Pitiful.
The Platonic Ideal of the 2014 Braves season was captured tonight in a game they couldn’t win
against a woeful Rangers team that is playing out the string. Excellent starting pitching – this time
Alex Wood, coupled with a complete inability to get the big hit when needed and a suddenly shaky bullpen leads to another loss.
The Braves jumped off to a 1-0 lead in the third, when B. Upton (!) singled, and Andrelton Simmons
(!!) singled him to third. Jason Heyward hit into what should have been called a double play, but the
unpires missed it, so he got the only Braves RBI of the night. JHey then escaped a pick-off, and the
Braves loaded the bases on a Phil Gosselin single and a Freddie Freeman single. But Justin Upton
struck out, and Chris Johnson Regressed the way out of the inning without further scoring.
In the 4th, Wood gave up a walk to Elvis Andrus, a HBP to J. Arencibia, a double to Ryan Rua and a
walk to Robinson Chirinos, but thanks to a pickoff of Andrus on second base, escaped without further
harm.
In the 5th, the Braves again squandered a scoring chance, with Simmons opening the frame with a
single (!!!) and Heyward singling him to third. But Gosselin struck out and Freeman grounded into a
double play.
The Rangers tied the game in the 6th, Arencibia doubled and was pinch run for. AdriA. Beltre singled
to right, and Rua hit a little dribbler to third to score the tying run. Wood got a pop out and a struke
out to strand Beltre at second base.
The Braves last chance was in the 8th. With one out, Freeman walked, and stole second as Upton
Majoris struck out for the third time. Doumit was walked intentionally, and Emilio Bonifacio pinch ran
and stole second. I don’t know why he bothered, as Regression also struck out.
David Carpenter “relieved” Wood in the 8th, and quickly got the first two outs. But consecutive
singles to Beltre, Rua, and Chirinos plated the winning run, and that’s all I need to say about that.
The Braves are three back now from the second wild card spot, with the Brewers between us and the
Pirates. Things are really looking grim now. If we can’t beat a team that was 45 games under .500,
especially with our post-season hanging by a thread, then we probably don’t deserve a berth. Of
course, unless the guys remember how to make contact (Looking at you Justin) with a runner on
third and less than two outs, we won’t have to worry about whether we’re going to deserve a spot,
as we won’t be playing after the regular season.
Wonderful recap, Seat Painter. You and Wood deserved to win.
Did you notice Fredi said in his post game “you can’t expect to win when you give up one run.”
So, pitching for the Rangers is a girl today: Lisa Bonilla. We probably won’t get a run.
Boy, do I hate this team.
I like Teheran.
I love Teheran and Wood. I just hate the team.
Lisa makes us look bad.
I’ve come to the point where I’m ok with rebuilding. This core nucleus is not good enough. I’d rather rebuild than stick our heads in the sand and pretend that we’re just a player away.
I know for sure they won’t tear it all down. But they should.
The Braves are 29th in runs scored per game.
That high? Never would have guessed.
A run. A run.
I did not spend my time wisely while watching the game. I just spent 180 dollars in the Braves mlb shop. Hm.
Oh my God. This lineup:
Bonifacio
Gosselin
Freeman
Jupton
Heyward
Bethancourt
La Stella
Simmons
Pena
That’s… three major league hitters, basically. And of course we’ve already scored more runs than last night.
That was one hell of a slider by Teheran to freeze Andrus. He’s just mowing them down. 44 pitches in four innings.
Our best lineup is the one with BJ and CJ both sitting.
Amen, brother.
Alright Julio, let’s make this officially interesting.
I like listening to John Smoltz.
Booooooo.
What Alex said at 6. Well, I do love Andrelton also.
The only person I like named Upton is Kate.
I miss Mac – here’s an ’08 recap from a Rangers game:
“Rangers 5, Braves 4
ESPN – Braves vs. Rangers – Box Score – June 19, 2008
I really do hate this team.
Once again, the Braves went out to an early 2-0 lead only to blow it.”
I’m watching the Dawgs. Good luck.
One Upton on this team may still be one too many. Thanks for ending our season, Justin.
Blow it up.
Another inning from hell…
I just want to remind each of you that this isn’t your fault. It’s their fault. Don’t blame yourself. Blame them.
OK Justin, make it good again.
Andrelton almost fell down trying to hit the ball out of Texas with 2out in the bottom of the 9th.
And of course, Lisa beat us with Teheran giving up 3 hits in a complete game. Can’t be more typical.
Go Dogs.
