time he stacked the top of the lineup with OBP and swept a doubleheader.
Selective memory cuts both ways.
Bill, Venters is 26, not 24.
I didn’t think we wouldn’t see Georgie starting in at least one of these games.
Nice 1-2-3 inning.
Oh, Jason, Jason, Jason…
Now, we just need the Braves to wake up their offense and the Saints to wake up their defense.
That’ll do for a start, Martin.
Wow, Ross’ hit was not exactly a ringing shot… but hey, it counts. As a matter of fact, the Braves have had a good number of ducksnorts falls for hits today.
If the Saints want to give up three touchdowns a quarter for the whole year, that’s just fine with me.
Teheran’s really found his rhythm in the last couple of innings. Fredlot will have a tough decision to screw up in the seventh.
@22 agreed, Teheran looks far better now than he did in the first few innings (and I’m not just saying that because he gave up a bunch of hits then).
Uh-oh. I hope that hit didn’t send Uggla back to being Struggla.
@21 The Packers are no ordinary offense.
Edit: very nice at bat by Heyward.
Oh, Mets. My goodness.
Pinch-hit now, Fredi! Friends don’t let friends bring AAG to the plate with the bases loaded.
So… are we rooting for K rather than a DP for Alex? I say yes.
.259 OBP. That’s staggering. He is a below average baseball player even with the defense.
Teheran, welcome to your career.
*Price is Right failure music*
SNY announcers on Agony’s at-bat: “That was just not a very focused at-bat in a bases loaded situation, 2-1 ballgame”.
My response: Yup
@32 Here’s the thing, AAG almost never has better ABs than he just had… the classic AAG move is to come to bat against a pitcher who’s struggling with his control, swing at a first pitch way out of the zone, hit a weak popup/flyball, and throw his bat down. It’s almost as if he’s physically incapable of absorbing information and forming a plan prior to an at-bat.
EDIT: and Teheran apparently decided he’d had enough of pitching for tonight. But it also results in getting AAG out of the game – huzzah!
So I go to MLB.com and check the scores and it says “Phillies 6, Brewers 1.” Okay, nothing unusual about that.
But then I see the banner graphic that says “Narveson Crafting Classic For Crew Against Phillies”. And i say to myself, you must have read that score wrong.
Nope, what happened is that Narveson held them hitless through 5.2 innings until the next 7 guys reached safely and scored 6 runs. And really, there’s nothing unusual about that either.
I just thought it humorous that by the time that graphic designer whipped that image up and published it, the Phillies had scored lightning fast.
Nice. Fredi benches Gonzalez for screwing up his assignment. Makes sense. If you can’t hit and you can’t field, at least get someone in there who can field.
AAG is simply, fundamentally, almost tragically bad at the plate. There are no-hit shortstops out there, but a .258 OBP is crazy. Among qualifiers, only Orlando Cabrera is a worse hitting shortstop this season.
What did AGony do?
Braves radio guys aren’t talking about A-Gon being benched. Looks like a convenient double switch for C-Mart and Jack Wilson. Is there something going on?
37- Foul out to third. Could have been worse.
I think Fredi just wanted to double switch so Martinez wouldn’t have to bat next inning–he wants him to pitch the 7th too. But since he couldn’t sub out Ross, who made the last out in the last inning, he went with the batter who hit before Ross.
Of course, Lisp might be a better hitter than Wilson, so there’s that.
Double Edit: Or he’ll hit a leadoff double.
Almost a clusterf*ck there on the grounder to Jack Wilson – what, is there some stupid in the water in SS? Uggla clearly wasn’t over to 2B, Wilson should’ve just taken the play at 1B.
Jack Wilson, doubles machine.
AAG didn’t cover in time on that stolen base and there was some thought that he might have still been thinking about his bad at-bat. Clearly Uggla was thinking about AAG’s bad AB, too. At least, he got over in time to avert disaster.
39—I mean on defense. JoeyT referred to a missed assignment.
44—Ah, thanks.
Ya know, Brees might be a pretty good QB if his back wasnt constantly up against a wall.
Get him on, get him over, get him in. Works much better when none of the “hims” are AAG.
Gonzalez is an above-average SS in the field. Wilson is an excellent SS in the field. If neither of them are hitting, Wilson should be the regular.
The reason you play Gonzalez is that, historically, Gonzalez has merely been a poor hitter, while Wilson is pretty bad. If Gonzalez continues to hit like Wilson, though, there’s really no reason to play him every game.
And it was Wilson with the leadoff double that provided the catalyst for the inning…heh.
If Lugo was on the team instead of Wilson, I don’t know that the double switch happens.
For a team with eight starters, it’s weird how important a solid long reliever like Martinez is.
@47 I think you’re understating how bad Wilson is at the plate, and overstating the defensive difference between them. At this point they’re both above average shortstops and terrible hitters. But whomever is better is only better by a small, largely insignificant margin.
And there’s value in having a guy like Wilson, without question. As others have pointed out, Wilson’s presence should free up Fredi to pinch hit for AAG in key moments–Wilson provides the Braves with the insurance of another slightly-below average shortstop (in aggregate) that they lacked with Lugo. So when AAG comes up with, say, the bases loaded in the 6th, pinch hit with Hinske, Conrad, or even McCann. Might as well take a shot if you have a duplicate on the bench. Fredi, however, isn’t going to do this–and it’s the type of thing that savvy managers do to win in the playoffs.
This pitching change seems unnecessary to me.
50: Remember when he got sent down because we supposedly didn’t need a long reliever?
