Philip Larkin wrote that line. He should have had the Phillies in mind as he did it rather than, alas, his obsession with his own death. A renowned pessimist and misanthrope he famously said of himself that deprivation for him was what daffodils were for Wordsworth…which ties in quite nicely with what opened last night’s salvo on a certain broadcaster. And is a good indication of how humor can hide among the direst prognostications. Had the Phillies been in his ken back in the seventies when his reputation was at its height he might well have first admired the way they kept hobbling on, pushing their weary legs, denying their ultimate collapse but then. patience and tolerance exhausted, condemned them roundly, their pathos now abhorrent and too evocative of his own mortality.
The game..
Lots of fresh, young faces from the LeHigh Valley
so why did BJ let Gattis catch that?
Minor struggling for command early
Miss America – we didn’t get to see
my man! love him         1-0
there they are! bow wow
Minor listened – KKK
Hernandez looks 11
Fine play, effort, JuP
Miss Georgia.. collars and cuffs?
Gattis fields it by the book
5 gone, a little insurance maybe
(Logan Morrison 485ft HR..Hernandez nono thru 5)
Mac flies out deep, CJ too
Asche – who’d have thunk it? Â Â 1-2
(Reds get 2 run Votto HR, lead Dodgers 3-2 after 5 )
Lee 13 in a row..Joey T needs to get going
Strange that Lee is not pitching the 9th…we’ll take it
no storybook ending, Gattis flies out as go ahead run.
all this age stuff – it was a kid who won it!
phenomenal Chapman at GABP
pitched 9th, 4th game in a row
Puig…3 K’s, all swinging, 99/101/102
Gonzalez foul ball, 2K’s
Ramirez K’d.
Reds win 3-2
Well, at least the magic number went down to nine and the Dodgers lost. Tonight was not a particularly good sports night for me. (The U.S. soccer team being the other disappointment, if you’re wondering.) Let’s endeavor to beat Hamels tomorrow, shall we?
Ah, Philip Larkin… references always remind me to call my mother. 😉 Thanks, blazon.
I’ve just updated the Official JonathanF Power Rankings. There’s an interesting divergence now. The neutral field rankings still have the Braves in 3rd behind Boston (now in the lead) and Detroit. The independent home road rankings now have the Braves hugely in front at home and 16th on the road. I persist in believing this is largely just luck, but the combined ranking (100 at home + 44.2 on the road) has the Braves slightly ahead of Boston (81.2 at home and 64.3 on the road) It would make a Braves/Red Sox series the most likely to mirror the 1991 World Series — The Braves would be expected to win 61 percent of the games at Turner Field and 35% of the games at Fenway — gigantic splits for two good teams facing one another.
By the way, the Dodgers are currently 57.5 at home and 65.2 on the road (the best on the road, though not much ahead of Boston). I’ll post shortly on what that means for a Dodgers-Braves matchup home vs. road.
B.J. knows that you do not try to take a baby seal from an oso, blanco.
Seriously though, I wonder how difficult outfield play is when one of the guys doesn’t have a lot of experience, and may be unpredictable in his movements. I would think at the major league level they would have time to sort that out fairly quickly, if they made it a priority.
B.J. knows that in CF that he is, literally, the Bossman. But still, there’s the trust factor.
Wow. Tough game to lose. Minor had it on cruise control until those two pitches in the 7th. And the Braves were always on the cusp of getting another run or two out of Lee but just couldn’t quite do it. The Phils played great defense tonight.
I attended this game and it felt to me and my buddy–and I think everyone around us–that the Braves were going to win this one. Those couple of minutes in the 7th were a bracing slap in the face. Not to go all gloom and doom based on one game, but the inability to break through against a very good pitcher has me worried about the playoffs, especially a series against the Dodgers. Hamels will also be a tough assignment for the next game.
So, for those wondering what home field advantage seems to be worth (at the moment, using my new toy). All probabilities for Braves series win
5 game series vs. Dodgers, Braves HFA: 57 percent
5 game series vs. Dodgers, Dodgers HFA: 51 percent
7 game series vs. Dodgers, Braves HFA: 57 percent
7 game series vs. Dodgers, Dodgers HFA: 52 percent
Of course, if the Dodgers actually had the HFA it would mean that these relative rankings would no longer apply.
I will second the observation, though, that the Philly defense is one of the big reasons the Braves didn’t break through.
And Dan Uggla, completely, thoroughly, and utterly sucks at the plate.
When we finally clinch the division, i wonder if I would cry. We are talking about eight years of wait….I wish Mac is with us to see this…
@7. I believe HFA is worth playing for, but not at all costs. I guess your results support that.
@5, “And the Braves were always on the cusp of getting another run or two out of Lee but just couldn’t quite do it.” Minus the Andrelton homer, we only had three baserunners, none of whom made it past first. Cliff Lee pitched one hell of a game.
Johnny Logan passed away.
Yeah, Lee owned us last night.
Also, this is off topic, but: Andrew McCutchen is amazing. http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=9631829
Apparently, he’s a really talented impressionist (including batting stances), beatboxer, and caricaturist, in addition to being the league MVP.
He’s no Tony Plush.
On the downside, getting shut down by Cliff Lee sucks.
On the upside, the Braves just went up against the closest thing we’ll see to Clayton Kershaw that is not, in fact, Clayton Kershaw, and were 9 outs away from winning the thing.
Or still just one swing of the bat Sam
Watching Dodgers and the Reds. Joe Morgan talking sabermatrics. I don’t know if anyone is watching this but this is quite entertaining…
LOL Florida.
