After securing wins in the first two games at Coors Field, the Braves suffered a defeat in game three after an uncharacteristic start from ace Julio Teheran. The Braves entered play Thursday looking to end the road trip with a winning series. Importantly, the Braves woke up to find themselves in second place in the NL East, a game back of the surging Nationals.
The Braves turned to Ervin Santana to secure the series win. But this is Coors Field — which might as well be on Neptune — and things did not go well for the former American League pitcher.
Santana put the lead-off hitter on in the first three innings, and the Rockies plated the first two runs of the game in the bottom of the third. After surrendering a single to opposing pitcher Jhoulys Chacin, outfielder Charlie Blackmon continued his terrific season with a home run to deep right that landed inside the foul pole.
The Rockies would add another run in the sixth on a two-out Justin Morneau solo shot, and ultimately blow the game wide open with a five-run seventh inning. Santana would end the day with six earned runs over six and one-third inning, with eight strikeouts against two walks. The final line would see Jordan Walden, David Carpenter, and Anthony Vavaro each add earned runs to their stat line, with Walden looking particularly helpless in his second appearance since his DL stint.
The score would sit at 8-0 before the Braves got on the scoreboard in the top of the eighth, with a long RBI single from Jason Heyward and a two-run homer by B.J. Upton. Following two more runs from the Rockies in the bottom of the eighth, the game ended with the Rockies on top 10-3.
Ultimately, the Braves managed only four hits on the day (with two coming from Tommy La Stella) while the Rockies tallied eighteen runs in the past two days. Following a great pitching performance on Monday and the offensive explosion on Tuesday, I was optimistic the team would roll out of town with a winning series. The Braves will now head back to Turner Field to take on the Angels, still chasing the Nationals for the top spot in the NL East.
This team is lacking energy for some reason. Fredi’s team tends to start hot in April, then turns cold in May and June, gets hot again in July and August, and finally turns cold again in September and October.
My goodness. What an even more embarrassing team to watch. It’s bad enough that we are completely mediocre in every facet of the game except starting pitching, but it’s another thing to be the douche bags of the league. First the bullcrap Carlos Gomez thing from last year when the Upton brothers pimp EVERY FREAKING HOME RUN THEY HIT, and then we plunk a guy losing 10-3 when he accidentally hit the catcher with the back-swing. Hey, David Carpenter, why don’t you shut your mouth and get hitters out instead of making a stink over an ACCIDENT.
When did this team become so unlikable? The only saving grace was Gattis actually being the smart one by trotting to first. If I was Walt Weiss, I would have gone Lou Pinella/Lloyd McClendon/Bobby Cox/Earl Weaver on everybody.
Gosh, it’s bad enough when you suck. It’s something entirely different when you play like a bunch of tools.
@2, no doubt, I thought we’d shed some of that unwritten-rule-enforcing toolbag image when McCann and Hudson left, but seems as though we still have it in spades. Shit we hit a guy in the head the night before, and then drill a guy blatantly on purpose while losing by eleventy-billion runs. I’m surprised teams don’t throw at us a lot more.
As far as our play on the field goes, all you have to do is look at Freeman’s last month or so. Whatever has happened to him had better get fixed. No way can we win without him.
The entire team is sandbagging so none of them will get sent to the all-star game. That way they all get three restful days off and come back strong after the break. Freddy went last year and decided it just made him more tired down the stretch so this year the plan is for everyone to skip the all-star game and instead let our opponents get tired from attending the festivities.
Other than the game the Braves scored 13, they scored a total of 8 runs in the other 3 games at Coors Field. I would suggest it’s time to stop blaming Coors Field for bad pitching performances. No doubt it’s a difficult place to pitch but Colorado’s pitchers did ok. Of course, they were pitching against the Braves.
Where is the improvement going to come from?
Colorado purposely employs groundball pitchers to counteract the effect of Coors Field. Minor and Teheran are both extreme flyball pitchers, and so will occasionally blow up there. What’s the alternative in the preoccupation with “blame” that’s developed over this series? That they’re bad pitchers all of a sudden? Or are you suggesting a failure of will?
@4 The All-Star Break is 4 days this year.
On Coors, I know their pitchers handled us but I give our pitchers a pass for Coors, always do. It’s a mental thing, I think Teheran and more noticeably Minor pitched completely differently out of fear of getting battered around.
Throwing at people is fun. Why do you hate baseball?
Baseball is not hockey. It should not be known for ancillary pissing matches. After all, aren’t you there to play… sports?
Playing Kremlinologist, I read where Fredi said he understood why Weiss was upset, as we had hit a guy in/near the head the day before. Generally a manager will back his players in public; “it got away, yada, yada, yada.”
