Red 5, Braves Embarrassed

Although Jason Marquis was originally scheduled to pitch tonight, the Reds turned to a guy they said they would be thrilled to get five innings out of. They ended up getting five no-hit innings out of him and then three more solid ones, which excited everyone on the Cincinnati roster with the exception of Marquis, who must realize that with this year being officially declared Ex-Braves-beat-up-on-the current-Braves, he just missed his chance to throw the first perfect game of his career.

It looked like the Braves got a hit in the 5th inning when Jace Peterson sent a line drive toward left field, but Zack Cozart pulled an Andrelton and robbed Peterson for the first out of the inning.

The Braves did finally register a hit in the 6th inning, when Eric Young Jr. pinch hit for the struggling Eric Stults and hit a single Billy Hamilton almost caught, but ended up trapping. Nick Markakis followed with a walk—his second on the night—but harmless fly outs to each field got Cy Young Raisel Iglesias out of the inning unscathed.

Of course, having the offense treat Great American Ballpark like it was Petco Park doesn’t really matter when the starting pitcher was not fooling anyone and was fortunate to get through five innings having only surrendered five runs on six hits. That’s a sizable deficit for even a good offense to overcome.

Williams Perez relieved Stults and recorded two scoreless innings, surrendering a couple of hits and a walk in the process. Trevor Cahill pitched the 8th and nearly surrendered a two-run home run, but he managed to keep the Reds off the board and lower his ERA to 8.15. I would say that at least this game gave the good relievers a chance to rest the day before an off day, but then I remembered the dumpster fire that is the Braves bullpen, so I ask that commentary be struck from the record.

Pedro Ciriaco, who has done nothing but hit the ball since he was called up, pinch hit for Perez in the 8th and hit a triple Jay Bruce kicked around in right field, and Markakis drove him in with a groundout to second base to ensure the Braves were not shut out.

Iglesias went 8 innings, giving up one run on two hits and throwing 103 pitches in his second major league start. While that is pretty impressive, it does come with the caveat that IWOTB.

The Braves bench provided the whole of the offense, which means the Braves starters managed to have an 0-for-27 night in one of the most hitter-friendly ballparks in the league. With how the series had been going for the team, you could say a good thing that came from all of this is they only left four men on base tonight. I suppose there’€™s more than one way of finding a solution to the problem of leaving runners on every inning.

Of some concern, Kelly Johnson left the game with an 0-2 count during his first at-bat, and he has been diagnosed with a strained oblique. You hate to lose him when he’s in a hot streak, because when he’s cold he’€™s pretty brutal to watch so you want to see him ride the hot streak while he can. With a strained oblique, though, he may miss some time.

The Braves fall to 1-5 on this road trip, and travel to Florida for a weekend series in Miami. In that series, we can look forward to watching Martin Prado raise his batting average fifty points and drive in 10 runs, but at least we are assured the Braves will be spared the ignominy of having Jarrod Saltalamacchia resurrect his career by recording 15 straight hits, culminating in a walkoff grand slam.

81 thoughts on “Red 5, Braves Embarrassed”

  5. The greatest hope for leadership from Washington may have just been assassinated in Horford’s Theater.

  7. I’m not sure how the Hawks pulled that one off, but… Al Horford coming out of the phone booth certainly helped.

  8. Hate seeing KJ go down, but happy to see Cunningham in the majors again. I just hope Fredi plays him, and that he doesn’t sit on the bench while EYJ or Gomes play left field.

  14. Nah, if she’s gonna play, I’d rather have her at 3rd OPS-ing in the .780 range, with league-average D.

  15. I’m positive ‘Rissa could have pitched better than Stults did last night. The Reds broadcasters were gushing over Iglesias last night. Don’t they know its only the Braves?

  20. Put me in coach, I’m ready to play.

    @17 Honestly, I’m up for just about anyone. Can’t be worse than what we are watching right now.

  21. So, Teheran, Wood, and Miller this weekend. Off Monday, then Folty,and Julio for the two game series against Tampa next Wednesday/Thursday. Then Wood and Miller again for the Brewers, and we can decide then if Stults needs to pitch in the Saturday game against Milwaukee, or if we bring up one of the kids. Perhaps, the next starts for Wisler and ManBan can be an audition for Stults’ spot in the rotation?

