Sevierville, TN… Tennessee sports bars are most accommodating! …. Five big screens ,  despite conflicting local interests they readily switched  one of them to the Braves game an hour before the first pitch… Embarrassingly helpful … Great fried chicken  and buffalo chips, Oktoberfest beer… What is going to happen tonight? Cliff Lee??
Huddy  gets no more than his due, pre-game… Such a shame that’s as much as we shall see of him. Fox shows Medlen, since Hudson’s injury he’s 8/2. Marlins firing at will in their front office.
Reed Johnson (LF) Â hits 2nd, Uggla 8th, Gattis catches for Mac – how’s Mac? Great pictures here but no sound.
First 5 outs of the game were caught in the outfield. FF first hit of the game in the 2nd – lead off.
CJ Â hits Lee with hard grounder, Lee OK apparently.
Uggla, 2 outs, runners 1st and 3rd, takes yet another called strike 3. Â Why is it that hitters mired in dreadful slumps, add to the misery they repeatedly inflict on us by doing this….See BJ also.
Medlen  lucks out on strike 3 to  Rollins, walks Uttley, K’s Ruiz.
After 4…. Lee getting 3rd strike on Braves’ hitters with 93 mph fast ball- just outside.
We need to get a run for this guy – Medlen is pitching beautifully thru 6, Gattis throws out a very rare base runner. Lee after 6, 80 pitches, 11K’s… we’ve had a grand total of 3 hits so far in this game -all singles.
7th…. Heyward  RF,  BJ CF, JuP LF (Reed OK?).  Uttley 1 out single, Ruiz obliges double play -2 hits each.
Lee’s current 52/1 Â K/walk ratio is absurd . FF strikes out, last 2 highly doubtful. Gattis battles, full count, flies out.
After 8, Medlen  at 100 pitches, 1-2-3 including the dreaded Asche – we can’t let Kris lose this game — in the dugout hand shakes all round, he must be coming out. What a performance!!!
CJ LEAD OFF HOMER BOTTOM OF THE 8TH – DUGOUT MOB SCENE.
Scary catch Janish, 1st out in 9th. Kimbrel 1-2-3, totally dominant.
What a wonderful baseball game.
What a wonderful baseball game.
Yes, yes it was. To think Meds himself thought he might be heading to the bullpen in July and be the odd man out in the rotation. It’s amazing the difference a couple of months can make.
Cards 7-0. Here comes the dogpile on the field. Oh well, we just gotta keep winning.
Best part was Chip and Joe starting to talk about bunting and run manufacturing right before the homer was slugged. This team isn’t a mid eighties Cardinals or KC Royals team full of slap hitting base stealers.
Gattis has actually been pretty good at throwing out baserunners, 8 of 24 including tonight. A bit better than McCann (15 of 62), a bit worse than Laird (9 of 25).
I was there. it was my brother’s first major league game. He got spoiled. A classic pitcher’s duel that ended in a homer followed by Kimbrel. What a night.
Great game and recap.
Well, maybe the Cards will be hungover tomorrow and the Cubbies can sneak one out on them.
I made it to the game tonight as well. Have to say Medlen and Lee were dealing and it was a joy to witness. Uggla still watches strike 3 way too often and though Heyward only hit the ball once it was hit HARD right at the CF.
Equal pressure on the Cards right now too and they’re playing their most hated rival this weekend. Let’s hope the Cubs can help a la LA vs. SF in 1993.
According to Philly reporters their bullpen will pitch the rest of the series.
The Cubs aren’t beating Wainwright today
It will all be up for grabs tomorrow
Enjoy your stay here in East Tennessee
Good stuff!
These next two are pretty important. Difference of seeing Kershaw twice or facing the Reds/Pirates and their #2 starter in game 1.
Regression stared in disbelief at the Janish catch.
Games like that are why I watch baseball. Goodness, those guys are good. I feel bad for Lee, though. He deserves a better team.