At least the Rangers are no longer the worst team in baseball
4-9 and outscored 52-29 the last two weeks. The worst team in baseball is in Arlington, all right, but it leaves tomorrow.
And tomorrow Colby Freakin Lewis will beat us.
The only reason we’re not 20 games under .500 is that the National League as a whole is rather terrible.
I know we don’t have any real sports media in Atlanta, but is it weird to anyone else that Gattis has been out for a whole week with a kid’s illness that usually lasts about 24 hours? What the heck is going on there? Bizarre. Hope he’s ok. Not having him this week has been too much to overcome. I would have thought there’d at least be a few mentions of him from Fredi’s biker buddy. Oh well. Who cares. Go Dawgs.
Yeah his “strep throat” is like the pro athlete’s equivalent of “food poisoning.” What on Earth is really going on?
Did we give up 3 hits and lose? Is this a thing that happened?
It’s official. I now hate this team.
Is like to see a re-branding go down in Atlanta.
Per DOB’s Twitter, Teheran became the first Braves starter to allow no earned runs and lose since Greg Maddux in 1999.
No fire and no passion. Fish rots from the head.
God almighty.
Any chance we can invert the 1914 Miracle and drive from first to last?
We should call this team the Miracle Whip Braves, as they share a similar degree of stamina, backbone, and health benefits.
Miracle Drugged Braves?
UGA looks like they’ve never even practiced. Man it’s tough being a fan in these parts. For whatever reason we aren’t allowed to ever have nice things.
I noticed that “ALL OF THEM” took the lead in our current “Who should get fired first?” poll.
Seriously, though…Fredi, Wren, or both are gonna be out the door at this point, right?
There is no way to remain constructive about this team without giving 100% of your attention to its future.
If any of them are back nobody is going to go to the games. That may happen anyway, but the entire fanbase is over the Wren regime. There’s a few defenders here and there, but the vast majority are done. This team is staring into the attendance abyss next year.
Defense, Dawgs.
@ 42 Brilliant.
If the team doesn’t dramatically shake things up, what will the move to Cobb County look like? I’d really like the next two seasons to be a tune-up for the new stadium under new management. Fredi, Wren, Walker, and Fletcher all need to go. Make Pendleton the manager, beg Chipper to take the hitting coach job, and hire somebody like Doug Glanville as GM.
Can Fredi be fired now?
I’m all for Pendleton, if he’s surrounded with some new faces (McDowell must stay, however). There are enough moments where he’s dropped the good-soldier façade to make me think he’d bring something different to the job. I doubt he’d take a skid like this with as much ho-hum resignation as the current dugout management is.
But it seems like if one of Fredi or Wren goes, many may go. This could be a philosophical housecleaning — in which case, how much would it cost to pry Joe Maddon from St. Petersburg?
Maddon ain’t leaving Tampa.
Looks like a tough day to be a Georgia-based sports fan.
This will be interesting. This franchise hasn’t really been shaken up and forced to change in a long time. A Braves manager hasn’t been fired since 1990, and a GM hasn’t been fired since 1985.
This offense…a massive fart.
“Good Morning my teammates!” -Ozzie “Our Future Manager” Guillen
I know hitting coaches have been the scapegoat in the past, but it’s hard not to go that direction when pitching far exceeds expectations and the hitting fails to approach expectations
@sdp
I like your thought, but I think of this offense more as a popcorn fart.
The Falcons looked good on offense last week. I’ll watch them tomorrow to enjoy some scoring.
Go Braves!
#53
Or a NYC-based Georgia sports fan.
Luckily, I just saw Bob Mould obliterate the Music Hall of Williamsburg. Made me feel better for 90 minutes. Blazing set of new & old. But when he played “Hardly Getting Over It,” an old Husker Du song, I just thought, “Yeah… don’t remind me…”
Is Wurster still drumming with him?
Yeah, Wurster & Narducy forming the rhythm section and, of course, they were great.
@58, that sounds like a hell of a show. I gotta go see him.
Love me some Jon Wurster, really miss having him work with Scharpling. The Best Show was amazing
Best Bob show I’ve seen since the Sugar days. Didn’t hurt that he played some of his best Husker Du songs (“Real World,” “Something I Learned Today,” “Celebrated Summer”) with a band that could really handle it.
What’s somewhat ironic is that on Friday I’m seeing the other great Twin Cities band (The Replacements). All these years later & both in the same week. Still, it’ll take some doing to come close to this one.
I saw the Mats at Forecastle in July (with Billie Joe Armstrong?) and it was terrific.
Recap is up.