I took that as meaning Fredi was not pleased with Carpenter.
Since the beanball incidents stem from the unwritten rules of baseball, I decided not to write about them in the recap. The team played poorly enough without analyzing that nonsense.
I hate baseball because Fredi.
I’m probably the minority, but Dickerson was a dick. Of course it was an accident, but came off as a jerk about putting Laird on the ground. He earned that bean ball.
I am of the opinion that Colorado pitchers have adapted to pitching at Coors and can generally be more effective than guys who rarely pitch there and are also coming into it a bit psyched out over whether their stuff is going to work or not.
I’m not concerned about our pitchers based on their performance the last few days. Our hitters, on the other hand…
Anyone know whether David Carpenter has options?
I’m worried about our rotation, bullpen, and especially the offense. We’ve pretty much played crap baseball for the past 35 games or so. I didn’t watch the last two games and I’m happy about that.
#15 – I wouldn’t think so.
I’m worried about our offense, defense, rotation, bullpen, management and coaching. I’m not worried about the grounds crew or the concession stands.
@18 Concessions are strong to very strong. Since the additions of Rathbun’s and HF Burger, I’ve felt much better here as well.
You’re not worried about the concession stands? Really? That’s one of the things I am looking forward to with the new stadium. I remember when we moved from Fulton County Stadium into the Ted and the concessions were such a huge upgrade. Then over the years I have watched the prices go up while the quality goes down. We went from hotdog to warmdog to lukewarmdog and now we are at barely room-temperature-dog. I figure when the new stadium opens for at the least the first few years we will once again get a boost in concession quality. Not worried about concessions? I don’t see how one cannot help but worry…
I think Cobb County needs to be worried about buying a 70-win team.
I think Cobb County needs to be worried about giving away hundreds of millions of dollars to build a stadium that won’t make them their money back. The team itself will be fine.
My joke was the non-on-the-field products were not a concern, but everything that mattered was a concern. As someone who only goes to 3-4 games a year, I would prefer a stout offense to stout beer selection.
Well, we could stand to improve in the color-commentary department…
This weekend series against the Angels is going to be a massacre.
Whenever I hear Walt Weiss’s name I always think of this play:
“I am of the opinion that Colorado pitchers have adapted to pitching at Coors and can generally be more effective than guys who rarely pitch there and are also coming into it a bit psyched out over whether their stuff is going to work or not.”
No doubt why the Rockies have won all those pennants.
@27, Why would Rockies winning pennants have anything to do with otherwise solid pitchers losing their shit when they pitch in Coors? Rockies pitchers may not post great numbers, but by the nature of pitching in Coors half the year, the ones that can hack pitching there generally are gonna stick with the team over the long haul. Their performance will likely be consistent because they know how their stuff works there better than a visitor who is only there once or twice a year.
CJ Wilson is pitching for the Angels tonight. I don’t have much faith in winning.
You guys do *not* want to see Harang’s numbers against the Angels from last year. Let’s just say that we might want to score about 10 runs tonight.
If Freeman had made that scoop, you’d be seeing that double play for the next 20 years.
Is it okay to hate Freddie for lousing up the backend of that double play? If so, how long?
We’re going to get to this guy tonight if we’re patient.
EL OSO!!!
OMG that ball was hammered. Man-crush alert.
El Oso!
Go Gattis!!! That homer was meant to be!
3-0 breaking balls that don’t break get broken. El Oso Paciente is an upgrade on the already impressive original.
Nice to see that a scouting report was compiled and/or used today.
Ok now I’m just speechless.
That 1-2 pitch to Freese was right down the middle. One of the worst missed strike calls you’ll ever see.
Much less acrobatic, but at least that DP was completed.
Looks like Aaron’s getting the Harang of the Angels. Ba-Dum-Tish.
Time for Heyward to miss 6 weeks
@43 – Yeah. The annual injury.
BJ is not Andruw.
Hale had best get ready for a lot of work tonight.
Harang doesn’t want to challenge these guys. Can’t say that I blame him.
Chipper won an Emmy for dressing like a goob
Evan Gattis is okay.
Chipper has a tatoo on his arm that says, “Hood”
Nice throw, Evan.
Edit: I didn’t know Chipper went to UT, Smitty.
Andrelton makes that play.
Heyward day to day with a contusion.
But then, aren’t we all? (Except for the contusion part.)
Andrelton Simmons, ladies and gentlemen!
Andrelton made that play.
Ok, Fredi, Harang has given his customary 6 innings and is at 100 pitches. Please learn from his last start and go to the bullpen.
