Not a lot to say about tonight’s game. The Braves jumped out early, with Freddie Freeman launching a three run homer off Braves nemesis Kyle Kendrick in the top of the first, then doubling home Andrelton Simmons in the top of the second. Kendrick settled down after that and pitched well enough to win, but didn’t because the Braves pitcher was just a bit better.
Julio Teheran went seven innings, running into trouble in the 4th, giving up a lead off triple to Ben Revere, who scored on a Jimmy Rollins groundout. A Simba error led to the second Phillie run, as Ryan Howard had hit a double play grounder, but The Defense rested, and didn’t catch the throw to force Chase Utley.
Evan Gattis left after striking out in the first with some sort of muscle cramp, and Gerald Laird spent the next nine innings chasing various pitches to the backstop.
With the Natspos losing to the Cubs, the Braves climbed back into a tie atop the NL East. The teams play a split doubleheader tomorrow.
One of the Philly announcers caught the Freeman ball in mid-broadcast. Don’t know if they mentioned it on TV, but not on the radio.
http://m.mlb.com/video/topic/70087564/v34084831/atlphi-mccarthy-catches-homer-throws-the-ball-back/?c_id=mlb
Co-leader of the mediocre division, once again.
Ryne Sandberg seems to be a pitcher killer like Dusty.
I think that was probably more a matter of the Phillies playing 14 innings on Thursday and there being a doubleheader today.
Spike I was in the car listening to the broadcast on Sirius and heard the call live. It was darn good.
Nice one S.P.
Thank you, Painter. Let’s play two.
It always feels nice beating the Phillies, but especially when you’re struggling. Here’s to a swept twin bill.
DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMED!
Laird to catch both games!😳
…or perhaps Fredi will sub in for Laird, and no one will notice…
Good point, Adam.
I sure do like being in first place.
Ditto. Let’s stay there.
Chris Johnson swings at some awful pitches.
Lots of trash among the eight-figure salary portion of the roster.
Ryan Howard is braves MVP today
Tom Hart: “Dominic Brown has been terrible on defense this year.”
Chip: “That’s surprising, because he was so good on offense last year.”
Chip + Tom makes me want to watch soccer.
Never heard Mark DeRosa speak before. I said hi to him and shook his hand while exiting a Springsteen concert back in the day, so his thick Jersey accent doesn’t come as a surprise.
@18
At least he didn’t say it was ironic
Justin’s lollygagging cost us an extra run there. But his bat got us two, so that’s something I can live with.
4 runs on 3 hits….
thank you Ryan Howard.
His name is La Stella!
Chip’s not the only one who does it, but I wish professional announcers at least wouldn’t pronounce Ryne Sandberg’s name as if it was Ryan. His parents went to a lot of trouble giving him that goofy name, it should be pronounced correctly.
Save some for tonight, boys!
Well done, Braves. Mind ‘Rissa now, you hear.
It’s weird doing something overwhelmingly beneficial to your team’s chances of winning that is relatively commonplace for the better teams in the league. I like this “scoring lots of runs” and “putting the game away”, as they’re called.
I don’t think Avilan is very good at getting out lefties this year.
@28, I’ve never heard of them either, but I agree – it’s terrific.
Damn you, Chase Utley. When will you stop robbing us blind?
Anthony Rendon has 1 more XBH than Justin Upton
Rendon is the best player on the Nats. That kid is a ballplayer.
Regression!
I agree. It’s kind if interesting though that upton with his prodigious power can’t keep up with him. Upton just has too many extended slumps. When he’s on, he’s an XBH machine.
Rendon has lots of power too. I mean, seriously, don’t sleep on him. He is a star in the making.
Sounds like a roster move could be coming before tonight’s game. Gattis to DL, maybe Bethancourt coming up? Braves live is teasing us with that as a possibility.
@ajcbraves: Fredi didn’t divulge catching plans for Game 2 but threw out “roster stuff” as possibility.
They “could” use their 1 day exception on Bethancourt instead of Schlosser
Bethancourt game 2 catcher. Oh my…
He may have caught Hale in AAA so that helps out.
I really like the lineup makeup right now. If you toss Gattis in the cleanup spot after he gets back from this injury and move everyone else down a spot, it would be perfect.
Also, with Simmons in the 2-hole the past two games, he has a .400 OBP with 4 runs scored. Small sample size, I just think it looks pretty nice.
Two out RBI. Nice.
any update on this?
http://tomahawktake.com/2014/06/28/atlanta-braves-call-christian-bethancourt-insert-lineup/
They optioned Jaime to make room for Bethancourt. Gattis is day-to-day. I would assume the OF’ers are just getting some rest.
Hold them to just one here, David.
Simba, you don’t have to swing at ball four just because it’s above the bill of your cap.
Hale looks much better as a starter.
I thought we might find out how good Bethancourt can bunt.
Surprised Hale has been in this long with Schlosser available to piggyback, but it’s working out.
Well done, CJ. Now let’s keep scoring.
Let’s hope La Stella can pick up another RBI. This kid looks so much more comfortable batting in the lower end of the lineup than he did up top.
Stella!
Hell yeah, La Stella! He’s really improved his stock today.
First major league hit for Bethancourt, an infield single to deep short.
Uggla there? Really?
La Stella is where he needs to be. The guy can straight up hit when he is at the bottom of the lineup. For some odd reason, it just does not carry over with him at the top of the lineup.
What a weird inning. Nice hitting by TLS. Ugh…la
Fredi is staying away from Schlosser.
Catch the ball, boys.
Now that was some minor league defense right there….
Why does fredi continue to use uggla with RISP? It’s like he’s made up his mind Uggla is a valuable bench bat and no amount of contrary evidence will convince him otherwise
Whew.
Varvaro made messes, but cleaned them up himself. Well done.
Nice, Anthony.
Andrelton goes 0 for 5 tonight, which is quite an accomplishment because he only saw three pitches all night.
A winner is us. Twice.
Okay, I will bow down to the wisdom that Simmons does not belong in the 2-hole after evaluating the last 3 games. I listened to this one the radio, and it was hilarious listening to the broadcaster. “Simmons to the plate. First pitch, and he pops out.” LOL
I will say that La Stella belongs in the 7-hole though. He is just so valuable down there. His at bats look so much better.
I enjoyed Mark DeRosa on this broadcast.
A doubleheader sweep without using Kimbrel once — nice.
Hale looked like he was much more comfortable as a starter. Kind of like Alex Wood in that regard. Nice to sweep the doubleheader, now let’s sweep the series.
@70
Unless he gets traded, Hale should be our 5th starter next year. Dude has earned it.
Sunday lineup
BUpton CF
Pena 3B
Freeman 1B
JUpton LF
Heyward RF
Simmons SS
La Stella 2B
Laird C
Harang P
Harper hit 3 HRs last night in his last rehab start for the Nats’ AA team. He’ll be activated Monday. It will be interesting to see how Matt Williams juggles playing time in their crowded OF. Starting this week the Nats will be at basically full strength – NL East race is officially on.