Braves 4, Orioles 2

Baltimore Orioles vs. Atlanta Braves – Box Score – June 15, 2012 – ESPN.

You’re a goat, then you’re a hero. That’s baseball, and Andrelton Simmons‘ night.

The Braves took a 1-0 lead in the first on a Brian McCann homer, but blew a chance for more in the second, when Simmons grounded out to the pitcher with runners second and third, one out. Meanwhile, Tommy Hanson was laboring, needing tons of pitches to get through every inning. Though he wound up allowing only four hits (in only 5 1/3 innings) he walked six, with just two strikeouts. In the fourth, Simmons threw away a groundball out for an error. Then Wilson Betemit doubled and Michael Bourn misplayed the ball, allowing the runner to score and Betemit to go to third, whence he promptly scored on a sac fly to give the Orioles the lead.

Cut to the sixth. Hanson walked two with one out and gave way to Chad Durbin, who somehow struck out two. In the Braves’ half, with two out and Matt Diaz on first, Simmons hit a homer, making it Braves 3, Orioles 2. Jack Wilson followed with a pinch-hit triple — which seems awfully unlikely, but happened — and scored on an infield single by Bourn.

Kris Medlen threw a 1-2-3 seventh, then in the eighth got a free out on a caught stealing, [EDIT: Actually, a pickoff, I was following online] then got a double play to end the inning. Craig Kimbrel got a strikeout, and another double play to end it for his 19th save.

100 thoughts on “Braves 4, Orioles 2”

  3. Someone needs to go remind that Simmons kid that he’s just a glove guy! Lost on his throwing error was a really nice stop on a sharply hit ground ball to the hole. I’m really enjoying him so far.

  4. I don’t think Simmons is going to keep hitting, but I’ll enjoy it while it lasts.

    I’m going to pre-empt the game tonight and go on and say Brian McCann has no business hitting that high in the order.

  5. @2

    For anyone who watched the whole game, what on Earth caused McCann to make that facial expression?

  7. He does that pretty frequently since he got contacts. It’s typically too brief to notice but when you freeze it like that it looks pretty silly. It’s like taking a picture of someone right as they blink or when they’re in the middle of saying something. We’re never aware of how many hilarious expressions we make until they get frozen time like that cap of McCann which probably lasted all of one frame on TV.

  9. Jack Wilson led the league in triples in 2004, with 12. Jack Wilson has earned somewhere around 40 million dollars playing a game we comment on. It is still stunning that – Jack Wilson hit a pinch triple last night.

  11. @VoteMcCann2011—

    I don’t think BMac wears contacts anymore…Back when he was having eye trouble in ’09 and ’10, I think he said that because of the lasik, contacts no longer fit his eyes…

    But I could be wrong…

  18. Harper is 0-6 w/ 5Ks against the Yanks today. Probable ESPN headline:

    “The Mighty Yankees Turn in Greatest Pitching Performance Ever, Getting Harper on 5 Ks”

  19. I hate feeling like I should be rooting for the Braves to not make spectacularly bad trades, instead of hoping they might make a spectacularly good one.

    Way to go, Yanks.

  20. I’m sure ryan c saw this, but:

    David O’Brien ‏@ajcbraves
    #Braves MiLB slugger Gattis gets cast off wrist this week. Was more serious than initial “mild tendinitis.” Strained ligament, inflamm.

  21. I enjoyed watching the Nats burn through their bullpen and seeing Brad Lidge lose it in the 14th.

  26. Bill Ripkin sounds a lot like John Laurinaitis and I don’t want to hear either.

    Francisco and Hinske in the same lineup is kinda scary.

  28. I can’t find the game on any channel, and I have MLB Extra Innings. Is it totally blacked out today?

  31. Wow, what a monopoly Fox has. I’m forced to watch the Cubs-Red Sox here in the Pacific NW, a game between two teams that are in last place in their respective divisions.

  34. Completely forgot that you can use a proxy outside of the states to watch blacked out fox games on mlb.tv.

    Thanks Canada.

  40. So from #38 I gather that it just looked like Beachy’s arm or shoulder was hurting, not some other injury that might be less distressing?