I don’t understand that. C-Mart was pitching really well. So if there’s no spots to use him as the supposed “long reliever”, why wouldn’t you just use him in short situations? Remember, these were the heady days of Proctology and Pre-Rusty Linestinkiness. And yet it was the Lisp that got sent down because he had no use in short situations? I just don’t get that.
Chipper just has no range right now…whatsoever.
This pitching change seems unnecessary to me.
And after my rant, the guy that got sent down to the minors because there were no spots available for a long reliever gets replaced by an overworked reliever after only 20 pitches.
Someone please tell me why my mind oughtn’t be boggled right now. Where the hell is Sam to mock and ridicule me?
We just gave up a single to “Valentino Pascucci,” a 32-year old who has not appeared in the major leagues since 2004.
@55 Because Fredi wanted O’Flaherty to face one lefty and then, I guess, three righties.
Jack Wilson!
You know what? Jack Wilson can play a little shortstop.
Game MVP: Jack Wilson!
You know, if you’re subbing for a guy who had a horrible PA followed by a defensive lapse, it doesn’t hurt to have a double and a run-saving exceptional defensive play.
Fortunately, Jack Wilson (on the field because of a smart managerial decision) bails out Eric O’Flaherty (on the field because of a dumb managerial decision).
Well, if he’s worse than AAG defensively, it’s certainly not be much.
Holy moly.
Because I know everyone will be happy to hear this: Scott Proctor is now with the Yankees and lost his first decision for them today. I’m continually amazed at how the Yanks manage to succeed despite their complete lack of pitching.
@51
The key difference between AAG and J-Dubs (please catch on) is that I don’t hate J-Dubs.
Fun Fact: Valentino Pascucci just raised his career batting average from .177 to .190 with that hit.
Holy Moly! Did anyone see that kickoff return?
ROSS! Still boss.
64- The Yankees are very careless at assembling the back end of the roster. This usually comes back to bite them in Octobe. I’d love to see the Proctologist send the Yanks into the offseason by a well-timed implosion.
67- Yes. Sadly.
Wind must have caught it. Chip didn’t even have an aneurysm.
LOL…we should see how many people we can get to loudly drop the f-bomb after popping up before SportSouth finally gets somebody on the seven-second delay button.
Ross to straightaway center!!!!
That was… deep.
I thought kickoff returns went extinct!
The Braves’ exceptional depth uniquely situates us to win doubleheaders. Discuss.
Might be time for both the Packers and Saints to work on kick coverage.
73- That requires intelligent deployment of that depth, which is… unreliable. Even if that holds, it will do us little good from here on in- there are no playoff doubleheaders.
@73 agree.
And with that, Kimbrel should sit.
Hit number 2,600 on the Chipper-o-meter. Good for the old man.
@75: I was really just trying to channel Coffee Talk, but winning doubleheaders is the most useless skill in the modern game even if it were something a team can be good at.
Boy, that’s a fairly stupid move by the Mets.
@77 let’s hope Kimbrel doesn’t have to pitch again tonight; I’d hate to look back on this as the day that Kimbrel saved both games of a doubleheader but was never the same again.
Sweet! Chipper gets 2600 hits and moves past Steve Garvey, who I hate. (Have I said that before?)
6 more hits and Chipper moves past his next targets, former Brave Rabbit Maranville and Tim Raines, for sole possession of 75th place all time. After that, it’s a bit of a haul (33 hits) before the next milestone on the hit list so unless Chipper gets on a freakish tear as September winds down, that’ll be it for 2011.
He also just tied Ed Delahanty and Garrett Anderson for 40th all time doubles.
You were trying to channel Coffee Talk? Give me a call, we’ll talk. No big whoop.
Wow, Martin made a nice grab there.
The stadium is so empty right now. In New York. Freaky.
Sorry, David. I hope you’re not all verklempt.
Leave it to the Mets to get this team back on track.
Hooray! Nerves calmed. Thank you, Mets.
How sweep it is indeed, Chip.
People, we just gained half a game on the Phils.
Congratulations to Julio Teheran on his first MLB win.
I’ve always been partial to “I’ll give you a topic: Ralph Fiennes’ name is neither spelled ‘Raif’ nor ‘Fines’, discuss.”
My favorite: “Duran Duran is neither a Duran nor a Duran. Discuss.”
This was fun. I like winning doubleheaders and I love beating the Mets.
I’m gonna try and find some Yankee highlights now. Gotta see Proctor in pinstripes.
Recapped. A good day.
“Ububba, it actually did also work in the UK and Switzerland. Not sure what is wrong with Holland… Then again, what is not wrong with Holland, hehe”
As Dr. Evil said, there are two things I hate, intolerance–and the Dutch. đŸ™‚
It’s really funny that with all the complaining about Fredi and the team–which I have also done–and how they have struggled, the Braves still have the third best record in the leage (and a half game behind the Brewers). But, man, is this team inconsistent; since they break have gone 12-12, 14-4, and 5-7. Of course, that’s not that untypical in baseball but the Phillie have not really had a cold streak all year.
Venters is an illustration of the Braves big problem. Maybe he is struggling, maybe he was just due to give up some runs. But the dependence on the bullpen–which is frequently the part of the team most given to inconsistency–is alarming. They almost have to have perfection from Venters and Kimbrel to have a chance-certainly in the playoffs-and that’s a pretty tought tightrope to walk. It would be nice to see the Braves have a couple of routs and have the starters pitch deep–or, even, gasp–pitch a complete game once in a while.