The Texans started out this game the same way they ended the last one, with a pick-6 by Matt Schaub. It was pretty well-timed, too. Chris Collinsworth had just made a joke about Schaub having tied the record for consecutive games with a pick-six with John Elway and Peyton Manning. From there, the game–
Wait, there’s another game I’m supposed to be recapping? Are you sure? I think I’d rather recap Sunday Night Football….
Fine. Whatever. Here ya go. I HOPE YOU’RE HAPPY.
The Braves started out the game doing what they needed to to put themselves in a position to win. They scored two runs on singles from Evan Gattis and Chris Johnson. Andrelton left two on, but you felt pretty good. Then Julio Teheran had a rough first inning, not locating anything very well at all and giving up fly ball outs where the batter makes faces like, “Damn, I just missed smashing that!” But still, he made it through unscathed and you thought if he just settles down a bit and locates the FB better, we’ll be in great shape. The Braves did nothing in the top of the second, however, and Teheran in fact was not okay.
It’s just one of those things. He wasn’t facing sluggers, and he was getting strikeouts, but… it was always on the edge of a knife. And after allowing one run on an sacrifice fly to the pitcher (this after walking AJ Ellis who I’m sure calls a great game but isn’t supposed to be an offensive threat despite all evidence in this series to the contrary), the game tipped as Carl Crawford lined one out over the right-center field fence. Lead gone, 4-2 Trolly Folk.
Now, let’s be real. The offense didn’t just turn over and play dead after Teheran gave up this lead. In the top of the 3rd, they rallied back, plating two more on a Brian McCann groundout and a Chris Johnson should’ve-been-a-groundout. These were defensive botches by the Dodgers. They should’ve recorded three total outs on these two plays but instead got just one. So while the Braves tied it, it’s not like they were mashing it or anything.
So, with his early jitters worked out and the score equalized, Teheran went back to work… and promptly gave up two more runs before being pulled for Alex Wood. Wood did great to get out a 2nd-and-3rd, two out situation, but the next inning, he gave up four more in the 4th. This put the score at 10-4 Dodgers, and since Chris Capuano had come into the game, everyone decided it was basically over. And it was. The Dodgers tacked on two more meaningless runs off various bullpen denizens in the 8th, and Jason Heyward homered (he’s now 3 for like 13 or something) in the top of the 9th also plating ReEd Johnson to give us the final. This 9th inning ralley (which Heyward preemptively killed) actually got Mattingly to bring in his closer with a 7 run lead and two outs. So I guess there’s that.
I want to chalk the shitty pitching up to two rookies having their first appearance i the playoffs. But that doesn’t make it any less disappointing. I was actually anticipating a really good show from Teheran. He’s been on quite a roll of late, and I thought he’d be really into it for these playoffs. Turns out, all that excitement/energy just turned into losing his delivery, not locating the FB well, and a completely ineffective slider. We’ll call it a learning experience, and hope he’s better next time.
Speaking of “hoping” and “next time”, if the Braves want to take the series back to Atlanta, they’ll have to win tomorrow with Freddy Garcia on the mound. Hey, stranger things have happened. In the meantime, Hanley Ramirez has clearly been the best player in the series and it hasn’t been close. If there is to be hope, Atlanta will need to find a way to keep him from hitting extra-base hits each time he comes to the plate. I’m not sure if Garcia will be able to do that, but at least we know that if he doesn’t it’ll be because he sucks and not first time rookie jitters or whatever.
Now let’s get it done tomorrow, Braves!
I thought they were cow udders.
Go leads to intentional walk.
Or unintentional intentional walk regardless.
Alright, Freddie. Let’s do this.
I’m glad I’m not scoring this. I put little dots down for each throw to first. My score sheet would have measles by now.
who comes in for us? avilan? carpenter?
WTF are the Dodgers doing? Did they just walk Upton to get to Freddie so they could bring in Brian Wilson?
This is the guy we want up there. Although in the alternate universe that this game is being played in we might be better off with BJ up.
