In a stunning offensive explosion, the Braves’ bats woke up, silenced their critics, turned a corner, didn’t try to do too much, brought out the brooms, and swept the Cubs because our pitching continues to be awesome despite the fact that our hitters thoroughly suck. The Giants are basically playing like the best team in the league right now, despite the fact that Pablo Sandoval is having one of his off-again years, slugging first baseman Brandon Belt has a broken thumb, and Matt Cain and Tim Lincecum have been worth negative WAR. They’re doing it because they’ve turned another Braves castoff into a valuable contributor — last time it was Gregor Blanco, this time it’s Brandon Hicks. What’s more, our old pal Tim Hudson is leading their staff in ERA. There are a lot of ifs on this roster: how long can Brandon Crawford and Brandon Hicks continue to hit better than they’ve ever hit before? How long can Michael Morse stay healthy? And what will they get from Cain and Lincecum? One thing is for sure, though: Posey was still out.
For tonight’s punk song, here’s one of the best bands from New York City covering one of the best bands from San Francisco:
You gotta tip your hat to the offense, they really played within themselves.
Are the ’14 Giants the first team in MLB history to have three Brandons and a Pablo on their infield?
Yes, Posey was out, and no future Giants success can ever change that fact.
Posey called out = Giants maybe lose Game One = Giants lose NLDS = Giants not 2010 World Series “champs”.
Now we get to see how the Marlins deal with their top starter on the shelf. Jose Fernandez to the DL with an elbow issue.
I don’t think the Marlins will hang around all year, id est: they’ll be under .500 come the start of September.
Their hitting at home still seems suspicious.
I honestly hate the Giants more than any other team in baseball. Is it irrational?
Nope!
Seems like Fernandez is ticketed for Tommy John. Bummer for baseball and the kid. Helps the Braves out. This TJ epidemic seems to be getting out of hand.
Totally not irrational.
But seeing Jose Fernandez go down with an elbow injury is just such a tragedy. He’s very possibly the best pitcher in baseball. I hate this Tommy John epidemic so much.
@6&9
I also have an irrational hate of San Francisco. But it’s nothing that can’t be tempered by an edible, a couple of Seirra Nevadas, and a Foxygen record.
Take a chill pill dudes.
Amusing game going on in The Bronx. I’m a little confused, though, because both teams have players touching home plate and then things change on the scoreboard. Is this some new game they invented here in NY?
@9 I agree. Although we can’t figure out Fernandez, it’s sad that he is also going down with Tommy John. Honestly, there is no way he was overworked as a kid…at least I don’t think so. Whoever figures out how to prevent this would be a hero of baseball.
@6
Yes,embrace your hate, strike down the Giants and your journey to the Dark Side will be complete! I have foreseen this.
I, too, have an irrational hate towards the Giants, and I was wondering if I could write a semi-serious piece for this blog outlining my reasons. (If you’ve ever read Deadspin’s “Why Your Team Sucks” articles, that’s what this piece would be like.)
13- I dare not, for if we were to strike them down, they would become more annoying than we could possibly imagine. (And two WS titles in the last four years is annoying enough!)
I still dislike the Mets more than any other team.
I will shed nary a tear over Fernandez. Lots of guys have been the best pitcher in baseball BEFORE their first appointment with the knife.
@16 That’s normal, but I found it hard to hate an irrelevant team, ha. Of course, I really hated them when Huddy and Heyward got hurt last year because of them.
BJ’s in a bit of dry spell. –Chip
If Lincecum can face the Braves for 30 starts a year, I am sure he can be a Cy Young winner again.
If he could face the Braves 30 times a year, he could BE Cy Young.
I’m beginning to wonder if the Braves even HAVE scouts. Did all the scouts go down with Tommy John surgery in spring training too? How can the hitters have the absolute wrong game plan every. single. night?
22- C’mon, be fair. Do our hitters have more than one game plan?
To be fair, since Lincecum is not longer a power pitcher, he is precisely the type that would give the Braves the greatest headache. But hell, they can’t figure out Fernandez either, so our offense just plain sucks.
Would it be better if we move TP back to the hitting coach role? Or asking Chipper to join?
Dooooooooooomed.
22: To be fair, Lincecum hasn’t shown stuff even half this good against the other teams he’s faced this year. Not sure what the scouts are supposed to say: “He sucks, unless he doesn’t”?
Good to see we learned so much from facing him 10 days ago.
Well we are last in all of baseball in runs scored. So every hitting coach who HAS a job is doing better than our guys. How many guys who DON’T have jobs would do better, too?
