IWOTB fell to IWOTM tonight, as Alex Wood got his gopherball on in Queens. Lucas Duda was benched tonight, as he either stubbed his toe, has the sniffles, or is in a horrible slump against lefties, so Mets manager Terry Collins in a shocker of a move, sat him against Wood. In other news, water is wet, the sun will rise in the east tomorrow, and Fredi Gonzalez started Jonny Gomes against yet another right handed pitcher. Although, to be fair, Jonny did go 1-2, as he singled against Bartolo Colon, and sucked up a HBP. Nope, ol’ Jonny was not the problem tonight for the local nine.
The problem was a Wilmer Flores homer in the bottom of the second, John Mayberry, Jr. channeling the ghost of Ryan Howard in the 4th, and David Aardsma showing that he’s quite able to handle a runner on base in the 7th. And by that I mean he pulled a Grybo on Alex, allowing the inherited runner to score. Sheesh, the pen’s strand rate must be approaching an irrational number like the square root of pi%. Alex did pitch into the 7th, but four walks and six hits, two of which left the yard isn’t going to be enough against Santa Colon. At least, not this year.
The Braves did try to scare the Mets, loading the bases in the 9th against Jeurys Familia, who may have been a bit distracted by the imminent birth of his child, but Nick Markakis rolled over on a 1 out pitch, and that was that as the Mets turned the 4-6-3. I expect most of us Journalistas would still say he’s played better than we would have expected.
Anyway, we’re on to tomorrow, with Shelby Miller on the bump. Hope we can do better.
It’s ok. Markakis has 3 and a half years to redeem himself.
Nick’s okay. Even Heyward had at least one bad game a year.
Thanks, Seat Painter, for the great recap. Time for a win, Braves.
I didn’t realize this until today, but the NL has a homerless starting outfield: LF-Skip Schumaker, CF-Ben Revere, and RF-our very own Nick Markakis.
Wonder what it would take to get Revere and Schumaker without giving up Markakis
Is this where I should post my comments insulting other posters? How does that work again?
Welcome back, Sam! We’ve missed ya.
Fredi never had it so good:
http://m.braves.mlb.com/news/article/130229108/barry-m-bloom-gonzalez-collins-weathering-job-situations
Looks like I picked a great game to miss. Let’s get ’em today, Shelby.
@7,
“Hart traded away such stalwarts as Justin Upton, Craig Kimbrel, Melvin Upton Jr. and Jason Heyward….”
Heh. Melvin. He’s more like a half stalwart. The last half.
Well, the player formerly known as BJ certainly meets some of the definition of “stalwart.” He was definitely reliable and dependable at being one of the worst starting outfielders in the MLB.
@7
I don’t think I realized Fredi is on the last year of his contract (or if I had, I’d forgotten it). Seems like that situation has a high likelihood of solving itself at the end of the year, if that’s the case.
Yes, I expect that is why Fredi will not be canned this year. The Johns will just let his contract expire.
Eh. They could still fire him as soon as they don’t make the playoffs/wildcard and thus get a headstart on their search for a new manager.
one advantage of firing Fredi would be that you could promote bo porter and see how he performs without being obligated to him for several years.
AJP starting a day game after starting the game the night before. I think the Braves are telling Bethancourt he needs to shape up.
AJP always catches Shelby doesn’t he? I think the Braves have already told Bethancourt to shape up
@14
That is true, of course, but I’m not nearly as super-excited about Bo Porter as some people here. I’d be OK if he were one of a number of candidates at the end of the year, that way I’d have a fallback option that has Major League managing experience, but I wouldn’t want to put myself in the situation where the players get attached to him and we meaninglessly have a good last couple of months, etc. (This is assuming that we’re out of it if we fire Fredi BTW.)
I just don’t think he particularly covered himself in glory in Houston. It’s true enough that it wasn’t a great situation, but I remember reading stuff about him not being a particularly great communicator and that he wouldn’t let his coaches do their jobs because he was paranoid that his players wouldn’t have enough loyalty to him. I also specifically remember a situation where he did not know there was a rule against burning a pitcher to get a more favorable batter/pitcher matchup.
It’s not like I would be monumentally against him being our manager. Maybe he’s learned from his mistakes and whatnot. But I don’t see why anyone thinks it would be a home run hire, either.
Don’t believe Bruce Boche or Joe Madden are available.
@17
I agree with your view on Bo Porter. As I remember it, wasn’t he coaching the Astros when they were featured in Sports Illustrated as the World Series champs for 2017? He was obviously managing a team that was in a rebuild that wasn’t expected to compete right away but to build up to success through working their young players. This sounds a lot like our current Braves team. Obviously, the front office did not like the direction the team was going with Bo Porter and fired him last year. Maybe, we should think about that before we start calling for him to take the lead. The guy has been in this situation before, and the powers that be for that team did not like his methods. The Astros are now in first without Bo Porter.
Cameron Maybin is the real deal. Fact.
Man he’s athletic!
Let it be known that I said that before that catch.
Great charge and throw by KJ to keep the runner at third. I wish KJ could be a full-time LF. He could actually be a productive regular if he could hit lefties. He also wouldn’t look so lost at times in left.
I have no idea how we got out of that inning without allowing a run.