And Freeman with the chance to become the third Freddy/Fredi/Freddie hero of the night for the Braves. Let’s do this!
Edit: Or not.
I wouldn’t have thrown JUpton a pitch to hit either if I was Howell.
Oh well, we’ve just got to defend this lead for 9 outs.
Ugg. Oh well. Let’s go bullpen.
Stalling for Wilson only makes sense if you think Howell can’t get Freeman out. As we see, that wasn’t the case. Maybe Wilson leaves a bit in the bullpen when he comes out in the 8th.
Who blows this? Carpenter? Ayala? Kimbrel?
Go with the righty, keep Michael Young on the bench.
It’s Avilan.
I’ve felt all year that a strong Freddie Garcia outing and an Elliott Johnson / Jose Constanza rally would be the keys to our season.
@514 I like the way you think. Abandon all hope! This is October and the Braves we’re talking about. We know better than this! (Who do EJ and Constanza think they are, anyway?)
Don’t like this. Would rather have seen one of the mostly scrub Dodger bench hitting in front of Crawford.
Were this the mid-summer bullpen, much confidence we would have. Alas.
@518. It does really feel like the Dodgers are going to win this on some sort of walk-off.
More optimistically…8 more outs to get…
Seven outs…
Ellis hits lefties pretty well. This is where you bring in the righty…
Is Young the best hitter they have on the bench?
I am too old for this shit.
Sigh.
Mark frickin’ Ellis
Walk Hanley!
So we’re walking the go-ahead run on base because Fredi won’t tolerate a major league manager dumber than him, by God!
Intentionally walking someone to get to Adrian Gonzalez is an awesome play.
Honestly, Kimbrel should be facing the heart of the order. This is the season.
Bench is Andre Ethier, Nick Punto, Tim Federowicz, Dee Gordon, Scott Van Slyke and Young, and Ethier can’t run.
Hanley would have parked one in the bleachers.
Would help if he throws strikes. Who’s warm in the pen for Puig?
Puig is going to hit a grand slam.
If Puig drives in the winning run, I am not sure what I will do.
Well crap, now what
3-1: The Most Dangerous Count
Come on, Avilan.
Yes!
Ooogh. Six outs.
My heart stopped.
YES
About two wheaties shy of a homer.
My heart stopped for a moment there. Wow, what a recovery by Avilan.
He just missed that
Still with us, Sam?
Whew
Heart skipped a beat on the crack of the bat. My inner Chip thought he got all of it.
I’m going to feel like shit in the morning. But I can’t turn this off.
Aww, common guys. He got fooled on that one. It was a good job by Avilan. Nice sharp breaking pitch for a strike with a 3-2 count. Not as nasty as that first one to Crawford, but it got the job done.
Need to tack on at least one… Give the pen some breathing room
Start the 8th with Kimbrel. Bury Puig, Uribe, and Schumaker.
Ok sports gods, please listen. The Braves have tortured us for decades. The Falcons season ended already tonight. The Hawks may as well not even exist. All we ask is that you let the Braves win this game and the next. Then we’ll take it from there. Just a small, humble request. Please. Just this once.
So I’m assuming Carpenter, then the first sign of trouble, Kimbrel comes in…
Damn. Gattis was all over that.
Don’t know if El Oso Blanco has the beard to match up with Wilson.
Lay down a bunt, Mac.
Next time there’s a Braves/Dodgers series, McCann will be wearing a different uniform. Sadness.
It would be nice for Bmac to join us during his last postseason in atl
Mac is clueless tonight
Good grief McCann. What a waste.
Not a strike
Looked like McCann got wrung up on ball 5. Oh well. Golden sombrero in what could be his last game. That kinda sucks.
Laird needs to start game 5.
Regression! 😀
Move him up in the order
Regression is a hittin’ fool. If we can somehow get Andrelton on base then the dangerous part of our lineup can do some damage.
Wish Janish was pinch-running here for Johnson.
@566, Hopefully we’ll get a chance.