Maybe the Braves had a wrong idea on hitting for all these years. They should just get rid of all hitting instructors organization-wide and just let the kids hit whatever way they want. They can’t do much worse, right?
Beejay!
At this point, I’d rather have Leo Mazzone as our hitting coach than Greg Walker.
31- That ideas really rocks! (“They made me say that.”)
The Cubs are destroying the Cards. That’s good to see.
@31 At least he would be more entertaining. I miss seeing the old man rocking on the bench for three hours non-stop.
33- Yes, always amusing when a team has to drag an infielder in to mop up.
So it turns out Ramiro Pena is actually Ramiro Pena.
Well that was special.
The guy is throwing 75% breaking balls. How many freaking ABs do we need before we figure it out? This team is currently unwatchable. But of course I’ll still watch.
Uggla put on #14 today, I see.
Is Pena supposed to be an upgrade defensively over Uggla? Not seeing it.
@40 Because he couldn’t make one tough play?
Beej has our only two hits. We’re through the looking glass, people.
Good to hear BJ’s No. 1 fan made the trip.
There’s a really annoying woman screeching into the mic on the Braves broadcast.
Instant replay Zzzzzzzzz
Please explain what the replay is for here? Game cast says Giants are reviewing (tag play) but BJ steals 3rd
Ugh. Guess not.
That was not the right call.
So it’s not indisputable evidence, just “oh, well, maybe it’s worth overturning because we feel like it,” as we’ve seen before this season. Thanks, MLB, for screwing up a good idea.
They do have access to angles that we don’t have. At least, that’s what they say.
Also, we’ve already had a number of those replays go in our favor, despite what the video evidence appeared to indicate.
He might have been out. Might have been safe. Impossible to tell. We were led to believe that the call should stand in that case. Might as well just flip a coin. It’s amazing that they are screwing up instant replay as bad as they are. We’ve had some go our way that shouldn’t have too, but that seemed pretty bad right there.
Nothing good ever happens when we play at SF, so I am not surprised.
MLB Network just replayed it. I think he was out, but the tag was incredibly awkward- I think Sandoval got BJ on the tip of his trailing shoe.
Yeah, I’m not sure how that call was overturned. I don’t think there was an angle that showed definitively the tag got his back foot. Definitely not clear enough to overturn.
BJ was called safe at third and the Giants challenged it.
I did not see incontrovertible evidence on that one. It was not clear to me at all that the tag got the back foot. The first absolutely clear indication that the tag was applied was on his back thigh. They are assuming that the tag must have hit his foot on the way to his thigh, and that’s not the way this replay thing is supposed to work.
@51 True, and those were wrong, too. If they’re going to delay games with replay, they need to figure out a way to get it right.
God hate the Braves.
What a joke.
I’m watching the Giants TV feed. I think he was out.
They froze a shot with Sandoval’s webbing (with the ball) touching BJ’s back foot just before he hit the bag. Tough break.
Yeah, I didn’t see any clear, incontrovertible evidence either.
Damn it, Freddie. He doesn’t boot many balls but he picked a bad time to break his routine.
Rhymes with “Small Lame.”
Not our night. Again. But if we could even capably hit any non-Cubs pitcher, it wouldn’t be so bad.
Ahhh. Damn it all.
This is one of *those* games.
Where are the Cubs?
66- Mangling the Cardinals, remember?
There’s no way our offense can remain the worst in baseball all season, but right now I feel pretty confident that I can go to bed knowing what the outcome of this game will be. I miss 2012, when we had so many walk off wins that no matter what, there was always hope.
Is it too much to ask that the Braves win one game against the Giants in 2014?
Giants fans reacting like this is a playoff game are really grating.
G’night all… to paraphrase Hawk Harrelson, we gone.
I like how Simpson can say that Lincecum’s best two starts in 2014 were against the Braves, but not finish that logic to its conclusion: the Braves’ offense blows.
And that shrill women is driving me insane.
I was hoping Chip and Joe would cap off this gem of a game with some puns and bird shit humor. Looks like my wish came true.
Freddie!
Why’d we waste that on tonight?
I wish a foul ball would hit that woman.
I’m afraid all that homerun likely did was firmly imprint that horrible scream into my head such that I’ll hear it in my dreams, or nightmares, tonight.
Ump clearly ready to go home.
Watching the strike zone on Gamecast as the Giants pitch will infuriate you. Not as much as hearing Crazy Screamer Lady, but close.
And BJ takes strike three to end it because that’s what he does.
But, hey, two runs against those guys. Progress.
Too bad Floyd allowed more than one run.
And I am really beginning to believe in Hale.
Recapped by cliff.