  42. Im guessing that Beachy is done for the season.

    And likely for most of the next if he needs TJS. Let’s hope he does not.

  44. It seems the Braves were right to stretch Medlen out after all, if Beachy’s done.

  47. @34

    Um..

    Go to a free proxy site, search for a proxy outside of the US, and then enter the IP and port into the appropriate spot in your browser’s settings.

  48. Beachy threw a pitch and immediately called out Bmac. Fredi went out and Beachy was shaking his hand. Im guessing his arm went numb and his elbow is shot. Just a guess, but this is his first start after having elbow discomfort.

  53. Did Braves pitchers ever have this many injuries under Leo? Not pointing fingers or anything but it just seems like the number of injuries in pitchers has increased dramatically under McDowell…

  54. @45, I’m watching and following on gameday. Some he misses, some he throws down the middle for a ball.

  55. When is Freeman coming back? Why isn’t Chipper playing? This is such a scrub lineup. Grrr.

  56. For people who know these things, would Medlen be able to step in and go at least five innings in Beachy’s place next time?

  59. Incredible. They found someone who’s actually a downgrade from Livan.

  60. Okay, I’ve seen, rather heard, enough of Varvaro. Is it too late to reconcile with Livan?

  62. @57- There’s still a distinct possibility of a no-hitter here, just not one we’re gonna like…

  67. I believe the Braves are trying to answer the question: how much soul-crushingness can we fit into one single game?

  72. Maybe during the stretch now, Wren will give us the coup de grace and install Fredi as GM.

  75. Walks kill you…no no-no today. Is that a bright spot? 1 hit? That’s all we got, 1 g*d**n hit?

  77. The team couldn’t have anticipated all the pieces we had that worked so well last year to completely implode this year. Martinez, Venters, Hinske, JJ, Minor… And that’s not counting the Freeman injury and the fact that Chipper never plays.

  79. Yeah. Hinske’s never been this bad. He’s just not elevating the ball and has totally lost his power.

  80. Hinske’s bat looks like it’s decelerating through the zone. He looks real bad. Can’t Diaz play 1B?

  81. Mediocre team, injuries out the wazoo, terrible manager, terrible ownership, nondescript front office. Ladies and gentlemen, your Atlanta Braves.

  82. @76,

    But that’s the point. Wren always puts the team together on the assumption that everything will go right-and they never do. Maybe he has no choice but even though you can’t anticipate specific things that will go wrong, you can be pretty sure something will. The Braves act as if everything will work the way they want.

  83. @80 ..Amen … too many bad things happening now … bench not strong enought o overcome .. Henske is not an everyday player which he is proving , we see why Franscisco was expendable .. we could sure use JJ Hoover about now .. Prado needs to stay at 3b since Chipper is still walking wounded , go ahead and play Diaz in LF, whew !! Its bad .. Beachy probably out for a while now … did I over look anyhting .. I did mentio puss Freeman didnt I

  85. This team has about 4 or 5 guys who are gamers … Bourn, Prado and ??? well maybe just 2 then

  88. @81. Our payroll does not allow us to act otherwise. The only area we have a little depth is starting pitching, but seems like we need every single bit of the depth we have there. We never expected Jonny would struggle this bad and Freddie will miss this much time. Honestly, I think having EOF and Jonny struggling hurt this team the most.

  89. We’re going through a bit of a power outage too. I guess a lot of it has to do with Freeman’s trials and tribulations. We’ve been getting no power from the corner IF or anywhere in the OF. Teams are just pitching around Uggla now. Kudos to him for taking the walks, but walks don’t mean anything when the guys behind you are scuffling.

  90. @76, I’m not sure I agree. Yes, too much has gone wrong thus far, but much of it was predictable.

    I don’t know about other folks, but at the end of the day Venters and EOF (and Kimbrel) are bullpen arms, and you have to know they’re going to be volatile and get injured. Relievers don’t even pitch a statistically significant sample size over the course of a season, so how could you bank on them? And with their workloads, you just can’t say this wasn’t predictable. Venters and EOF’s declines — plus, let’s not forget Arodys’ injury and the lack of a guy like Moylan — hurts, and while perhaps Durbin has fought his way back to respectability, it turns out Livan wasn’t at all what we needed. Martinez is exactly what he was last year…just an arm to throw some innings.