Andrelton!
(Don’t get me wrong; no illusions about what EJ can do here. But still nice to see!)
If Elliot Johnson gets a hit here, then the world ends tomorrow.
As a wise man often said, “A little insurance couldn’t hurt.”
Ok, EJ…just line it into the corner again
Too bad Costanza can’t bat again.
This would be a great time to not be useless, random second baseman guy.
Common blind squirrel! Find a second nut!
IF Bad Johnson keeps this alive, does BJ pinch-hit and sub for Gattis? Or even better, sub for McCann and move Gattis to C?
OK, nevermind
That’s the second inning tonight where he’s stopped a rally dead.
How the hell did EJ hit that triple. He might have the worst swing I’ve ever seen in a non-pitcher.
@579 Even a broken clock is right twice a day.
WTF.
Jordan Schafer … um, what?
If you bought Gut-Shot bets when I had them at 25:1, you’d be sitting on a goldmine right now
98 from Carp
Get Kimbrel now. This is the season.
Kimbrel should’ve started the inning.
I’m OK with taking the bat out of Uribe’s hands.
I love how Simmons stood behind Puig for a moment with the ball, just in case Puig stepped off in his celebratory excitement. I wish Puig had done just that.
So, if we get a couple of guys on next inning, it’s all up to Janish?
Welp.
…
Jesus fuck.
Very Falcons like
Welp. Good season guys. B-Mac, thanks for everything. We’ll miss you.
Night
There’s the gut-punch.
Jesus Christ…where the F was Kimbrel..
Thank you Fredi, my belly wound is bleeding out.
Gut-shot it is! At least Kimbrel will be ready to pitch the first game next year.
Welp……
unbelievable. and, yet, completely believable.
Fire Fredi.
Choke choke choke.
We need a couple more shots of Fredi looking shell-shocked.
David Carpenter, meet Joey Devine.
F this. Kimbrel should have pitched the 8th, but he is our closer. He can ONLY be used in the 9th.
Can’t catch one hit that deep. And why would you throw a curve to Frickin’ Uribe?
And the best pitcher on the team still hasn’t entered the game.
I won’t miss McCann’s love affair with the slider from our power pitchers. In fact I won’t miss McCann much at all.
Why the hell did McCann call for a breaking ball from Carpenter. The guy throws 98. It’s exactly what he did with Hanley Ramirez in game 2. Jesus fuck.
Juan Uribe is the new Brad Ausmus.
Why the fuck does this shit happen every time. It as to stop eventually, right?
Terrible pitch to a bad ball hitter, but predictable.
Uribe’s homer is right up there with the one hit by Leyritz.
Sorry, but Kimbrel could have thrown 2 innings. Now he won’t pitch any, while the Braves lose.
Recap in the morning. I guess we were saving Kimbrel for???
Schaefer, Haywood, and Upton. Maybe Freeman. Then Paul Janish for the win? Woo-hoo.
This is what sucks when your team MVP is a closer: you have no idea how the heck to use him. What if we cough up the lead next inning after Kimbrel is spent. Ugh. I hate baseball sometimes.
Fredi doesn’t deserve nice things.
Even if BJ has to go play 2nd, Paul Janish better not see an AB this inning.
I don’t know what we did to piss off the sporting universe, but for fuck’s sake we’re sorry. Three decades of this shit is punishment enough already.
It’s really not Fredi’s fault that the bullpen forgot how to pitch a month ago.
If you’re consistently throwing 96-97MPH, why do you even think about slowing it down to 85 for broken old Uribe?
Go Pirates.
623 – no idea. Even still, just don’t hang it and you’re fine.
1….2…..3
raise your hand if you can see this season ending with a bj punchout.
622-Remind me when exactly Kimbrel forgot how to pitch.
So which one hits the tying HR, Heyward or J. Upton?
Jensen throwing gas. Gun maybe not as high as for Carpenter, but lots more wiggle on the heat.
BLARGH!
Schaefer chased ball 3 there.