Just watched the condensed game. Sweetness. Medlen going pitch for pitch with Cliff Lee, and Lee at the top of his game. Phenomenal watch.
@12- And yeah, I enjoyed that look as well. He was like, “WTF. This guy’s in defensively for me?” I also enjoyed Janish having a good chuckle at his own expense after making the play.
What was the nature of the Janish catch? Didn’t see the game and it’s not part of MLB’s replay assortment.
Hunter Pence gets five years and $90,000,000.
McCann is younger, has better stats in his career and plays a premium position, so…
15- Stumbling badly on a high popup and barely able to make the catch. (All games this weekend are free on MLB.tv, so go to last night’s scoreboard and click on the game; this was the first out of the ninth.)
Thanks, Brian J! Chris Johnson’s reaction was priceless.
Pirates beat the Reds, so they’ll host Cincy in the wild-card game this Tuesday.
Today’s lineup:
Heyward 8
J. Upton 9
Freeman 3
Gattis 7
C. Johnson 5
Laird 2
Simmons 6
E. Johnson 4
Minor 1
Cardinals up 5-zip in the 3rd. Just gotta win, Bravos.
@11. Exactly. Which is why I haven’t liked he way the braves and fredi have coasted in a bit. Who wins #1 spot if braves and cardinals have the same record?
Braves. So looking at the bright side, with a win tonight, the only outcome that costs us the 1 seed is a Braves loss AND a Cards win tomorrow.
@22, Braves win that tie-breaker.
We need to win out.
Cubs made it somewhat interesting in the 9th, but Cards win.
Would it be possible for Minor to pitch a simulated inning in the bullpen before the game, so that he feels like he’s going into the second inning once the game actually starts?
That baserunning should not have worked.
@28 Yeah, let’s not do that in October.
Go Dawgs
Minor is not inspiring confidence
Fredi the Hit Machine Laird.
I still cannot fathom why the Braves picked up two losers (E. Johnson and Garcia) that were jettisoned by the Royals and Orioles, and are apparently so fascinated with them despite their 2013 (and in Johnson’s case, career) stats that they may be given starts in the postseason.
33
EJ is making me want Uggla to get more atbats, so yeah, not-so-good.
Garcia is more understandable, twilight of the career veterans sometimes have solid last-stands in the playoffs. Plus, he has been pretty solid so far (not that there’s much of a sample size)
I would say Garcia has done exactly what we hoped he would.
Avoiding the Dodgers is evidently not a priority here.
This is a typical braves showing in the playoff. Good to get those errors out of the system now.
Walden is not in playoff shape.
This game is an absolute must. The Cubs aren’t going to help the Braves get HFA, that’s for damn sure.
I guess we have to hope that, if we continue to be unable to hit the Phillies bullpen, Meds can hold his own against Kershaw like he did against Cliff Lee last night. The Dodger offense is scuffling right now, too, so there’s that. I just wish that the Cards would share the late September/October magic they have had for the past few years.
Johnson & Johnson need a great big product recall. (The other Johnson’s okay.)
How I miss a reliable bullpen.
I say “enough” about avoiding the Dodgers. Obviously, the Braves play better at home, so it would be good to have HFA all through the playoffs. But yeah, Kershaw & Greinke are good. But someone has to play them, and if it’s the Braves they’re just going to have to take care of business. “To be the best you gotta beat the best!” And yeah, that will (would) be easier in a 7 game series than 5. But how many times did the Braves lose a short series when they had 3 future HOFs on the mound? So it can be done, just gonna have to have the ‘good’ versions of the offense show up – Go Barves! 🙂
And I agree with ONIO @ 41 – Walden does not look right at all (for that matter, Minor has fallen off immensely from his early season success-mixing up points, as I know he is not a bullpen guy which was the original point). Carpenter was such an unknown early in the year that is kind of hard to believe that he has basically been the #2 guy in the bullpen all year (as far as actual results) behind Kimbrel (Avilan is close as far as ERA & RA, but I think Carpenter has done it w/ more dominant stuff/numbers)
Justin really killed that rally.