  23. @22 – I see your point. Plus he’s a lefty. But if a Wisler promotion led to EYJ being DFA…….

  24. Banuelos has had the better season so far, but the Braves say they want to cap his innings around 120.

  27. 25 — And he might have a point, comparing his history against the track record under McDowell.

  28. So Minor got cut open today, they found a Labrum issue.
    He may not be toast after all.

  29. #28 – He is with the Braves unless he’s willing to resign next offseason for a lot less

  30. Yeah, sadly, I think he’s moving on to greener pastures with another team.

  32. I think it will depend on the drs. A young lefty coming off one operation is worth a lot of thought. If he can come back and play he is a brilliant investment, if not it is not a huge loss for a rebuilding team.

  33. The Braves love guys who have gone through Tommy John surgery as has been obvious over the last year. When is the last time we either kept someone or signed someone with shoulder issues? I think Mr. Minor has pitched his last game for the Braves.

  34. I personally think they will try to keep him round, again though it goes by what the training staff says. Shoulders are funny, i don’t think he was a mangled mess in there because the MRI didn’t show much.
    Again I could be in denial we are losing another young good pitcher to injury.

  35. Aaron Harang pitched 8 innings of shutout ball today. We’d be an over-.500 team with him. Maybe it’s better to go for a bottom 5 record though.

  37. Any people here smart with appliances? Washing machine fills with water and then stops… won’t go to the next stage. Any ideas?

  38. It looks like even Ruin Tmrw won’t be messing up on dealing Harang sometime soon to restock their system.

  41. @37… the water is not pumping off. There is an option to manually release the water (you need a big bucket)on the side or back of the washing machine. Once that is finished, push “spin only” or whatever it says on your machine. Clean the filter – probably stuck with hair or other yummy stuff…

  42. @37….sounds like a clog. I know that I’ve had this happen to me twice before, and both times, it was because I overfilled the washer and jammed a rogue sock into the mechanism.

  44. @37: Braves Journal 2015: If we get tired of talking about a mediocre baseball team, we can help each other with daily issues. Do I have a problem with this? Absolutely not. It taught me something as well.

  46. So if you’re sitting at a 10-handed table and fairly conservative player opens one off the gun for 3 times the big blind, and you’re sitting 2 off the button with pocket queens, and it gets folded around to you, do you smooth call or reraise?

  53. I am currently 2nd place in the Braves Journal league without having altered my lineup or made a waiver claim. Let’s see how long this lasts.

  54. Peterson 4 Gosselin 5 Freeman 3 Markakis 9 Simmons 6 Cunningham 7 Maybin 8 Bethancourt 2 Teheran 1

  57. @46,reraise. Q’s are too easily cracked. Dunno about all in, but stout – otherwise fold em

  58. Pleased to see Cunningham get a start. I hope he has early success because that’s what he’ll need to supplant the clearly favored EYJ.

    @57, but what if you know that the conservative player in early position only raises there with Jacks or better or AK?

  59. Well that’s why you reraise. The opportunity cost of getting pocket q’s is non trivial. If he had Ks or As he slow plays. Your hand is made against Js or big slick. There’s risk, but you are ahead, and want to pressure a fold or create a pot that will pay off commensurate with risk.

  60. Not to mention if you are short stack it’s as good a place as any to try and get back into it, and if your big stack then it’s an opportunity to blow up one of your opponents.

  61. And if your opponent has Ks or Qs be might respect your reraise to fold outright or if an A comes up on the flop

  62. And the above discussion is why I spend my Friday evenings watching and recapping The Continuing Adventures of Chip ‘n Joe in Smallballville.

  63. Don Sutton’s continued use of the word fanny is hilarious given what it means in the rest of the English-speaking world.

  69. Oh, look. An ex-Brave is up with the chance to drive in the tying run. I wonder what could possibly happen.

    Edit: He grounded out? What alternate reality madness is this?

  70. Nobody cares that the Hawks are going to the conference finals for the first time in 45 years????

  73. Have yourself a night, Todd Cunningham. I’m happy to see him do well, and I hope he sticks around for awhile.

  77. I was watching a movie with the family and missed the end of the Hawks game. A soul crushing defeat for someone else for a change.

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