    Going into the season, we knew we had starting pitching depth, but it was riddled with question marks, between unproven players and ones returning from injury. Every baseball fan with a SABR background has been waiting for Jurrjens to decline sharply, and here we are. Minor has never not sucked, but if you look under the hood, he could become basically what Delgado already is this season, a usable back-end starter. It is a borderline tragedy to me that Tommy Hanson may never be able to get back on the trajectory towards acehood that he was on, pre-injury. It’s a shame. Huddy can still be a decent #2 or #3, but he’s turning 37 in a few weeks.

    Freeman’s injuries certainly weren’t foreseeable, but some decline was. He’s young and is not the most patient hitter. And you can’t take a short early-season hot streak to mean much either way. Hinske is 35 and shouldn’t be playing everyday even in good years. But Freeman being out may turn out to be the trade-related blessing in disguise we’ve been waiting for.

    I don’t expect much of anything from Chipper at this point. I am overjoyed to have seen his whole career.

    @81, Sort of. This team has shown it can win without everything being right, but right now, too much is wrong. All teams have flaws, and we’re just overexposed right now. We need Heyward, McCann, Prado, Bourn, and Uggla to carry us, for Hudson and Hanson to be at their best, and for Delgado and Minor to keep us in it. Until Wren can get something done. I don’t think that’s too much to ask.

    And if the Braves keep Medlen in the ‘pen now, that means it’s likely Teheran time. I don’t think we’re going to see Jurrjens again.

  92. @89 Venters was a top 10 reliever in all of baseball for two years running, no one would predict he would completely fall off the wagon (without an injury!) this year. Wren clearly saw the need for more bullpen arms, and while Durbin is actually working out after the rough start, Livan’s acquisition was the right idea but the wrong guy. Minor went from being incredible early this season to completely falling apart and pitching far worse than he ever has in his career. Medlen can’t even get a chance at starting because of the bullpen woes, and Delgado has been serviceable. Teheran still isn’t ready.

    The starting pitching completely imploding is the biggest issue we’ve had. We had 7, 8 guys who theoretically could have been in the rotation, and more than half of them are hurt or playing poorly. You don’t plan for that.

    Freeman’s hot streak wasn’t all THAT short, he was on pace for 140 RBIs at one point.

  93. The thing that was most predictable this past off-season was that Chipper would probably play about half the games at best, so priority one should have been to find a decent hitting LF so we could play Prado at 3B. We made no moves, and now we’re dependent on Chipper being both healthy and effective. I don’t like those odds.

    I think we’re a better team at the moment with Prado at 3B and Diaz in LF every day. Francisco can’t play 3B or hit, but I guess we’re keeping him around for…well…no idea. Hinske seems done. Ross can’t PH because of the irrational fear of playing 15 innings and not having a 3rd catcher. Not sure how we fix any of this without making a trade.

  95. We obtained a guy like Francisco because, while we knew we would need a fill-in for Chipper while he was injured, we had no way of knowing (and still don’t) how often Chipper would be out of the lineup, or for how long. The role of Chipper’s 2012 injury caddy (whether directly, or in LF with Prado moving to 3B) isn’t one too many established major league players (or their agents) would willingly sign up for, because it’s basically volunteering to be jerked around for a year. So we went with a scrub with one major league talent (hitting for power), hoping to catch lightning in a bottle, along with a loyal foot soldier with nowhere else to turn (Diaz).

    Hopefully the equation now changes. Playing 2/3 of the time for a contender (again, hopefully) over half a season beats playing out the string for a team going nowhere, so maybe we’re a more attractive destination for a guy like Willingham.

  96. I don’t see the Braves bidding on a popular target, and I imagine Willingham will be popular.

    Maybe more like Carlos Lee or something.

  98. Surprisingly, they called up Redmond. Wonder if he’ll get a couple starts, or if they’re eyeballing him for Livan duty. Maybe he’ll get two starts to try out for holding down Livan duty for the remainder.

  99. My guess is Redmon’s start dates line up well with Beachy’s. I figure Medlen will end up stretching out and starting.

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