Edit: Ok, Uggla is PH’ing.
Good ol’ Uggla. Might have been better off sending Big Handsome up there to pretend he was pinch-hitting for himself.
Hope Justin didn’t hurt himself hustling down the line.
Nope, not Andruw.
BJ sucks.
Andruw could get away with occasionally not giving a damn because of his talent and youth. BJ cannot.
Andruw was far superior in almost facet of the game to BJ.
Only 3.59 more seasons of Bupkis to go.
We are going to become the first team to go 0-for-interleague.
Shae Simmons, you did well, son.
Nats lose 1-0 in St. Louis. Sometimes, you have to let your problems beat each other up.
Fire Wren now. Someone must die for signing BJ Upton to that ridiculous contract.
BJ (by himself!) makes this team unlikeable.
Bah!
…..
Jordan Zimmerman had a 76 pitch complete game….and lost
Pirates blow a 4-run lead in the 9th in Miami.
Anaheim announcers on the MLB Network waxing rhapsodic about O’Ventbrel from the Braves’ visit in 2011.
Edit: One down, two to go! And finally a win over the AL!
69 — Wow baby Maddux.
Harang – ha’-RAng (v) – to spend 100 pitches arguing you’re not as bad as people think you are.
the Van Persie header…
Andrelton’s play…
we should be so lucky, both the same day.
72 is funny.
@ 72
Aaron won’t stop Haranging us about once every five days. The jerk.
@73
Blazon, I’m a dumb American, but I liked the first Robben goal even better. More “beautiful” it seemed. Also, it was on in the bank when I made a deposit and I went bonkers.
@Rob
Policing the ‘fun police’ is perhaps less likable than the fun police themselves. Also, the Brian McCann thing last year was completely awesome, not to mention completely fun–and it wasn’t done for Gomez pimping, it was done for him screaming at Paul Maholm.
Not that this team is more likable than last year’s–not having Medlen dancing before starts, not having quite the same new toy factor with Gattis, the hugs becoming a little formal, Kimbrel not being quiiiiiite as automatic, the awful bullpen.
But! Gattis is still crushing, Simmons is still picking, Heyward is himself again at the plate (and always was in the outfield), Justin’s power is back, we have a rookie hitting .367 so far, Julio is must-watch for me everytime he’s pitching because he’s got that Hudson give-me-the-damn-ball-and-don’t-take-it-back mentality, Kimbrel is striking out 16.5 men/9 innings, Shae Simmons’ slider basically breaks at a vertex–and just go back a month and a half to the game threads to see how likable Freeman is: we were all ecstatic with him.
Perhaps most importantly: we never have to play the red sox again. This has been a really tough month and a half in the schedule. We’ve weathered it. Now we’re going to go slay some ballclubs.
@75
I agree. We need to hang close til July
@28,
That was my effort at droll wit. I guess it didn’t go over.
Rumor has it we’re one of a few teams in talks for Samardzija or Hammel.
@78 That report is per.Gordon Whittenmeyer of the Chicago Sun-Times. The link can be found @ mlbtraderumors.com . He goes on to say two teams have made offers but doe not identify which ftwo. Is it possible Bonifacio would be included in a potential deal?
Works for me. Trade Floyd and Harang.
Samardzija, Teheran, Minor, Santana, Wood
Doubt that. Cubs are going to want prospects.Probably some combo of Martin, Hursh, Graham and Perraza…..
I don’t see what we have that the Cubs would want.
You’ve got to imagine they want a pitching prospect. Maybe we’d sell low on Sims.
Seriously…for the Shark, they’d clean us out. He’ll cost 2-3 top prospects from a good farm system. From ours? Oh boy…
I don’t think it’s worth it to us. This team’s biggest holes are offense and bullpen. The starting rotation ain’t half bad.
Yeah, if Samardzija can get on base, maybe that makes sense, but if we’re going to make trades, they need to improve the deficiency areas.
I’m with Alex on this one. We need to trade for a bullpen arm or a bench piece…or unload Chris Johnson on someone.
I hear you guys and agree for the most part…but…*if* we could get Samardzija for Sims I’d do it. We haven’t talked about the “window” in a while, but we’re squarely in the middle of it. It’s now or never. In 3 or 4 years this team is going to be dreadful.
I dunno, Krussell. Three or Four years is when everyone but Teheran’s, Freeman’s, and Simmons’ contracts (and please please heyward’s: wren get it done) off the books–and when we’re potentially banking on the Cobb money.
There’s another factor to my opinion: I think Samardzija’s hair is stupid and I’d rather not have to look at him so much.
Recap is up. Sorry for the delay!