Pretty hard to get a single n the shower.
No NLCS in 12 years….
TBS crew calling out Fredi for not using Kimbrel. I like those guys.
We’ll tie it, and then Fredi will go to another pitcher.
Kimbrel is pissed, don’t blame him.
Why wasn’t Freddy playing closer to the line?
Up to Upton. He’ll get on, Freeman will get on, and it’s up to Janish.
THAT IS NOT IRONIC
Now, now, a HR kills the rally.
Love to see Freeman get a shot here
Upton came to chew bubblegum and strike out.
defensive positioning was so terrible this series, right down to puigs last double
PERFECT!
JUST PERFECT!
Sadness.
See ya next year. Sadly, we’ll see the people responsible for this year’s failures next year.
and he’s all out of bubblegum.
Choke choke choke. Every year of my life.
Lame
This game is oso cruel.
Kimbrel looked so ticked off in the bullpen. What a crime to waste such talent in a must-win game.
Horrible night for Atlanta.
Kimbrel is going to unload on Fredi in the newspapers. Count on it.
See ya, McCann! Enjoy that cushy new DH spot!
1 HR the entire series, and that one was when the game was out of hand. You can’t win when your home run-hitting team doesn’t hit home runs.
Well, that was a Guillotine Level loss.
Fucking choked again. Eight straight postseason series lost. What a way to go out. Again.
Get rid of the closer position next year. If the game’s in doubt in the 8th in April, bring in Kimbrel. I hate that our greatest asset has to pitch the 9th inning because, ya know, closer. Bullcrap.
Well. Go Pirates, I guess. If the Cards play the Dodgers, can Bane just blow up the stadium?
McCann 0-13
Heyward 3-18
JUpton 2-14
No way you can win a series with those guys going 5 for 45.
Juan Uribe is a winner
Craig Saeger’s wearing a rug.
We knew this team would live and die by the homers and strikeouts. It’s not even ironic that we had our last three guys strike out to end the season.
96 wins and a Ticketmaster convenience fee and you could get to the NLCS. We just just can’t play our way there.
659
But the 9th inning are the hardest outs to get, don’t ya know?
Bot 8th, runner on 2nd, elimination game? PFFT!
Well, at least the celebration isn’t taking place at Turner Field. I can’t stomach another one of those.
Go, Bucs!
The Braves have to find more hitters like Johnson and Freeman. Otherwise they will not be taken seriously.
What pains me the most is that baseball is my favorite sport and for 12 consecutive years now, I have no interest whatsoever in watching the World Series.
This sucks. Thanks, guys, for a great season apart from this crap here in LA.
OSO CLOSE
@669, be glad you’re not a Pirates fan.
We’re lucky to watch these guys six months a year. It’s just the seventh month that gives them fits.
I’d love to harp on Fredi but you use Carpenter there he just didn’t get it done. If I have a problem with the coaching in this series it’s the weird defensive positioning that we didn’t do all season. Cost is time and time again in this series.
Juan freakin Uribe. Just another chapter in miserable Braves October lore. Maybe next year.
Team really needed Hudson venters oflaherty and a healthy walden. Pena and Beachy would’ve been nice too.
Hopefully, Gattis will be able to make up for whatever he did that convinced Fredi that he can’t catch anymore. Or that Fredi might figure out, as has been said elsewhere, that a shutdown closer is worth nothing if you can’t give him a lead!
Honestly, the offense has/had too many holes. W/o the Dodgers defense, Kershaw might have shut them down for 7 to 8 innings.
Gattis didn’t convince Fredi he couldn’t catch, he convinced Fredi he was a better hitter than B.J.
We’re the Braves. We bring in Kimbrel for a six out save and he probably gacks up the tying run with two outs in the ninth on a wild pitch. Then we’d lose in the 17th on a walkoff by some fucker you’ve never even heard of. It doesn’t matter what moves we make or don’t make. It doesn’t matter how good we are in the regular season. It doesn’t matter what strategies we deploy or pitches we call. It all just turns to shit and we lose. We’re the Braves.