Edit: But that’s okay, because Freddie started a new one. Time for some El Oso Blanco magic?
With Heyward and Justin hitting, I feel good, no matter who we face.
Let’s go, Braves!
What a kick to the crotch for the Cardinals if we can pull this out.
If there was ever a time for Regression to not regress, this would be it.
As much as I wanted Gattis to park a pitch on Mars, he knew when he didn’t have anything to work with.
Gross
Johnson didn’t regress. Regression happened to him.
Did Chris not run that out? Is that why TP was shoving him in the dugout there? I don’t think I can remember the last time I saw a coach do that to a player. Wow.
CJ was watching the play, that’s for sure.
Not very professional by TP there. What the hell was that?
The Phillies broadcast is convinced TP shoved him due to some combination of CJ sliding into first (instead of running through) and for throwing things in the dugout.
He didn’t get out of the box going 100%. He should have beaten that throw.
Good for TP.
@54 Maybe, but even running through he would have been out (I was surprised to see how far from first he was when the throw reached the bag), and he always throws things in the dugout. I mean, I wonder how many helmets he’s gone through this season with how much abuse they get from him?
I hear NFL scouts often talk about a “quick first step,” and CJ has the opposite of that, even when he isn’t dawdling.
Sigh. Go Julio, go Samardzija.
@55
Evidently we disagree on how to handle that situation.
GIF, y’all.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-9Kj45TiL4M8/UkeXNzwceVI/AAAAAAAABv0/KxMNkOpT47s/s500/chrisjohnson.gif
I will surmise that TP momentarily thought CJ was Carlos Gomez.
Fredi just said that CJ “busted it” down the line.
Fredi is Chauncey Gardner.
Per DOB, CJ threw his helmet and it hit TP, thus, TP’s reaction.
Don’t know if I’m buying that.
@62
If that’s true, kudos to TP. If he shoved him for sliding and/or not hustling (watching the replay, not sure why anyone would think CJ wasn’t hustling his ass off), that’d be…odd.
CJ was watching the ball, which slows you down.
@65
Watching the ball is a natural reaction and very hard not to do, especially on a hit like that where the ball looks like its going in the hole, tying a very important game. After he saw the ball caught, he looked like he was running for his life.
Exactly. After the ball was caught. You’re taught to run through the bag without watching the play. Your 1B coach will tell you to round the bag, take two, etc.
There are very few players that tuck their head and run right out of the gate. We are lucky that we get to see 2 nightly in Heyward and Simmons. Running without looking is obviously what every baseball player wants to do, but it’s not that simple. When adrenaline pumps, it’s very hard for some to control. Not looking might be taught, but I think it’s more of an instinct rather than a learned skill.
@mlbbowman: CJ is an emotional guy and this was not the first time he’s thrown a helmet that hit or nearly hit someone. That’s what fueled TP’s anger
@mlbbowman: The postgame exchange came after C. Johnson threw a helmet that hit TP in the dugout.
I hear what you’re saying, ryan c, but, with two out and the tying run at second, you have to remind yourself of the situation when you step in the box. You know that you have to do whatever you can to keep the inning going. Gattis did this brilliantly by drawing a walk. CJ, on the other hand, didn’t keep his head in the game. That mental lapse cost the team.
Well we have Teheran pitching and the Cubs have Samardzija going. A little hope at least.
What really is going to cost this team is the crap effort against Milwaukee and not taking care of some of these other games in Sept.
@71
How did you spell that pitcher’s name correctly at this late hour?
Copy/paste….serious
Your mama didn’t raise no stupid children.
I think this team performs better when it is not taking the easy route. Bring on the dodgers!!!
None of the routes will be easy.
@76, Agree. Bring ’em on.
Two useless pieces of information. Pagnozzi made one of the worst throws I’ve ever seen from a catcher. Basically spiked one into home plate trying to throw to 2nd. Also, Langerhans is still playing.
Ryan Langerhans has a son old enough to play pro ball?
recapped.