What a pathetic game by Florida. They dominated the ball. Miami had *nothing* on offense entire game. But Florida found a way to lose. What’s that? 4 red-zone turnovers? Nice job. What’s that? Miscommunication immediately following a horrible TO leading directly to the game-losing pick? Clutch. I thought Driskle did an excellent job in that game, and I didn’t even mind the first pick. (They were on the boarder of FG range.) But that second interception was SO BAD I’m at a loss to be nice about him. Dunno if it was him or Burton who was at fault, but how do you do that right after a time out? The mind boggles. Between that and the stupid penalties (plus, what, two TOs burned in the second half when they would obviously be crucial later) makes me inclined to lay this one squarely at the feet of Muschamp. The Gators didn’t get a few breaks, but when your team is as dominant on both sides of the ball as Florida was, you’ve got to find a way to win. Just pathetic.
18—What did he say?
@20 Muschamp is a great example of the Peter Principle. Dudes need to learn to stick with what they’re good at. You’re a great defensive mind, Will, you’re not a head coach.
Maybe I’m just projecting onto him because we tried the same crap with Chizik.
@14 Nice video, thanks. Seems like a really good guy.
1. B Upton CF
2. J Upton RF
3. Freeman 1B
4. Gattis LF
5. McCann C
6. C Johnson 3B
7. Uggla 2B
8. Simmons SS
9. Wood P
Same lineup as last night. Still no Schafer.
The Dawgs hunkered down one more time!
First and second, no outs. Nice way to start an inning.
So much for the sac bunt.
@26 Well, we’ll spoil it, don’t worry.
Freddie! RBI machine.
FREDDIE! Doesn’t it feel good to be wrong, Bethany?
In Freddie We Trust!
Yes it does! Thank goodness for Freddie Freeman.
In contrast to the likes of Tommy Hanson and Jordan Walden, the more I see Alex Wood’s quirky delivery, the more I like it.
Well, except these last couple hitters. Gattis, dude. Gotta get those instincts together.
Two-out run scoring hits are a lot more fun when we make them than when we give them up.
These last two starts for Wood are a bit worrisome.
I’d say the book is getting out on Wood.
BJ is just brutal.
B.J. Upton at the Mendoza Line as a Brave is like Halley’s Comet: it’s seen once every 76 years, and at those rare moments, it’s a total dud before returning to its previous out-of-sight location.
Someone needs to remind the Braves that the Phillies suck.
If BJ’s problems are playing under high expectations, maybe next year will be easier since there’ll be no expectations.
Oh, and we’re losing now. Bah!
“He walks Ruf, and that sets up a potential double play.”
Such an optimist, that Chip.
Yeah I’m done.
Our hitters really need to step it up before the playoffs. We had a great homestand due to our pitchers, but our lineup has been cold for the past couple of weeks. With our lineup, being down two runs shouldn’t feel like a lot, but right now it does.
I’m going for groceries, but I’ll be back out of a sense of duty; besides, I’m in the good mood that results from Bulldog wins.
Doomed. In all ways and all things.
There goes CJ! Nice hit.
Regression!
I know Regression is still leading the league in average, but I feel like he’s been pulling the ball a lot more lately rather than going to right like he was when he was getting 2-3 hits per night.
I’ll take that double, though!
Just a single, BJ. You can do it.
Oh great. More of Simmons’ amazing “baseball instincts.”
Simmons at least made that rundown entertaining.
Argh—Simmons, really?
Stealing third with BJ up? That’s just dumb on so many levels.
Edit: And BJ does his part with the Golden Sombrero.
And there’s the Golden Sombrero for BJ.
Bupton still sucks.
Oh, great, Maholm vs. Hamels tomorrow. That is not encouraging. It’s uncanny how poorly we’ve played on the road this year.
Scott Downs has a fractured finger…this game just got even more miserable.
DOOOOOOOOOOOMED
And, on cue, here comes the condescending and hackneyed “DOOOOMED”.
THE REASON!!
No way! The Reason, indeed!
HELL YEAH!!!
HERE I COME TO SAVE THE DAY!
OH MY GODDDDDDD
Andrelton!
Gotta say, I was having a good feeling during that AB!
From JonathanF to JonathanP: HA!
@49
enjoy that, Bethany?
good instincts woudn’t you say?
I thought Simmons was as good as out when he fell behind 0-2. Unbelievable AB working the count to the point where he got a pitch to hit! Wow…did not see that coming!
EDIT: Is there no one we can pitch other than Freddy Garcia here?
@67 I’ll say that the homer erases the insanely boneheaded baserunning blunder.
We’ll either lose this in the bottom of the ninth, or neither team will score for the next 9 innings.
Nah, I’ll go with barfing this one up in the 10th.
Edit: Sorry, JohnR. You got this one.
Oh well.
Oops.
Well, I can think of many other endings I would have preferred over that one. Thanks, Simmons, for giving us a few minutes of false hope.
And so it goes.
Unnecessary hope. Oh well, at least it was interesting for a few minutes.
I guess when you hang a breaking ball that badly, it doesn’t matter that it’s only going 73 mph.
So it can never be said that I didn’t go look, I was about to post that if we’re not gonna use Kimbrel in this situation, Garcia was actually probably the best option. The other was Hale in his ML debut. Of course, knowing what we know now…
So, this happened, and a) my life is just a bit more complete, and b) I can’t at all hate Chase Utley.
http://www.sbnation.com/lookit/2013/9/4/4695392/chase-utley-mac-letter-its-always-sunny-in-philadelphia
#79
Yeah, not exactly the way I pictured The Dark Lord off the field.
recapped.