The season ends in frustration for 29 out of 30 teams every year. Get used to it. I knew what was going to happen right after they lost home field advantage. The Braves are always, always JUST good enough to lose.
The only question that remains is, which type of miserable postseason loss was this, exactly?
@678
Gut punch, easily.
Uribe was giving up an out. At this point, you’re having Fredi choose between
1) Making Kimbrel come in for six outs
2) Making Kimbrel come in to face Uribe with an 0-2 count
3) Trusting Carpenter to make one pitch to get an out
Fredi chose Door #3. It was a reasonable call. I’m assuming he brings in Kimbrel after Uribe gets out, but we will never know.
The fact is the team’s best player was on the field for 4 outs in the series. This is an inefficient use of talent.
Fredi just said post-game that he was only going to use Kimbrel for 4 outs at most. Why 4 and not 5 or 6? Nobody will ever know. I really truly hope we have another manager next year, but I know we won’t because our ownership could honestly care less.
The best thing that can happen is for us to only win 82 games or so next year, attendance go to absolute shit, and have Liberty sell the team to some Russian billionaire egomaniac that wants to win at all costs.
Games 1 and 3 were blowouts. We used Kimbrel for four outs in Game 2. (And he was lucky to survive it frankly.)
Maybe you use Kimbrel after Puig’s 2B, but again- Uribe was giving you an out. Somehow him failing at that worked. Sports.
(Fredi staying with Freddy about two innings too long was the real bad decision of the night, except it worked perfectly because who knows.)
@680, if Kimbrel is only going to pitch one inning max (because it’s just a law of nature that must be obeyed), then he should have started the 8th and gotten through Puig and Uribe. The 9th would’ve been the bottom of their order and probably nobody that can take you deep. It was the most logical thing to do. It was the thing that gave us the best chance to win a 3-2 game. And we didn’t do it. I can honestly say that there’s no guarantee than any 8th/9th inning pitching strategy would’ve worked, but I won’t be convinced that Kimbrel starting the 8th wasn’t the best strategy from a game-theory point of view.
One day I’d like us to have a manager that thinks that way too.
@685
It will take many years of losing and an ownership change before the organization is gutted enough to where it would hire an outside-the-box thinker as manager who isn’t wedded to the “save stat” and instead understands that the highest-leverage AB can be in the seventh or eighth. And while Carpenter has been effective, his last appearance with one man on would have been enough to scare me into a pitching change. I know why Fredi used him in the first place; I know why he kept him in. I simply disagree with his entire line of reasoning, which has been the case way too often in his three years in the dugout. He seems to be of above-average skill at keeping a fairly harmonious clubhouse; there may be issues, but every team has them. But tactically, we’ve seen enough to know who he is. Fredi gonna Fredi.
The McCann era didn’t really provide much in the way of postseason success. Maybe the Gattis era will be better. We’ll let this one settle for a while and then start up the rosterbation soon enough.
Off topic, but i came on to this site ealy last year and found out mac had cancer. wrote him an email and wished him well and for a quick recovery…i came here to see how the braves fans were taking tonights loss because missery loves company and found out mac had passes away……..such a shame……..i am deeply saddend to find out about his passing away………it seems this blog is in good hand though and while i hope the braves never win a game ever again……iwish macs blog succsess
Yes this is the same ny mets that was talking crap and thinking my mets were gonna be a dynesty….2 choke jobs latter and a scum bag owner who is dead broke but wont sell the time has stripped me of any crap talking any time soon as there is not mush to feel good about these days as a mets fan…….ps……i still really hate your team..lo
I just got an email from the Braves website telling me to buy tickets for Game 5.
This organization really pisses me off sometimes.
I don’t see any other way around it: Kimbrel has to come in after the double by persona non grata. Your season is on the line. Carpenter was great this year, but there is no margin in this game. You have to go down with Kimbrel on the mound.
If there’s one kind of disappointment I’m accustomed to, it’s this.