We’re gonna run into problems here if we can’t score the next couple of innings. Miller will go only one more inning at most, which means we’re gonna need our bullpen to go two shutout innings and for our non-Grilli bullpen to go one shutout inning.
Shelby Miller’s the real deal also.
Did I hear correctly that Fredi’s son is named Alex? Yet Another Alex Gonzalez.
Okay everyone, no second-guessing. Only first guessing. Should Shelby have been pulled there?
No. You need one more inning from him.
EDIT: And even if you get the two-run lead, it’s not any safer than a one-run lead with our bullpen.
Agreed. Need one more inning. Plus, the offense has to do its job too.
You really need two more innings from him, as I said earlier, but you’re not gonna get that unless he gets three outs in five pitches or something here.
Hit it to Andrelton, Mets. See if I care.
(sighs)
This is going pear-shaped, anyway.
Re: Bo Porter, I’m not excited about him either, which is why I wish we could see a bit of him before he gets a contract. But I could also see how the downside to that.
Otherwise, dammit granderson
Whether the reason is the relievers themselves or being left in too long, every pitcher in this rotation is going to end up with two or three fewer wins and two or three more losses than they should have because of the repository of trashed arms known to other teams as a “bullpen.”
And now the Mets fans go bananas. There is no group in humanity more insufferable and loathsome to be around than Mets fans when their team is winning.
I surrender. Bring it home without me.
Dana Eveland. Just. Wow.
— Benjamin Franklin
That pitch from Eveland was right of the RH’d batters box.
How many batters faced before Eveland gets his first out?
Dana Eveland has a mountain of evidence proving he cannot start or relieve at the major league level. Why we’ve gone to him in high leverage 8th inning situations twice in 3 games is beyond me. Also, he shouldn’t be on a major league roster.
This bullpen is approaching 2010 Diamondbacks territory.
Both times we’ve brought Eveland in, Avilan was available, as was almost everyone else in the pen
As was the case with the bullpen usage Thursday, today’s use of Eveland followed by Masset in a close game is Fredi waving his middle finger at Hart and saying, “This is the team you built for me.” I’m no Fredi apologist, but I prefer that explanation rather than using Eveland ahead of Avilan just because Fredi thought he was the better option.
@43, I prefer that explanation, too. Wish it were true.
@43, Believable. Fredi’s management has struck me as passive-aggressive wrt the front office in other instances.
Seriously, how often does another team beg you to take a first-division starting center fielder off their hands? Maybin is a miracle.
Geez Maybin. Please don’t do that again.
I think he’s out. Why would you even try that?
By the way, I think Shelby Miller spoke for Braves fans everywhere when, upon leaving the game, he threw a stool down the length of the dugout and then kicked it down the tunnel.
EDIT: He’s pretty clearly safe.
He was in under the tag. No way this gets overturned.
He’s safe. But stupid try down 2 with none out and Freeman up
Whew. Easy peasy
Yessir!
Such fail.
How dumb can a baserunner be? And if Bo Porter made that call, he just disqualified himself from ever managing this team, now and forever. No matter what, good God. The stupid runs strong in this team.
Ah, hell.
Just. Fart.
We didn’t need 1 run. None of that made sense.
Nerts.
Gomes can’t hit RH’d pitching. If you are going to make that move why not use Cunningham?
Garbage
I prefer the explanation that bo porter had familia on his fantasy team and needed a save
Just because it doesn’t matter doesn’t mean these brain farts and losses don’t crush at least a small part of my soul on a daily basis.
Whee! Not totally inept!
Freddie reinforces my belief in the Bill of Rights!
You almost feel like we should be ahead now. So many bad decisions on the field and in the dugout.
But instead this is a probable walk off to send mets fans into a tizzy
@37 – Didn’t that guy invent sarcasm?
Greetings from Chicago…
C’mon let’s win this thing.
Clutch hit by Maybin! Let’s go Braves!
wtf at using the williamses, cant the frediot remember how bad he did at relief? not to mention wasting a perfectly good starter :/
whew, lucky liner double play
Why is Perez in the game? I’m not watching right now.
I guess Fredi is going to force them to call someone up.
So many firsts for that couple this year! First save!
In the post game interview, they asked Maybin about trying to make it home on that pop fly that he got thrown out on. He stated that he listened to the coach. So, how are we feeling about Bo Porter decision making at this point?
Nice job, Journalistas. You pulled it out. Now I wish I had kept watching.
Personally, I think using staters for relief on their throw day is a great idea for a team with a dumpster fire bullpen.
Using Williams Perez actually ended up with a win, so I say, great move! Let’s celebrate actually winning one of these for a change.
Hey, I just met you
And this is crazy
But here’s my number
Cameron Maybin
Rock over London, rock on Chicago. Wheaties – breakfast of champions!
So great to see William Perez earning his first half-save today.
On a non-stupid-joke note, Freddie Freeman’s at bat in the ninth was everything that has ever been right and good about Freddie Freeman.
I had a thing come up and am just starting to watch the replay. Recap tomorrow unless someone is feeling frosty.
Also it seems like it’s going to be about the only way a starter is going to get a decision these days.
@77, awesome.
@82. ZING!
@77, agree with AAR. I always thought Carly Rae Jepsen sounded like the name of a prominent high school 3rd baseman.
Before he came into our lives, I thought he played bad.
Recapped.