But let me say, this needs to be Wren’s Maddux offseason (or Bonds — I’m not picky, Wren). Our team is right there. There’s nothing to hold him back from swinging for the fences, so I expect big, bold things. I want to see something.
Preferably a new, legit Opening Day starter.
The bumper crop from the farm is here, another one’s not coming for a while. Time to make this thing a surefire winner, Wren.
Maybe Kimbrel honkin’ sucks if he has to pitch more than one inning? Again, we brought him on for four outs in G2 and it took a blown call for him to get out of it. I recall during that long winning streak Kimbrel laboring mightily at the end and the general consensus being that Fredi had overworked him. Just by pitching him for three outs on back-to-back games. Which…would be six outs.
Also, that SHUTDOWN EIGHTH, BABY was against Puig/Uribe/Schumaker. The EASY AS SH*T NINTH would be against Eithier/Crawford/Ellis. Six of one.
(That’s as far as I’ll defend Fredi, mind you. I’m not a fan.)
BMac seems to be a helluva guy, but he was a letdown this series and the last couple of weeks of the season. He looks at a lot of strikes, and in his last AB struck out without ever swinging. Defensive positioning was way, way, overthought this series and cost several hits that would have been fairly routine defensive plays. And for the record, a dark part of my soul was hoping that Chris Johnson told Terry Pendleton “f you” every time he got to first base with a hit. Just because.
No complaints about the way Fredi chose to use Kimberl. Heck, I was against bringing him in in the 8th in Game 2.
If you want your closer to pitch 2 innings, you need to have him pitch two innings regularly. Like, mulitple times in the regular season. And I’d love to see that. I wish Kimbrel had plenty of two-inning outings in the regular season. I wish that was a thing we’d seen him do and he had confidence he could do. But that’s not how he’s been used, and you certainly don’t start doing it in the NLDS. Carpenter should’ve been fine. He hung one, and like every other huge Dodger hit this series, it stayed just fair.
@693 BMac did fade down the stretch as he usually seems to do (although in the past he has played okay in the postseason, the few times he’s gotten there). In his defense for last night, though, two of his strikeouts were looking, but the pitches were balls. I thought the home plate ump did a good job overall, but BMac did get the short end of two calls. The fact that last night was probably his last in a Braves uniform and it went the way it did is a pity.
W.C.G. was right: This game was a Dead Man Walking. http://bravesjournal.us/?p=10787
We’re arguing about Uggla over Elliot, and when Freddy Garcia should have been taken out. This team ran out of gas. The offense has been dead since Heyward broke his face and the bullpen turned rickety in September.
“We’re arguing about Uggla over Elliot, and when Freddy Garcia should have been taken out.”
Talk about re-arranging deck chairs….
krussell @661 had the right stat: the 1, 2, and 5 hitters went a combined 5-45 this series. I was really optimistic about Heyward and Justin, but neither had it going right.
This game might be the game that goes down as the one that broke my super-fandom. For me, this team and their constant temper tantrums and pimping of HRs made it really difficult to like them personally, which may not be a big deal for many, but it is for me. I really respect Heyward and Simmons’ approach to the game, but the Uptons, Chris Johnson, and occasionally, Freddie Freeman, bother me. And while I love Gattis, his humble demeanor and his story, he does pimp every HR and that also gets to me.
In a world where I educate kids and pull baseball statistics and Braves baseball into that world, I was overall disappointed with this Braves’ team and their lack of emotional control. It’s such a learning experience for the kids to see percentages, decimals, and fractions in a real-life setting, and a bonding experience to end the unit with a trip to see a few games. I might have to rethink my teaching strategy next year.
With that being said, if they would have at least won the NLDS, I could have probably looked over these personal hiccups, but right now, it seems to be the only real thing that’s getting to me.
Maybe I’m overreacting, maybe I’m not, but f-bombs on national tv and the constant slamming of bats and helmets have me very jaded and missing the days of a Bobby Cox ran team where the majority of temper tantrums came from the manager, not the players.